Pod Insights Crime Junkie MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Laura Sweetman About this episode In December 2013, 42-year-old Laura Sweetman was found dead in the bathtub of her home in Gilbert, Arizona. Despite numerous red flags identified during early interviews, her death was ruled undetermined and the case was quietly closed. More than a decade later, our team has uncovered critical details that were overlooked, raising questions about whether the investigation was prematurely closed.
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2:17 Ashley Flowers? Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
2:19 Speaker 01 And I'm Britt.
2:20 Ashley Flowers? And welcome back. Last episode, I told you about the murder of Nick Cordova in Gilbert, Arizona. In 2020, Nick and his business partner, Dave Sweetman, were the only ones at their office when two masked men came in and shot Nick execution-style in the back of the head. Dave walked away from the attack and sought out $8 million in life insurance money with "sign-off" from Nick's wife, Alicia, except she alleges that someone forged her signature. And it took years of fighting in court for her and their kids to see any share of that life insurance money. Now Alicia told police that Nick was worried before his
3:01 Ashley Flowers? death, worried about things like Dave taking money from the business, first $30,000, then $15,000. Nick thought someone was following him, and he half-heartedly joked to her that maybe Dave was gonna hire a hitman to collect the insurance money. But despite sharing all of this with police, they seemingly never considered Dave a suspect because they had surveillance video of Nick's murder, and it was not Dave who pulled the trigger. So there was really never much of an investigation done into Dave that we can see from the redacted files. There was never any mention of the prior civil suits that he was involved in, where he was made to pay out over $10,000 to various people. And there was no mention
3:45 Ashley Flowers? of Dave's late wife, Laura Sweetman, who died seven years before Nick. In fact, she didn't come on our radar even until very late into investigating Nick's case. Now, the first thing you need to know is that the reason we hadn't heard about Laura's undetermined death, why almost no one outside of her small circle has, is because people seem to be afraid to talk about it. More specifically, people seem to be afraid of Dave and what might happen if they spoke up. And I think that's why this story has never been covered in any news source that we could find. But we know from our reporting that Laura Sweetman's family still wants answers.
4:29 Ashley Flowers? Her friends want answers. Her colleagues and former patients even want answers. Because for them and us, something isn't adding up. And what I can tell you, after deep diving into this case, is that it doesn't all point to Dave. This is the story of Laura Sweetman.
5:23 Ashley Flowers? So let's start with the elephant in the room: Dave Sweetman. When we first started poking around trying to ask questions about Laura's case, we were surprised by how many people were afraid to talk to us. They were afraid of Dave. Because the prevailing theory among those who knew Laura seemed to be that somehow, some way, Dave was involved in her death. They didn't have proof, of course, or they would have gone to police with that. But what they had were decades of stories about a man who scared them. And who was scaring Laura right before her death. So to understand that fear, and before I ever get into how Laura died,
6:05 Ashley Flowers? I need to take you all the way back to the 1980s, when Dave and Laura first started dating as teenagers at Fallbrook Union High School in California. As a junior in high school, Laura was a future homemaker of America and part of the swim team and the yearbook club. And Dave was a varsity football player in The Great Above Her. This is like a real all-American California dream kind of couple. Now, after graduating, Laura went on to get her master's in biochemistry. She went to med school, completed her residency in pediatric neurology, and then worked at Phoenix Children's Hospital. And Dave became a small business owner. Now, they got married, and around 2004, they had the first of their three sons.
6:50 Ashley Flowers? So from the outside, everything seemed picture perfect. But people who knew Laura knew that that was not the case. Laura's close friend, who we're gonna call Emily, told us that the Sweetman's marriage was always tumultuous. Laura and Emily first met around 2009, when Emily started training Laura at the gym. And in those early days, Emily said that Laura, I mean, originally had like no confidence. She didn't feel comfortable in her own skin. But as Laura and Emily got closer, Laura started talking about why. She'd tell Emily about how her husband would belittle her and make her feel small. But the more that they trained together, and the stronger that Laura got, the more comfortable she started to feel in her own body.
7:35 Ashley Flowers? And that's when she really began to open up. Now, Dave actually trained at that same gym with a different trainer. And Emily said that her and that trainer would talk about just how different Dave and Laura were. How there was just something off about Dave, that he gave off, quote, "the creepy vibes." And Emily told us she couldn't understand why Laura was with Dave when he seemed so manipulative. But as they got closer, it became clear that when it came to relationships, Laura just didn't know anything else. Now, it's important to note that while Laura was opening up to Emily, most other people were still completely in the dark. I mean, the woman who nannied for Laura and Dave's children, her name's Stacy Miller,
8:16 Ashley Flowers? she told police that they seemed like a nice, normal, everyday family, and she didn't think anything was off about them ever, really. At least until 2006, 2007.
8:29 Ashley Flowers? In her statement to police, Stacy says that is when Laura and Dave started sleeping on different floors of the house. Neither of them ever spoke about a change, and Stacy said, quote, "It wasn't any of my business anyway, so I didn't even ask her what went on," end quote. But by April of 2013, there would be no more keeping their relationship issues a secret. Because according to the police file, that is when Laura found out about Dave's big secret. I don't know what drove her into doing a Facebook deep dive. Surely she was having some suspicions of something, but one click after another after another led her to something that upended her life for good.
9:12 Ashley Flowers? Emily was actually one of the many people Laura opened up to about this. And according to her, what Laura discovered is that Dave had, quote, "a whole other life." He had been having an affair with a woman who he had a child with that she never knew about. And I'm not talking about like a newborn baby, like, oh, he couldn't figure out how to tell her about this in the last like nine months. This kid was preschool age, a preschool-aged son.
9:39 Speaker 01 And did this woman know that Dave was married?
9:41 Ashley Flowers? I don't know if the woman he was having an affair with knew. I tried to know. We actually found the woman, and her and Dave are no longer together, so I was really hopeful she was gonna talk to us. But if you remember from last episode, when I mentioned that there was a woman who Dave is in a child custody battle with to this day in 2026?
10:00 Speaker 01 Yeah.
10:01 Ashley Flowers? That is this woman.
10:02 Speaker 01 Whoa.
10:03 Ashley Flowers? So she declined to speak with our reporter for either episode because of her ongoing legal situation with Dave.
10:10 Speaker 01 Right.
10:11 Ashley Flowers? But to go back to April 2013, it is clear from the police file, that is when Laura found out about this other family, and she was like, done, done, and telling everyone as much. To Stacy, she said she, quote, "did not want to stay with someone who would cheat and lie," end quote. And according to Emily, finding out about this affair finally gave Laura the push she needed to leave Dave and file for divorce. And she told Emily that she had it all planned out. The weekend of April 20th, Dave was going to be taking two of their kids to this wrestling tournament in New Mexico. And so she was going to use that time to get a new car, to get a rental house, and she planned to move all of her stuff into that. Now, come that weekend,
10:55 Ashley Flowers? everything was lined up and ready to go. The last step would be to loop in the nanny because Laura didn't want Dave to even know where she lived. So she needed Stacy to agree to kind of be the one to usher the kids between the houses for whatever custody arrangement ended up being made. Now, the dates of the following events are inconsistent in Gilbert police interviews. So I'm going to base the stuff I'm about to tell you, this timeline, off of the Highland Justice Court's report, which was taken on Sunday, April 21st. So, Saturday, April 20th, Laura told Stacy her plan. And she asked Stacy to take their third son, the one that had stayed home with her, to Stacy's own apartment for the night so
11:39 Ashley Flowers? that she could get all of her things out of the shared house and into her rental. And she explicitly told Stacy, quote, "not to tell Dave anything." And Stacy asked Laura if she was sure about the divorce, and Laura said, yes, quote, "everything was taken care of." So the next day, Sunday, April 21st, when Dave was on his way back home with the two kids, Laura told Stacy to bring their other son back to Dave's so that he would be there when Dave got back. Now, according to what Dave told police, after he got there, Laura put all three children in the car and told Dave that she was going to take them to the store. But she told the kids that they were going to have an adventure and stay at a friend's house.
12:22 Speaker 01 Assuming friend's house is code for her rental.
12:26 Ashley Flowers? It doesn't say that explicitly in the police report, but I think that's a fair assumption. So here's the thing, though. Laura didn't drive off right away. I don't know why, but she went back into the house. And what happened in the hour or so that followed is different depending on which sweetman is narrating. The only official record we have is that at 8:44 PM, Laura called the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office from a movie theater about eight minutes away from Dave's house. She told them that about an hour and a half prior, she had an altercation with her husband at their house, where he held her against her will and threatened to kill her and himself.
13:10 Ashley Flowers? She said that she tried to leave multiple times, but each time Dave grabbed her by the throat and pulled her back into the house. And she said that he tried to choke her three separate times. When she finally escaped, she went to that theater where she was joined by her friends.
13:25 Speaker 01 Wait, where were the kids that whole time?
13:27 Ashley Flowers? Honestly, I don't know. It's unclear if Stacy is still with them or if they're all still in the car or if maybe Stacy took them away. I don't know. But honestly, they're just not even mentioned in the Highland Justice Court's report. All I know is that Laura is calling from the theater and police go to their house and respond and take Dave into custody. But when they do, he's adamant that he did not hurt Laura. He denied holding her hostage, explaining that during what she called an altercation, she was just feet from the door, able to leave. And he was sitting, he says, either like on the ground or across the room from her. But he did admit that he had her car keys.
14:07 Speaker 01 So she couldn't leave?
14:09 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, well, at least not in the car, it seems. And he also told deputies that he didn't think he had threatened to hurt Laura, but he might have said something irrational when he was upset.
14:19 Speaker 01 So it's like a he said, she said situation?
14:22 Ashley Flowers? But not quite, because there was a witness in the house, a one hour and two minute long audio recording that Laura captured of the whole incident.
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16:39 Ashley Flowers? If any copy of this recording exists anymore, we weren't able to find it. According to the incident report, Dave can be heard on it threatening to shoot himself several times. But he did not say that he was going to harm Laura.
16:56 Speaker 01 At least audibly.
16:58 Ashley Flowers? Right, and Laura did ask to leave twice, but both times Dave said no and that he wanted to talk. And one of those times, it sounded like there was a physical struggle, and Laura could be heard yelling for help.
17:12 Speaker 01 Okay, so technically Dave didn't say anything out loud. He just did something. To stop her, like way to play the semantics game dude.
17:19 Ashley Flowers? According to Dave, what they heard wasn't a struggle. He told deputies that the only time he put his hands on Laura was to quote, hug her and hold her close.
17:29 Speaker 01 While she yelled, "Help me."
17:31 Ashley Flowers? He says the moment where she said, "Help me," might have been when they were like deep in an embrace. I guess one of Laura's two cell phones slipped out of her belt.
17:40 Speaker 01 So she yelled, "Help me."
17:43 Ashley Flowers? That's what he said. And he says he did. He picked up the phone and set it aside for her. Now deputies wrote that they didn't see any marks or injuries on Laura. And Dave later told police, quote, "I'm fortunate that I didn't do anything." Which is like-
18:02 Speaker 01 He's a fortunate?
18:03 Ashley Flowers? It's a really weird thing to say.
18:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:06 Ashley Flowers? But I am not sure if Laura like had a full body examination or if the deputy just sort of like gave her like an up and down with his eyes at the theater because it doesn't state anywhere that she was like taken to the station or taken to a hospital. And one of Laura's friends told deputies that they saw pink marks on Laura's neck that had just gone away by the time that police were actually talking to her. But we have no way to actually confirm that now. The incident report literally says, quote, "No photos were taken because none to take."
18:35 Speaker 01 Is this the first kind of call like this? Or was there like, I guess I'm asking like, is there any history of violence with Dave in the past?
18:43 Ashley Flowers? From what we could find, he was arrested for assault in 2008, but the charges were dismissed. So I don't have any details on what that was or who it even involved.
18:54 Speaker 01 Oh.
18:55 Ashley Flowers? However, in the police file, there is a friend who says that Laura admitted to her that Dave was abusive. Quote, "Mostly verbal and mental abuse and some physical abuse, but not as much as the mental." End quote. And then another friend told police that people around Laura were afraid that Dave would harm her.
19:14 Speaker 01 Like always afraid or just after this incident?
19:18 Ashley Flowers? Both, but at least from what I can read, no one ever witnessed any physical violence. Injuries or not, though, Dave did get arrested for the assault and unlawful imprisonment, and he allegedly spent a night in jail. But according to the police file, when the charges got forwarded to the Highland Justice Court, they were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
19:42 Speaker 01 So, literally, recording what happened isn't even enough for, like, the she-part of he said, she said?
19:49 Ashley Flowers? Not enough for charges.
19:50 Speaker 01 Cool.
19:50 Ashley Flowers? But it was enough to get Laura an order of protection against David and full custody of the children. She filed for that the day after this incident, and Laura and Dave did not see each other again for over five months. In that time, she was living at her rental house, doing her pediatric neurology work, taking care of her kids, spending time with friends, and she had even started to date. But Laura's close friends knew that this was not an easy time for her. Emily told police that Laura was always scared of Dave, and then she told us that Laura did not feel safe. On top of that, Laura was working all the time and constantly stressed, particularly
20:34 Ashley Flowers? about money. I mean, to the point where Emily said Laura would make comments about what she couldn't afford at the coffee shop that they would go to together. And Laura apparently stopped going to the gym for personal training because she could no longer afford sessions.
20:48 Speaker 01 I know money and, like, financial support is a big reason that a lot of people feel like they can't leave a relationship.
20:54 Ashley Flowers? Yeah.
20:55 Speaker 01 But I'm kind of surprised about that in this situation, because, like, girl's legit got, like, a good-paying job as a doctor.
21:01 Ashley Flowers? Neurology, yeah. Oh, I'm sure she got paid well at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I'm just not clear what other factors were at play. I mean, I know Emily asked her about it before, but Laura would just say that she had a lot of student loan debt, which, like, med school, that's no joke.
21:16 Speaker 01 For sure.
21:16 Ashley Flowers? But she also mentioned some IRS tax stuff that had to do with Dave?
21:21 Speaker 01 Okay, go on.
21:23 Ashley Flowers? I can't. Like, we weren't able to corroborate anything involving the IRS with official records, so I don't know what Laura might have been referring to. But what is in the police report, though, is this. One of Laura's coworkers at Phoenix Children's Hospital told investigators that he and Laura discovered Dave had started several businesses that she didn't even know about. He told police that she only found out when people began calling her demanding money over bad deals that Dave had allegedly made. And one of the men that Laura was seeing around the time of her death told police he knew Dave had, quote, "dicked her over on a bunch of money," end quote. But he didn't elaborate.
22:06 Ashley Flowers? According to what Emily told police, Dave would say things to Laura about how he was going to end up with the money in the divorce.
22:13 Speaker 01 I mean, is there even money to end up with?
22:16 Ashley Flowers? Dude, I don't know. Maybe in 2013, right? I know by 2020, when his business partner, Nick Cordova, was murdered, he was allegedly taking money from the business.
22:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
22:26 Ashley Flowers? And we know there were, like, previous times that he and his businesses were sued for unlisted reasons, and he was ordered to pay thousands of dollars. Plus, if you look at the businesses that Dave had at the time, Gilbert Air and Monster Impound and Recovery, online, there's still, like, a number of negative reviews alleging price gouging and illegal towing scams.
22:46 Speaker 01 And did he own those at the time of the divorce?
22:48 Ashley Flowers? The towing company, yes, but it looks like actually Gilbert Air was founded a couple of years later. So, listen, what I'm saying is, I don't know what Dave's full financial deal was in 2013, but you definitely can see some, like, red flags, at least later.
23:02 Speaker 01 And how did these threats about money even make it to Laura if there's a protective order in place and he doesn't even know where she lives? Like, I assume they weren't even speaking.
23:12 Ashley Flowers? Right, she has the kids and everything, but what I know is that the order of protection, it barred Laura and Dave from having in-person contact or, like, talking on the phone, but, like, text and email was totally fine. I never, like, understand these things. So, it's very possible that they could have been messaging each other about the divorce. But by all accounts, Dave really didn't see Laura or the children even until October of 2013. This is about five months after the domestic violence call. That is when a judge finally Gave Dave some kind of shared custody where he would get the boys every other week. Even then, Dave and Laura didn't see each other except for once at their son's baseball game. Because remember, they had Stacy to usher the boys back and forth.
23:56 Ashley Flowers? So it was important to Laura that Dave not know where she lived. But friends and family wonder if he found out. Because they told police that in the months leading up to her death, Laura was worried that someone had been following her. And they believed that it was either Dave or someone that he hired. So maybe he could figure out where it was she was living. To be clear, no one ever reported seeing Dave at Laura's rental house. And Dave insisted to detectives that he had no idea where she lived. But there is one detail in the police report that sticks out to me.
24:37 Ashley Flowers? On November 14th, this is less than a month before Laura would be found dead in her home. One of her neighbors called police to report a suspicious car parked across the street from Laura's house. It was a white Zuzu rodeo with an Arizona license plate. He said there was a white man in the driver's seat doing something on his phone. And when he walked up to ask him, you know, what he was doing in the neighborhood, the man said that it was none of his business and basically cursed him out. Now, our reporter Nicole Kagan was able to get in touch with this neighbor, a man named Harry. And he said that this car drove by his house at least three times that day.
25:20 Ashley Flowers? And he called police because he thought the man driving might have been following him. Now, he couldn't say exactly how long the car was in the neighborhood, but at least a couple of hours. And it seemed like the driver was looking for somebody. But then at night, Harry noticed that the car parked in Laura's driveway.
25:38 Speaker 01 And did this happen more than once?
25:40 Ashley Flowers? Well, Harry said that was the only time that he knew of this car being in the neighborhood. But either way, he said that police didn't seem to care about the call and they never followed up with him. And he says he remembers calling them back later himself and they just said, quote, "Nothing further." Now, all Harry remembered was that the guy in the car was a white guy with a medium build, which like, sure, fits Dave, also-
26:05 Speaker 01 But like, everyone else.
26:05 Ashley Flowers? How many other, yeah, how many other guys? But here's the wild part. For what it's worth, Harry did keep meticulous records. So when Nicole was talking to him about this, he's like, "Oh, you know what? Wait one second, let me just go check my crime folder to see if I have notes from that time."
26:24 Speaker 01 His what?
26:26 Ashley Flowers? I don't know if this man listens to the show, but he should. He is a crime junkie, because what he did reminds me of when I was young and we would go on road trips with my family. While other kids, I'm sure, were like, on road trips, had coloring books or like, playing iSpy. I had this like, little notebook, I'm sure, you know?
26:40 Speaker 01 I know.
26:41 Ashley Flowers? Where I would like-
26:42 Speaker 01 I'd like, see this notebook.
26:43 Ashley Flowers? Where I would like, take down license plate numbers of cars that I found to be suspicious.
26:45 Speaker 01 You, like, seven-year-old you. I don't like that car.
26:48 Ashley Flowers? It never came in handy. But, Harry's crime folder might come in handy. Because, when he went to his computer, he's like, "Yep, I took notes about this."
26:59 Speaker 01 Of course he did.
27:00 Ashley Flowers? Exactly. Like, back when it happened, "I took notes of the type of car, and by the way, the license plate number." Which, Britt, we tried so hard to run this down, I mean, he gave us the number-
27:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:12 Ashley Flowers? But there's this thing called the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which keeps people who aren't detectives or PIs from running license plates to identify a driver.
27:21 Speaker 01 Which like, makes sense.
27:23 Ashley Flowers? And listen, that's why we're like, we even were like, "Oh, we'll just like, hire a PI." But like, the DPPA makes it difficult to even do that, too. Because you can't just like, be a media company and use them to like, go around it.
27:33 Speaker 01 Right, right.
27:34 Ashley Flowers? But I know for a fact that Harry gave this license plate number to the police. What I don't know, is if they ever did anything with it, if they tracked down this driver or who that driver was. Because there is no further mention of this tip in Laura's file. Now, we did FOIA the incident report for Harry's call, but as of this recording, we still haven't gotten a response from the Gilbert Police Department. In fact, when you submit a request through their portal, it says the minimum processing time is 18 months.
28:04 Speaker 01 Is that even legal?
28:06 Ashley Flowers? Our legal counsel says she doesn't think so. It's a constructive denial, which is basically means that the agency didn't want to explicitly say no.
28:14 Speaker 01 So they said anything but no?
28:16 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, but like, so basically in their actions or like their lack of actions, like, does the speaking for them.
28:21 Speaker 01 So, million-dollar question. What kind of car did Dave drive?
28:26 Ashley Flowers? Dude, I have no idea. No one we asked remembered from that time. And this would have been a super simple question for police to have answered at the time, but there is nothing in the records about them checking cars after this tip came in.
28:42 Speaker 01 Was this neighbor's tip in Laura's file? Or was it just like records we pulled from calls placed in the neighborhood?
28:47 Ashley Flowers? No, it's right there in the files. It's just not-
28:49 Speaker 01 Never followed up on?
28:50 Ashley Flowers? No. But regardless, I don't think it's outrageous to speculate that whoever was in that car, for whatever reason, it might have had to do with Laura.
29:01 Speaker 01 Well, yeah, especially if they're parked in her driveway.
29:05 Ashley Flowers? So, all of this brings me right up to the few weeks before Laura died. That is when she did something strange, right before Thanksgiving. Laura wrote a prescription and asked one of her friends, who we're gonna call Tara, for a favor. She wanted Tara to fill the prescription in Tara's name, but then give it to Laura.
29:30 Speaker 01 Was this something she had done before?
29:32 Ashley Flowers? Not that we know of. And Tara actually told police that Laura had never asked her to do any favors at all. But she said that Laura was, quote, "really behind on paperwork and in desperation" when she asked this. I don't know if she ever did this before with anyone else. As far as I can tell, Laura was like a pretty by the books person. And this is definitely not legal. Like, it could be considered prescription fraud. And if there's controlled substances involved.
30:00 Speaker 01 Then it's a huge deal.
30:01 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, I mean, it can rise to felony charges. It's like the kind of thing that if found out by the medical board could cause someone's medical license to be suspended or even revoked. So I don't know what was driving her to do this now.
30:13 Speaker 01 And do we know what the prescription was for?
30:15 Ashley Flowers? No, it's redacted in the file. And Tara declined to speak with us for this episode. Emily, who we talked to, said that she believed it was for treating anxiety, which, given everything that was going on with Laura at the time, like, it didn't surprise Emily that she might have taken something like that. So now this brings me to early December. Laura took the kids to San Diego for Thanksgiving. So when they got back on December 1st, the boys went to stay with their dad for a full week, including the weekend. So they're with him on Monday, December 9th, the morning that Laura Sweetman was found dead. That morning, it was pretty obvious that something had happened to Laura. She was a no-call, no-show for work.
31:00 Ashley Flowers? And I've worked with doctors before. For any good doctor, that is unheard of. So pretty early in the morning, one of her coworkers started making calls to check on her. When she didn't answer, they called Stacy and asked her to go check on Laura. This was shortly before 9:10 a.m. When Stacy got to Laura's, the metal gate door on the front door, it's like what we would call like a screen door, right? That was locked, and the front door, both locked as usual. So she had to use her key to get inside. She was greeted by both of Laura's dogs, but she didn't see Laura anywhere or hear anything when she called out her name. Before she could even go up the stairs to check Laura's room, she saw the first sign that something was off.
31:43 Ashley Flowers? Right at the base of the staircase. The plastic gate that was usually in place to keep Laura's smaller dog from getting by, was laying on the floor in this like diagonal position, a few feet away from the staircase. Stacy actually had to move it out of the way so she could get up the steps. And upstairs, Laura wasn't in her unmade bed. Stacy found her in the bathtub, unresponsive. Within five minutes of calling 911, Gilbert firefighters are at the scene. And what's documented is that Laura was naked, unresponsive, and foaming at the mouth. And while there was water in the tub, Laura's face wasn't submerged,
32:26 Ashley Flowers? and there were no other obvious wounds or bleeding that explained what had happened. But, there was no hope of saving her. Because when the fire captain tried to move Laura's arm, he realized that she was already in full rigor, which sets in after like 6 to 12 hours-ish.
32:45 Speaker 01 Which would put her time of death at what?
32:48 Ashley Flowers? Based on my math, sometime between 9:00 PM on the 8th and 3:00 AM on the 9th. But, there is no time of death listed in the police or the ME reports.
33:00 Speaker 01 So, do we know if anyone saw her in that window of time?
33:04 Ashley Flowers? Well, before I get to that, I want to first point out some things about the scene. To the first detective that arrives on scene, everything seems in order. Like, there's no obvious signs of a struggle or forced entry. But according to Stacy, there are some things that are out of place. That dog gate, for one. But also, when she heard the fire truck coming, Stacy went to let the dogs out in the backyard, and that's when she got a second sign that something was off. The back door, which Laura always locked before going to bed, was unlocked.
33:38 Speaker 01 So, someone could have easily walked right in?
33:41 Ashley Flowers? Or walked right out.
33:43 Speaker 01 It also could mean that she died before going to sleep that night. Like, before all of her like nighttime rituals.
33:48 Ashley Flowers? Right, before she got a chance to fully lock up for the night. And until police know what caused Laura's death, like, they do have to treat this whole thing as suspicious. Which means, talking to those who knew her. This is how we have anything in the police file. And I want to start with Dave's first interview with police. Because it's really strange.
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36:30 Ashley Flowers? When a detective calls Dave the day that Laura was found, he tells Dave that Laura is part of an investigation and asks if Dave is able to pick their kids up from school.
36:41 Speaker 01 A part of an investigation? Like, they don't tell him that Laura is dead?
36:45 Ashley Flowers? Dave asks what's wrong, but they say that they can't explain it over the phone. So they agree to meet Dave at his house. Here's where it gets interesting. So according to the police file, when Dave greets the detective outside of his house, he's already crying.
37:02 Speaker 01 Even though they haven't told him what happened?
37:05 Ashley Flowers? Exactly.
37:06 Speaker 01 Did Stacy tell him?
37:08 Ashley Flowers? No, the detective immediately clocks this as odd. So he specifically asks if Dave spoke to anyone, and he says, "No."
37:17 Speaker 01 So why is he crying?
37:19 Ashley Flowers? File doesn't say. But when the detective finally does tell Dave that Laura died, he just like doubles over and starts sobbing uncontrollably, which the detective says continues for the duration of their conversation. And they speak about Laura's medical history, the order of protection, the divorce, the domestic violence call, and even his affair. But Dave maintains that he had no idea where Laura lived or what her life was like after they separated. From what I can see, the last time he tells them that he saw Laura was at their son's baseball game back in October. And for all the things they do talk about, nowhere in the summary
38:02 Ashley Flowers? do I see the detective asking Dave any accusatory questions or even anything about where he was the night before.
38:10 Speaker 01 So we don't know if he had an alibi or not?
38:12 Ashley Flowers? Not explicitly, no. But what makes the Dave scenario tricky is that his three sons were with him all weekend.
38:21 Speaker 01 Hmm, and how old were they again?
38:23 Ashley Flowers? Back in 2013, they would have been like around six, eight, and nine.
38:27 Speaker 01 And do we know if they had a sitter at any point? Or could he have left after they went to bed? Like, that would make for a pretty good alibi.
38:35 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, I mean, sure. Like, Laura's rental was only 15 minutes away. But there's no record of anyone sitting for them. And we reached out to one of Dave and Laura's now adult sons for comment, but he declined to speak and asked that we not contact anyone else in his family. What I do know is that Gilbert PD did look at Dave's phone, and that showed that he was at his house from the night of December 8th through the morning of the 9th, up until he dropped the kids off at school between like 7 and 7:30 that morning.
39:05 Speaker 01 You mean his phone was there? That's his phone? A phone can be left anywhere.
39:10 Ashley Flowers? Which is why I'm dying to see more records. Like, was there activity on it during that time? Like, was it normal activity? Did they look at location data outside of just that night? Did it ever come close to Laura's rental? And I would also really love to ask Dave about all of this, but he didn't respond to any of our calls or our messages.
39:29 Speaker 01 So when all this happened, were people suspicious of Dave, like, right off the bat?
39:33 Ashley Flowers? Oh, yeah. Laura's dad, her stepmom, one of her coworkers, and Emily all told police that they thought Dave had something to do with Laura's death. In fact, according to the police file, the moment Emily heard that Laura died, she immediately texted a friend and said, quote, "I'm so sick to my stomach. I know David had to do something with it." End quote.
39:56 Speaker 01 I mean, if we think about possible motive, with Laura gone, Dave could avoid the divorce proceedings. He'd automatically get custody of the kids. Like, this would simplify things for him.
40:08 Ashley Flowers? And that's exactly what did happen. And some people we spoke to have suggested that Dave benefited from Laura's life insurance policy, though we have not been able to corroborate that with any official records. But spoiler alert, Dave has never been publicly named as a suspect or person of interest in this case. But also, no one has. Because this case has never been discussed publicly by the police department. So in my eyes, Dave does seem suspicious, but it's hard to tell how much of that is coming from the evidence versus, like, the people in the police file who were already convinced it was him. And I'll go on the record as saying
40:50 Ashley Flowers? he may not be the only person in Laura's life who deserves that level of attention. We know Laura had started to date other men when she separated from Dave, right? Well, she was in communication with at least five of them in the weeks leading up to her death. And one of those five was the last known person to see Laura alive. So the day before Laura died, this would have been Sunday, December 8th, she invited a man that she had been seeing named Will over to her place. Will was a trainer at the gym that she went to. Now, his description of their relationship when he talks to police on December 10th is that they met because of the training, like he trained both her and Dave at one point.
41:33 Ashley Flowers? And then they started talking more, going to lunch together, and that they were, quote, "basically friends." But Will does admit to being at Laura's on the 8th, quote, "for maybe an hour."
41:42 Speaker 01 Okay, like which hour and like to do what?
41:46 Ashley Flowers? For some reason, I cannot understand, they never actually ask Will for the time that he left, which like is-
41:53 Speaker 01 The important parts?
41:54 Ashley Flowers? Yes. And we asked Emily if she knew, because she and Will used to be friends too, and she said that at the time, he told her that he left between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. But I can't find anything to corroborate that.
42:08 Speaker 01 Right.
42:08 Ashley Flowers? And it doesn't seem like he explicitly says, like, what he was even there for. Or at least, if he does say that, it doesn't make it into the police file. So when he left, what they were doing, I don't know. Now, he says that when he left, at whatever time that was, Laura was completely fine. And he says that she didn't mention anything about anyone else coming to the house that night. But even he adds that he knew Laura was afraid of Dave, and that he really hoped she died of natural causes.
42:40 Speaker 01 I mean, for his sake or hers?
42:43 Ashley Flowers? That is a great follow-up question that was not asked. What the detective does seem to ask Will is if he still has any text messages with Laura from Sunday on his phone. And he says no. That he deleted them because he had a girlfriend and he didn't want her to know about Laura.
43:03 Speaker 01 But I thought he and Laura were just friends.
43:05 Ashley Flowers? Buddies, right? Yeah. I think it's safe to assume that it could have been more than that.
43:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:11 Ashley Flowers? Because when Will consents to give his phone over to police, which he does, he prefaces that there are, quote, "images" of Laura on it, whatever that means.
43:22 Ashley Flowers? Now, along with his phone, Will gives his DNA, though I don't know what for, because there is no mention in the redacted file of anything that they might be wanting to compare this to. I know investigators did do a sexual assault kit on Laura, but none of the files that we received mentioned the results of that.
43:39 Speaker 01 And do they ever just straight up ask Will if he had anything to do with Laura's death?
43:44 Ashley Flowers? Not that I can see. And like Dave, there is no information whatsoever about an alibi. Actually, at least with Dave, we have phone data. We don't even get that for Will in the file.
43:54 Speaker 01 So, we don't even know for sure if he did leave Laura's place?
43:59 Ashley Flowers? Well, I mean, we know he wasn't there on Sunday when Stacy got there in the morning.
44:03 Speaker 01 Right, but that's all we know.
44:04 Ashley Flowers? That's all I can say for sure, right. And our reporter reached out to Will for comment, but as of this recording, he hasn't gotten back to us. But like I said, Will wasn't the only man that Laura was seeing at the time. In fact, he's not even the only man she saw that weekend. Through analyzing Laura's text messages, police were able to determine that on Saturday, December 7, Laura went on a date with a man named Shaheen. And on Sunday, she texted multiple men to try and make plans for that night. She asked a man named Ameka to see a movie. She was gonna spend the night with a man named Darren, but he canceled. So that night, she ended up having dinner with a man named Bruce. And then after that dinner is when Will must have come over.
44:46 Speaker 01 And do these guys know about each other?
44:48 Ashley Flowers? Well, Will tells the police that he didn't know about anyone else. As for the other guys, we tried to reach all of them, because as far as I can tell, police never did. But as of this recording, we have not been able to connect with any of them.
45:02 Speaker 01 I mean, I'm looking at all these guys, and I can kind of see a motive here. Like, who's to say one of them didn't, like,
45:09 Ashley Flowers? Right?
45:10 Speaker 01 find out about everyone else, get jealous?
45:11 Ashley Flowers? Right, like, what if the car that neighbor Harry saw was one of them?
45:15 Speaker 01 And like, I want to ask, like, were any of them white with a medium build? But like, we said, like, that could match so many people.
45:21 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, I couldn't find any photos of Darren, Ameka, or Shaheen online. But I mean, Will and Bruce could fit that description.
45:28 Speaker 01 And like, what if one of them saw Will leaving the house and, like, confronted her?
45:33 Ashley Flowers? The problem I have with a theory like that, no matter who, like, it would involve, is that feels like a crime of passion, right? And those usually have a clear-cut cause of death.
45:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:44 Ashley Flowers? That is not what we get here. Which brings me to the part of this case that has been keeping me up at night. Laura's autopsy report. We were able to get the medical examiner's report and the toxicology report completely unredacted from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office. And let's just say, they raise a lot of questions. So our reporter Nicole reached out to the medical examiner who performed Laura's autopsy. His name is Dr. Mark Shelley, and she consulted an outside forensic pathologist who has no ties to this case to go through everything, line by line, and make sure that we understood exactly what the findings were.
46:26 Ashley Flowers? The first thing of note is that Laura had no internal injuries, but there is evidence of trauma on her body. Dr. Shelley notes surface level bruises, scrapes, and redness on Laura's head, back, breasts, elbow, forearms, wrists, hand, leg, and knee. But according to the pathologist that we consulted, it's hard to know what these might be from. There's no description of any particular patterns.
47:00 Speaker 01 And they were all fresh or recent?
47:02 Ashley Flowers? So not all of them, because this is the other thing. Some appear to have been at least a week old. And Will told police in his interview that Laura bruised easily and would have bruises in random places, specifically like her shins and her arms, but he didn't know how she got them. He said it never looked like she had been beaten up or anything like that.
47:22 Speaker 01 Okay, did police specifically ask him that? Because to them, it looked like she'd been beaten up?
47:27 Ashley Flowers? It's honestly not totally clear from the file, like what prompted that information out of him. But it also could have come up when they were talking about her workout routines, since we know he's a trainer. Because I actually know that Dave told police Laura, quote, "works out like an idiot." And the pathologist that we consulted said that all of these injuries could have been sustained during frequent workouts, except for the signs of trauma.
47:54 Ashley Flowers? To her head. There is a contusion around the size of like a business card on the top of Laura's head and then another near her left temple. Neither of these were lethal injuries, but I don't, could they have knocked Laura unconscious? The pathologist says it's not likely, but it is possible.
48:14 Speaker 01 And were those injuries recent?
48:17 Ashley Flowers? I would assume yes, because they're not noted as healing, like some of the other bruises are, but I can't say a hundred percent for sure. I mean, without photos or more detailed report, the bruises and the contusions are hard to explain. And what's somehow even harder to explain is the foaming at the mouth. And this is where things start to get really weird. According to the pathologist, foaming at the mouth is common in drowning because when water enters someone's lungs and they try to breathe, the air mixes with the water and this thing called surfactant, which is a natural soapy fluid. And like this mixing creates foam. But Dr. Shelley
49:01 Ashley Flowers? wrote, quote, "There was no definitive evidence of drowning," end quote.
49:07 Speaker 01 Which also sounds like there was no definitive evidence that she didn't drown.
49:12 Ashley Flowers? The pathologist told us that, given the bruising on Laura's arm, it's possible that someone could have held her underwater and drowned her. But without seeing the scene photos or photos of her body, he just can't say anything with certainty. And Gilbert P D hasn't released any of that.
49:31 Speaker 01 But was there any water in her airways?
49:33 Ashley Flowers? Dr. Shelley doesn't note any water specifically, but there was, quote, "moderate amounts of blood and frothy fluid," end quote. And that was like in her lungs. And I wish Gilbert P D would release more or talk to us because to me, the number one question I have is how was she positioned in the tub?
49:55 Speaker 01 Same, because like we know her head wasn't submerged, but I mean, did the water drain out a little bit?
50:01 Ashley Flowers? Right. Like you would think that like if her nose and mouth had been underwater. For like a longer period of time, I would, I would imagine it wouldn't be like foamy. Like maybe that would wash away.
50:10 Speaker 01 See that, yeah.
50:11 Ashley Flowers? And like actually, how much foam was there even? I don't know. Was she laying down like she was just like enjoying a bath? How cold was the water? I have four million questions that the autopsy report alone does not answer. Now, I know from talking to Emily that Laura was a bath girly. Take it from one who knows, particularly loved taking baths at night. But did she go into that tub on her own? That is my question, and I don't know the answer. But let's say for a second that this wasn't a drowning. There is something else that can cause foaming at the mouth, and that is a heart attack. But this is truly a whole nother can of worms.
50:54 Ashley Flowers? Because according to the Emmy's report, Dr. Shelley says that he received Laura's medical history, which included, quote, "a prior myocardial infarction," end quote, which is medical speak for a heart attack. But the pathologist that we spoke to said he wants to know where Dr. Shelley got that medical history from, because the autopsy report states that there was no scarring, no abnormalities of the heart or cardiovascular system at all, which he says there typically would be if there was a previous heart attack.
51:28 Speaker 01 But I mean, I know Shelley is just like pulling this out of thin air.
51:31 Ashley Flowers? He's not. That information is backed up in the police report. In interviews, Laura's friends and family and doctor states that Laura did have a heart attack in September 2011. This is two years before her death. She had it while training for a marathon, and she would have been like 39 at the time. And to their credit, Gilbert P D went to Laura's cardiologist, who said that when she came in in 2011, she, quote, "did not have any significant blockage, and there were not any additional interventions needed."
52:04 Speaker 01 So she had a heart attack, but there was basically no physical evidence of it?
52:10 Ashley Flowers? I guess so. That cardiologist said that they placed Laura on this like short-term medication until she took a stress test, which showed that she was fine. And actually, in May 2013, almost seven months before her death, Laura saw her cardiologist, who said that she was asymptomatic with no complaints. They also did a blood workup at that time, which showed that there was no underlying cause for the initial heart attack. So it's like, if you take everyone at their word, Laura had a heart attack. But if you look at the evidence.
52:41 Speaker 01 Her heart.
52:41 Ashley Flowers? Her actual heart, which you can only do in an autopsy, she didn't.
52:46 Speaker 01 So, okay, like, I'm like spiraling on this. Was she misdiagnosed? Was it just like severe chest pain?
52:54 Ashley Flowers? I don't know.
52:54 Speaker 01 Or like a panic attack?
52:56 Ashley Flowers? Without like actually seeing her medical records myself, I don't know how they came to the conclusion that it was a heart attack. Like, I'm assuming there had to have been some kind of testing. Right, she's a doctor too. Like, she, I don't, maybe it was so mild that it didn't leave evidence?
53:10 Speaker 01 I mean, is that, is that possible? Is that even a thing?
53:13 Ashley Flowers? I mean, we asked Dr. Shelley, he said that every case is different and it would depend on the exact intensity of the heart attack.
53:19 Speaker 01 Which I guess makes sense.
53:20 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, and, and he says that's information he doesn't remember from her medical records. And like I said, we don't have them. But he remembers that there was no evidence of a new heart attack. But he couldn't remember if there was evidence of a previous one.
53:33 Speaker 01 And, I mean, if there was, I think he would have recorded it.
53:37 Ashley Flowers? Correct, but I, maybe it was as undamaging as any heart attack could be. Because Emily did tell us that Laura bounced back really quickly after this and just kind of like, almost played it off, like, oh, no big deal, just like a heart attack, whatever. But if there was anything wrong with her heart at any point, there was something Dr. Shelley noted in his report that could have contributed to her heart stopping. He says that a prescription stimulant medication was found at the scene.
54:08 Speaker 01 Like, stimulant, like Adderall?
54:10 Ashley Flowers? Could have been anything like that, right? Like Adderall, Ritalin, Viavance, like, all of those things, most of them are prescribed for like ADHD, which Emily says that she wasn't sure if Laura had. And today, Dr. Shelley didn't remember what the specific medication was.
54:24 Speaker 01 But he's saying it was at the scene, was it in her system?
54:28 Ashley Flowers? That's the catch. There is nothing in her system. Laura's toxicology screen came back completely clean. There's no alcohol, no common drugs of abuse, no prescription stimulants, or even anxiety medication.
54:43 Speaker 01 So it couldn't have contributed to her heart stopping if she didn't take it? Like, finding at the scene means nothing.
54:49 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, or at least she didn't take it recently, if she had before. Like, not the, not that day, right?
54:54 Speaker 01 Right, like, but who was the drug prescribed to?
54:57 Ashley Flowers? The report doesn't say. But I mean, as we know, a basic drug screen only rules out the most common drugs of abuse.
55:05 Speaker 01 They're looking for something specific.
55:07 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, like, I mean, it's like, right, it's like, probably weed, cocaine, like stimulants. It doesn't mean that there couldn't have been like something else in Laura's system. It just means that those hypothetical drugs or like those like common drugs were not there.
55:22 Speaker 01 And Nothing else was tested for.
55:24 Ashley Flowers? Right, nothing else was tested for. And because the toxicologist didn't include a methodology in their report, there's no way for us to know what sorts of instruments were used and what quantities of like drugs that they could detect.
55:35 Speaker 01 And is that something that's usually included in those reports?
55:38 Ashley Flowers? You know, I'm finding that it really depends on the specific lab or the person performing the autopsy.
55:45 Speaker 01 Great.
55:46 Ashley Flowers? But the pathologist that we spoke to said that the reports that he's familiar with usually does include that stuff. And you know, this is one of like the biggest surprises to me as I've learned about how homicide investigations work. I am shocked at how few standards there are and like what is optional? Like with any other profession where you have people's life and death in your hands, there are strict rules about training, certification, continued education, oaths and expectations. Think about what like Laura probably had to go through to be a neurologist.
56:20 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah.
56:20 Ashley Flowers? But if your loved one is murdered, you gotta just hope and pray that your detective knows what he's doing and that the lab has the right people running the right tests.
56:30 Speaker 01 Right.
56:31 Ashley Flowers? And then you cross your fingers. And like, I'm honestly done with people coming to me and talking about like underfunding. I know the guys in the trenches can't help it and they don't have a say. But our government is out here spending like $200 million on a Homeland Security ad saying like, don't come here in English. And based on Pentagon estimates reviewed by lawmakers by mid-March, we already spent 11.6 billion on a war that I'm pretty sure none of us fucking want. And you're telling me we don't have money for justice reform?
57:02 Speaker 01 For just like a little bit of justice reform.
57:03 Ashley Flowers? That I have to start a nonprofit to pay out of my own pocket to solve cold cases. Because we can't afford it. Like, give me a break. What should be done with our tax dollars can be done. You can solve cases with your vote, you guys. Just remember that. But I will get off my soapbox and back to this autopsy report that apparently can include or exclude whatever it wants.
57:26 Speaker 01 Because there are no rules.
57:28 Ashley Flowers? There are few rules and it's optional to follow them. So, another thing that the pathologist we consulted with pointed out was that there is at least one test result that is discussed in the ME's report that is not mentioned in the tox screen. It's a sodium level test on fluid from Laura's eye, which apparently shows an unusually low number. And that, he says, is something that you could see in association with freshwater drowning. It's not definitive evidence of drowning. The pathologist said that you could also see that in someone who like binge drinks water. But it does raise the question.
58:12 Ashley Flowers? What else was tested that might have been left out of the report? All in all, the pathologist said that what he can see from the reports seems to be reasonable. But if he were doing the autopsy, there are a few things that he would have done differently to try and get more information. He said that he would have wanted to do a detailed neuropathy examination or dissect Laura's cardiac conduction system, which Dr. Shelley says that he might have done and is just not mentioned in the file. But like, he doesn't remember now. The consultant also would have wanted to do some genetic testing to see if Laura had any inherited conditions that could have caused sudden death because of a heart problem. Like, there is this thing called Long QT Syndrome, which like-
58:56 Speaker 01 Which we talked about before.
58:57 Ashley Flowers? It was in the Lauren Spear episode way back, but that's an inherited heart disorder that can cause sudden fainting seizures or cardiac arrest, particularly when the heart beats in an irregular way, like during exercise or stress. Now, Dr. Shelley says that he doesn't remember if the genetic testing for that was available back in 2030.
59:17 Speaker 01 But it's not like Laura was exercising in her bathtub.
59:20 Ashley Flowers? True, but I know, we know she was extremely stressed in the months leading up to her death. And you know, when Will was there, I don't know what these buddies were doing when they were hanging out. And listen, like, the pathologist we talked to said that he doesn't know if any of those tests would even yield anything. But like, what if they did?
59:36 Speaker 01 Right.
59:36 Ashley Flowers? He said that the way Laura was found suggests to him that she drowned. But what he can't interpret from the reports is why might she have drowned? Did someone hold her under the water? Did she have a seizure? Did she fall and get knocked unconscious? Did she overdose on something on purpose or by accident? And it's just a drug that wasn't tested for in the tox screen?
1:00:01 Speaker 01 The follow up question is interesting here because I feel like the thing that doesn't fit into any of this is like the dog gate being at the bottom of the stairs.
1:00:08 Ashley Flowers? Like, I know.
1:00:10 Speaker 01 It's like.
1:00:10 Ashley Flowers? I don't know what to make of that.
1:00:11 Speaker 01 Right, it's notable, but, but I don't know what it means.
1:00:14 Ashley Flowers? Right, did someone like rush out and hit it? Did she trip over it and hit her head?
1:00:18 Speaker 01 And I think if she had done it, like, she would have put the gate back up. Like, it was there for a reason, it's her house, right?
1:00:24 Ashley Flowers? Maybe. Without further investigation, like, we have to guess because all we have are these reports, which don't explain any of that. And I don't know what to think based on just reviewing these reports. Dr. Shelley said it looks like a typical autopsy. And though he doesn't remember what he was thinking back then, he would make the same undetermined conclusion about the cause and manner of death today with the information he has. Which he, he says is not a common finding that, like, in the medical examiner world. But, quote, "It happens." And, this is an interesting part, whenever it does happen, the case has to be reviewed by at least one other pathologist.
1:01:07 Speaker 01 And was this one?
1:01:08 Ashley Flowers? I couldn't tell you because there's no documented evidence of a review in the ME report. And when we asked Dr. Shelley if that happened, he said it likely would have been reviewed, but, quote, "2013 resources are different from 2026 resources, so my best recollection..."
1:01:27 Ashley Flowers? Is that we would have done everything we could have in 2013. End quote. So here's an example of us having a rule in place, but no one has to show proof that they're following it.
1:01:41 Speaker 01 That is, if they're even following it.
1:01:44 Ashley Flowers? And listen, it would be really great to have someone other than just Dr. Shelley to look to in this case. Because there's something that I haven't told you yet. Something that we were not prepared for.
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1:04:18 Ashley Flowers? So Britt, when we were reporting on this case, I get this call from Nicole, and she's like, "I have to tell you something." And she's like, "I can't even tell you. I need you to just hear this clip that I just found from Channel 12 in Arizona. I wanted to play the clip for you. We could not license it. The fees were outrageous for the 19 seconds that I wanted." But the clip starts, and there's this newscaster, and they're like, "A doctor takes a dead Marine's brain home with him and then allows his kids to hold it and take pictures with it."
1:04:51 Speaker 01 What?
1:04:52 Ashley Flowers? And then the anchor pops in, and he's like, "Yeah, a decision that led to this doctor being reprimanded. But as 12 News investigates, it didn't keep Maricopa County from hiring that very same doctor to work on some of the most high-profile criminal cases."
1:05:07 Speaker 01 OK, sorry, I'm letting the shock wash over my body.
1:05:10 Ashley Flowers? That's Dr. Shelley.
1:05:11 Speaker 01 OK, and this is before he did Laura's autopsy?
1:05:15 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, that incident happened before Maricopa County hired him.
1:05:19 Speaker 01 Right, before they hired him.
1:05:20 Ashley Flowers? This was known. Wendy Halloran did a full investigation into Dr. Shelley's past, which revealed that in December 2011, when he was a military medical examiner in Portsmouth, Virginia, he was performing an autopsy on a Marine Corps sergeant who was found dead in his home. Afterward, he was meant to take the brain, considered evidence
1:05:42 Speaker 01 Right.
1:05:43 Ashley Flowers? to a naval hospital in Virginia for further examination. But as I just Told you that's not what he did. Instead, he took it to his house, took it out of the stock jar, and handed it to his young kids to feel while his wife took pictures.
1:06:01 Speaker 01 I'm sorry, I'm like literally speechless. I have like zero words, but all the questions.
1:06:06 Ashley Flowers? And Dr. Shelley did bring the brain to the hospital the next day, but the Virginia Medical Board found out about his like little detour from an anonymous caller, and then they launched this like whole investigation.
1:06:17 Speaker 01 Yeah, I feel like those pictures have to live on like the wife's Facebook somewhere.
1:06:20 Ashley Flowers? I have to imagine someone saw the pictures and that's what prompted the call. I don't know. Trust me, we scoured the internet for these pictures. If they're anywhere out there, zero luck. Now, the Virginia Medical Board ended up reprimanding Dr. Shelley. They slapped him with a $2,500 fine.
1:06:35 Speaker 01 That's it?
1:06:36 Ashley Flowers? Well, yes and no, because according to Channel 12, the Navy had also launched their own investigation. And though it was found that Dr. Shelley's show and tell didn't affect the brain examination in any way, he was put on desk duty, his hospital privileges were suspended, and he was not allowed to do anything clinical.
1:06:56 Speaker 01 Great. I feel like this is all semantics. Was he fired or not?
1:07:00 Ashley Flowers? The commanding officer of the Naval Hospital in Virginia, quote, "recommended that Shelley's privileges be revoked," end quote.
1:07:07 Speaker 01 That's not an answer.
1:07:08 Ashley Flowers? I know, I'm getting there. But the Surgeon General, they had to give the final sign off. Before that could happen though, Shelley was offered this job with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office in Arizona.
1:07:19 Speaker 01 He got out before he got fired.
1:07:20 Ashley Flowers? Yep. Isn't like, well, I've seen this with like departments, you can resign first, right? All he had to do was go get his Arizona medical license approved. So to facilitate that, he wrote this letter to the board about the indiscretion. And I'm actually going to have you read the part where he describes what it is he did, like in his own words.
1:07:39 Speaker 01 I told my children that I had done an autopsy and retained the brain so that an expert could examine it. My older son and my stepdaughter expressed an interest as they always have with my occupation. So I showed the brain to them and explained what the different parts of the brain are and how it works. I also allowed them to gently feel the brain while wearing plastic mittens. I emphasized respect for the decedent the entire time we examined the brain, which was no more than approximately three minutes.
1:08:09 Ashley Flowers? Three minutes.
1:08:10 Speaker 01 Okay, like, in this context, can we define like what respect means?
1:08:17 Ashley Flowers? Or what plastic mittens are?
1:08:19 Speaker 01 That too.
1:08:20 Ashley Flowers? I like, again, maybe there's like a medical examiner thing, I don't know. I like, I'm like imagining like oven gloves. Like, I have no idea what they're talking about. Now, when questioned about his own past by us, like, we had to ask him about this. Dr. Shelley said to us, quote, "All the articles speak for themselves and I don't have anything to add." End quote. Either way, he got his Arizona license in a 5-2 board vote. So in June 2013, Maricopa County hired him. And then five months onto the job is when he performed Laura's autopsy.
1:08:53 Speaker 01 There really like aren't any actual real rules over there.
1:08:57 Ashley Flowers? I have not told you the half of it. So my spicy little soapbox speech might have seemed maybe out of left field, but it's because like I've been living in this, you're gonna get there. So Shelley is the only person we have documented as signing off on the ME report. The guy who signed off on Laura's toxicology report was someone else, Norman Wade. And surprise, surprise, he has a checkered past too. According to Channel 12, in the early 90s, before Norman was the laboratory director at the Maricopa County ME's office, he was a crime lab manager for a sheriff's office in California. And while there, he took a gun and another item of evidence out of the evidence room
1:09:42 Ashley Flowers? and sold them at a pawn shop.
1:09:44 Speaker 01 What?
1:09:45 Ashley Flowers? He got convicted of grand theft of a firearm in 1995, served 30 days in jail, and was placed on probation. But here's what's wild. Maricopa County hired him as a forensic toxicologist in 1994 while that criminal investigation was unfolding. And then after his arrest, Norman resigned from his post. But five years later, in 1999, he applied to come back to Maricopa, this time as the lab director.
1:10:17 Speaker 01 Which is like a promotion.
1:10:19 Ashley Flowers? On his application, Norman checked a box saying that he had never been convicted of a crime other than minor traffic violation. Even though a fingerprint check revealed his record and the information was sent to the medical examiner's office, he started the job anyway. He went on to testify in major cases for nearly two decades until his past resurfaced.
1:10:43 Speaker 01 Resurfaced, but it was there the whole time.
1:10:45 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, he was investigated for failing to disclose the conviction and ultimately he retired in 20-
1:10:53 Speaker 01 AKA got out before he could get fired.
1:10:55 Ashley Flowers? 2016, and Norman did not respond to our request for comment.
1:11:00 Speaker 01 Two comments here. Weren't you living in Maricopa County during this time?
1:11:04 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, I was, I was.
1:11:06 Speaker 01 How hard up for people is Maricopa County?
1:11:09 Ashley Flowers? Literally, that was my first thought and obviously other people's too, because Channel 12 like asked them for a statement about all this back in 2017. And they said, quote, "The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner faces the same challenge that ME offices across the country are encountering: a shortage of forensic pathologists. The pool of qualified medical examiners is approximately 500. Maricopa County alone has 15 positions, 11 of which are filled. We expect to fill those remaining positions with exemplary talent. No employee is perfect. We do not expect perfect pass. What current management does expect is integrity, hard work, and professionalism from the moment
1:11:53 Ashley Flowers? a person starts working here." Which like, listen, I get, I didn't realize like, things were that dire. I think this is a good call out for our crime junkies, like there are some- Great openings for great people. But I, to me, it's wild that you can have like a conviction like that and they're just like so desperate that they're like, we might, we're willing to risk all these future cases. I don't know.
1:12:14 Speaker 01 Well, especially because like, I feel like everyone we've talked to in this job, in our history, like law enforcement sources always tell us the best indicator of future behavior.
1:12:24 Ashley Flowers? Is past behavior.
1:12:25 Speaker 01 Is past behavior. And like, this is pretty clear past behavior to me at least.
1:12:29 Ashley Flowers? Listen, it is absolutely possible that Laura's autopsy was done according to protocol with the highest integrity. But everything I just told you is enough, I think, to call that into question.
1:12:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:12:40 Ashley Flowers? And so if the reason that this case isn't being investigated is because of the ruling, undetermined, undetermined, and that was made while Laura's body was at this medical examiner's office, I think that at the very least, that work should be double checked.
1:12:56 Speaker 01 Wait, is that the reason they stopped investigating, like, once the autopsy came back?
1:13:00 Ashley Flowers? Yeah, the autopsy came back in May 2014, and then four months later, the case was ruled inactive. Though the file doesn't like, it doesn't explicitly make that connection. The concluding report says that based on gathered facts and the undetermined medical findings, the case would no longer be actively investigated.
1:13:20 Speaker 01 I guess nothing I've heard today has convinced me that we can trust the systems that are at play here. Like, it's not just the ME's office, right? Like, in last week's episode, you mentioned like allegations about Gilbert PD destroying police records.
1:13:32 Ashley Flowers? Exactly. Yeah, so back in February, the Attorney General's Office was reviewing those claims, and they haven't made any public statements since. Obviously, we reached out to them for comment, but as of this recording, haven't heard back on that either. So here is what I want people to take away from this episode, this story. I think in the absence of an investigation, all people have been left to do is point fingers at Dave. There is an alleged prior history of abuse, there is an order of protection, a pending divorce, all good reasons to be suspicious. But I am also kind of suspicious of a lot of the people in this case who were just never looked into. Police never interviewed any of the guys that I told you Laura was seeing,
1:14:16 Ashley Flowers? other than Will. They never searched their phones. They never looked at their locations or asked for alibis. If Dave didn't do anything, he should be pissed off too, because perhaps a better investigation could have answered all of the open-ended questions that we have, and no one would be talking about him or his wife's death 13 years later. It is not too late to take another look at this case, but that's not happening. It never has. Laura's nanny told us that she called Gilbert P D almost every day in the wake of Laura's death to ask if there was anything at all that they could tell her, and she was always turned away. And at a certain point, she was told
1:14:57 Ashley Flowers? that Laura had a heart attack. Even then, she didn't know if they really looked into that, or if they just were like making that assumption. And Laura's neighbor who called in the suspicious vehicle told us that he remembers seeing all of the police tape up around Laura's house, but he didn't even know what it was like for, because police never knocked on his door to ask him anything at all. He didn't even know Laura's name until our reporter told him.
1:15:23 Speaker 01 Which is bonkers, especially when you think about the fact that you have Will, who is telling you he was right there with her.
1:15:29 Ashley Flowers? That night.
1:15:30 Speaker 01 Right before she died. Like, did you see him leave? Did you see any other cars?
1:15:34 Ashley Flowers? I know.
1:15:34 Speaker 01 Like, did you hear anything?
1:15:35 Ashley Flowers? I know. It is wild to me. And by the way, I'm not even sure how thorough the few interviews that Gilbert P D did were, because Emily told us that her call with them only lasted like 10 minutes.
1:15:48 Speaker 01 They didn't bring her to the station?
1:15:49 Ashley Flowers? No, they called her while she was at her training studio, and then they just never followed up again. So she told us she felt like they kind of just pushed Laura's case to the side. Even Laura's dad told us that he has an extremely small amount of firsthand knowledge as to what actually happened to his daughter. He didn't want to do a formal interview for this episode, but he told us that he does want to see justice in her case.
1:16:13 Speaker 01 I mean, you'd think Gilbert P D would have at least taken another look seven years later when Nick Cordova was murdered, and the same man's name is starting to get like thrown around again in conversation.
1:16:25 Ashley Flowers? You would think, but like I said, there is no mention at all of Laura in Nick's case file. So I want to end by saying that I cannot give any explanation for why the police seemingly did so little work on Laura's case. But I can say that in the cases of Rachel Hansen and Nick Cordova, both stories that we've recently covered on this show that are also out of Gilbert PD, pressure from the media did get them to release additional records, and both of those cases reportedly remain active to this day. So this is where we need the help of our crime junkies.
1:17:05 Ashley Flowers? It is time to break the 12-year silence on Laura Sweetman's case. One glance at Laura's memorial Facebook page, and it's clear to see the starring role she played in so many people's lives, especially the children she saw in her practice who lost their dedicated doctor. She never let any of the stressors in her life keep her from enjoying it. In fact, Laura's presence was so bright and so positive that her loved ones decided to wear colorful clothes to her funeral instead of black because they say that is what Laura would have wanted. So please, you guys, take to social media, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your local news people, and let's get people talking about Laura Sweetman.
1:17:47 Ashley Flowers? And let's get the Gilbert Police Department to take notice.
1:18:05 Ashley Flowers? Laura's case is no longer being investigated by law enforcement. And if you're hearing this and you want to pass along information to us, you can email [email protected] . You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com.
1:18:20 Speaker 01 And you can follow us on Instagram, @crimejunkiepodcast.
1:18:23 Ashley Flowers? We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.
1:18:51 Ashley Flowers? Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. I think Chuck would approve.
1:19:00 Speaker 02 When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing. Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful. You never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.
Previous MURDERED: Nick Cordova Next UPDATE: Laura Sweetman Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated