310. The Suspicious Death of Lois McMillen

On this episode, Garrett and Payton explore a brutal murder that shattered a quiet island paradise. As authorities rush to make arrests, doubts grow, as some believe the true killer might be free. Links Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Murder in Paradise by Lisa Pulitzer ABCNews.go.com - https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81315&page=1 NewsWeek.com - https://www.newsweek.com/fallout-caribbean-murder-155573 NYPost.com - https://nypost.com/2001/05/24/convicted-tortola-killer-im-innocent/ CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/03/07/ctv.tortola.trial/ LATimes.com - https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-11-mn-62189-story.html CaseMine.com - https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/5779fc13e561096c931319e1 CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/part-ii-a-tropical-island-trial/ AlixKrista.com - https://www.alixkirsta.com/articles/mcmillen/index.htm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  Now streaming on Paramount Plus. I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you. You're having a midlife crisis. I'm not ready for this. He's back. I'm older. I'm wiser. And sharper than ever. Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything. Dexter Resurrection. New season now streaming on the Paramount Plus Premium Plan.

• 1:01Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 1:07Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:09Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:09Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Welcome back. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. We appreciate you. Another week, another podcast.

• 1:21Garrett Moreland?

  That's all I got. That's all I got.

• 1:25Payton Moreland?

  Can you tell we're tired?

• 1:26Garrett Moreland?

  A little tired.

• 1:28Payton Moreland?

  I don't know, Gary. Your hair is like blowing in the wind.

• 1:31Garrett Moreland?

  No, my hair's getting long. Hair's getting crazy. I don't have too much of a 10 seconds this week. I'm gonna be honest. I've been sitting here while we're recording, trying to think, and I can't think. Just been working a lot. So I don't have too much for you guys. I'm sorry, but I will say thank you to everyone who conversed and DM'd me and commented, talking about last week's criminal defense attorneys and prosecutors. I'm a pretty open book in general. I like to hear other people's opinions and hear what other people have to say, so. Thanks for the conversations. Yeah, kind of all I got. Something Peyton and I are trying to figure out, I feel like this might be a good 10 seconds,

• 2:13Garrett Moreland?

  is it is extremely, and when I say extremely, I mean extremely dry in our room at night. Like to the point where Peyton and I fall asleep and then we both wake up and it feels like there is someone's hand over our faces.

• 2:28Payton Moreland?

  Like, it feels like I have a sore throat every time I wake up.

• 2:32Garrett Moreland?

  And we both have humidifiers. We've tried everything. I, I don't know, maybe, maybe we need better humidifiers, but we have big humidifiers. I, I don't know, honestly, at this point, like I would pay for, you know, those air conditioning units people put in, they're like those single units. I would pay for one of those if someone could hook a water line up to it and then constantly just push steam into my room.

• 3:00Payton Moreland?

  You want a steam shower bedroom?

• 3:02Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I just, I, it was like, it was like 19% humidity in our room the other night. And that might not seem dry to people, but.

• 3:11Payton Moreland?

  Well, it doesn't help that we have like the worst air quality ever as well, like tacked on to that. High elevation, it's just all the things.

• 3:20Garrett Moreland?

  It's really bad. I'm probably just complaining for no reason, but if anyone has any ideas or thoughts, please let us know. On top of that, thanks again for listening. Thank you for being here and we are going to hop into today's episode.

• 3:35Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are Murder in Paradise by Lisa Pulitzer, abcnews.go.com, newsweek.com, newyorkpost.com, cnn.com, latimes.com, casemine.com, cbsnews.com, and alixkrista.com. I want everyone to imagine this, including you, Gary. Your friend invites you to come stay at their vacation home on a tropical island for a week. So you're beyond excited because your accommodations are practically free. Plus, they know all of the hot spots in the area, all of the great restaurants to eat at, all of the private beaches to go to, and all of the most interesting locals to hang out with. So you pack your bags and

• 4:16Payton Moreland?

  you take off for what will surely be a trip to remember. And it is, but not in the way you hoped. One night out changes everything. And the next thing you know, you're trapped on this island, spending the next few years in a cold jail cell, wondering, how did things go so wrong so fast? Now, this was the story of not one, but four American men in 2000, after a young woman was found dead where they were vacationing.

• 4:48Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 4:49Payton Moreland?

  These four men insisted they were innocent. But the question remains to this day, if they didn't do it, then who did? So today, we are turning back the clock to the year 1999, okay? We are hopping on a plane to the exotic island of Tortula in the British Virgin Islands, to basically what the local tourist board calls nature's little secret. It's just 60 miles east of Puerto Rico, and the island was a hotspot for wealthy British and American families to stay during the winter months of the year. So just a vacation island.

• 5:34Payton Moreland?

  Not only was it beautiful and a great place to surf and sail, it also had a practically non-existent crime rate, and only about a total of 19,000 residents at the time. So definitely a little secret hidden spot, which is probably why the McMillan family thought in 1999, it was the perfect spot to escape to each winter. Now, Russell and Josephine McMillan had been coming to Tortula for the last 20 years, now with their 34-year-old daughter, Lois. They had been living in Connecticut the rest of the time, ever since Lois was born in 1965.

• 6:19Payton Moreland?

  Now Russell did have children from another marriage, but Lois was his only child with his second wife, Josephine. And because Lois was the baby of the family, she was given an upbringing most children only dream of. And this is on top of having a vacation home in a tropical island in the winter.

• 6:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 6:38Payton Moreland?

  She had horseback riding lessons, trips to summer sleepaway camp, school abroad in Switzerland. And then obviously her annual vacation to their beach house. Now, over the years, the family got to know the other snowbirds who wintered in the island. Lois looked forward to going to the island every year growing up. Not only was it quality time with her family, it was a break from school, which honestly, she wasn't very good at. Plus, it was a chance to paint until her heart was content. So yes, growing up through high school, Lois was a great painter. And as she grew into a young adult, she actually tried to find her way through a series of different colleges and potential career paths.

• 7:24Payton Moreland?

  From dropping out of Boston University in 1985, to modeling classes in Connecticut, to voice and acting classes, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She tried it all. She actually even moved across the country to Los Angeles for some time to try and pursue stardom there. But after meeting one too many directors and producers looking to cast her in exchange for a date, Lois got fed up with the entertainment industry and the constant disappointment. And that's when she finally went back to her roots and decided art and painting were just her real calling. So in the early 90s, she attended

• 8:04Payton Moreland?

  the Parsons School of Design in New York. And when Lois wasn't studying or painting, she was volunteering her time with organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Greenpeace, or the Humane Society. But as of 1999, the time of our story, Lois was back under her parents' roof in Connecticut, trying to get some gallery shows going. She already had quite a bit of success after her first showing made her close to $10,000. And ironically, the year before, she had actually made a painting called, "The World Is Killing Women." It was a piece so powerful, her parents hung it on the walls of their home in their beach house,

• 8:50Payton Moreland?

  place where Lois had always felt safe, was consistent, a spot she knew they would go and slow down for the winter. And a place where she had actually met some people she thought would be lifelong friends in this little vacation place, like a guy named Michael Spicer.

• 9:09Garrett Moreland?

  You know, I've always found art really interesting, partly because I don't really understand it. Mainly because the only artist I've ever really looked into is Banksy. So I don't know, I just, I think it's interesting how, like some pieces can go for so much money, just have so much more value than other pieces.

• 9:28Payton Moreland?

  I think it's definitely one of those worlds you have to be into.

• 9:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, and I don't really understand.

• 9:32Payton Moreland?

  Appreciate, kind of like fashion, right? Like there's like white t-shirts.

• 9:37Garrett Moreland?

  Like funky fashion.

• 9:38Payton Moreland?

  Yes. And I think it's similar to that.

• 9:41Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 9:41Payton Moreland?

  Now, the Spicer family was another wealthy snowbird family on the island that had a home just up the hill from the McMillans. And at the time, 36-year-old Michael was a law student in Virginia. Now, he and Lois had known each other for quite a while now, basically from kind of growing up on the island together, but the relationship was fairly casual. They would now go to the bars together, go swimming together in the Spicer's pool. But when they were back to their real lives, it's not like they kept in touch. It was more just this life they had when they went to the island. But Michael had introduced her to someone else a few winters before.

• 10:26Payton Moreland?

  It was a friend of his named Alex Benedetto. Now Alex was the son of a wealthy publisher and now worked at his father's company back in New York. And he had come out with Michael a few times with his family to Tortola. And he and Lois actually did have a brief summer romance seemingly ended on good terms. Because come 1999, Lois was willing to spend time with him again when he came out to visit that winter with his friend. In fact, Michael had brought a couple of friends with him that winter since his parents decided to stay back in the state. So he's in his 30s, he's going to his parents' house and they have it to themselves.

• 11:09Payton Moreland?

  I'll tell you who they are, 35-year-old Alex, which is her old fling, as well as 23-year-old construction worker Evan George, and 36-year-old William Labrador, who owned his own PR and modeling agency in New York City. So these four American guys. Now, the reason that Michael Spicer, who is the friend with the family home there, knew some of the other boys was William and Alex had grown up together, which was how he was introduced to Michael. And Evan seemed to be dating Michael Spicer at the time of that vacation.

• 11:53Payton Moreland?

  So it's maybe his boyfriend, his friend, and his friend's friend. Either way, the four of them were excited about spending the holidays on the island that year. They'd spend their days lounging around the pool or beach, hiking, hitting the bars, hanging out a bit with. Lois McMillan, the other girl whose family had a place and had grown up there. So on the night of January 13th, Michael and his friends invited Lois out to dinner with them. Now Lois had a car and they didn't. So they actually offered to pay for her meal if she drove. So she left her house around 5:30 that night and then was back home later that evening.

• 12:35Payton Moreland?

  But then the following afternoon, she told her mother she was just planning to go out alone that night. She wanted to listen to some music at a venue on the other side of the island called The Jolly Roger Inn.

• 12:47Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 12:48Payton Moreland?

  So that night, January 14th, Lois left her family's home around 9:00 PM. But by 12:30, 1:00 AM.

• 12:57Garrett Moreland?

  Oh gosh.

• 12:58Payton Moreland?

  Lois's parents were getting worried. I mean, yes, she's in her 30s, but when Lois still wasn't back by 10:00 AM the next morning, her parents raced down to the local police station to report their daughter Lois missing. But let's rewind a bit to three hours before the parents drove down and made that report. In the same area, a woman named Winsome Manning left her home on the island for a morning stroll. And about an hour into that journey, she was looking down at the water along the rocky shoreline when she noticed there was a body face up. The waves were crashing against it and it appeared to her that this body was no longer moving.

• 13:43Payton Moreland?

  Now Winsome didn't bother to get a closer look. Instead, she ran to the police station that was less than a mile away and reported the body to the officers on duty. Detectives obviously rushed over and immediately confirmed what Winsome had seen. There was a body of a young woman whose face had been bloated by seawater to the point that she was unrecognizable. They start investigating. She had no ID, no pocketbook, and her shirt and bra were pulled up. So her, her breasts were exposed. Now, the detectives got instinct was that this woman had drowned, perhaps hit her head, maybe slipped.

• 14:23Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 14:24Payton Moreland?

  But nearby, there were other clues that suggested maybe there was more to the story. So as they scanned the path from the street to her body, they found things like a gold necklace, a can of mace.

• 14:38Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 14:38Payton Moreland?

  A hair clip and a single shoe along the path. I mean, this is kind of some random discarded things. The can of mace alone was enough to signal the victim might have been running from an attacker. She loses a shoe, jewelry. A police sergeant also noticed some bloodstains on the rocks along the seawall with some tiny red spots leading down to the water, indicating that before this victim had even made it to the water, they were probably injured and bleeding on their way there.

• 15:11Garrett Moreland?

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• 15:33Payton Moreland?

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• 16:05Garrett Moreland?

  And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit betterhelp.com/husband to explore your payment options. That's better help, H E L P dot com slash husband.

• 16:27Payton Moreland?

  This message is sponsored by Greenlight. You know, there were many times growing up in school where I was like, when am I ever going to use this? And let me be real honest with you, a lot of those things have turned out to be true. But you know what I wish they would have taught in school? Financial literacy. So Greenlight takes the mental load of family life and kind of puts it all into one place. It keeps your whole family in sync, money, safety and everyday life, all in one place. When you're using it, you can see what your kids are spending, right when they spend it. You can also easily send them money via Greenlight instead of like digging around for cash.

• 17:11Payton Moreland?

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• 17:55Payton Moreland?

  Now, at that point, the police were worried that identifying the victim might be difficult considering there was no missing persons reported in the area. But then 10 a.m. rolls around and Mr. And Mrs. McMillan go down to the station and say, "Hey, our adult daughter Lois didn't make it out."

• 18:14Garrett Moreland?

  I just, I just can't. Like, that would just be so sad. And then it happens in a lot of our cases, but.

• 18:20Payton Moreland?

  And.

• 18:21Garrett Moreland?

  How do you, how do you receive that information? Like, how do you take that in when someone, when the police, I mean, even if you're like in the armed services, anything, right? When they have to tell you, "Hey, like, your loved one is dead."

• 18:37Payton Moreland?

  Well, and I mean, the thing, whoever they talked to, whether it was the front desk person first or whoever, and they, "Hey, we need to report our daughter missing," right? Before they've even got into the report.

• 18:46Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 18:48Payton Moreland?

  Everyone in that small local police station knows there was a body found that morning.

• 18:52Garrett Moreland?

  For sure.

• 18:52Payton Moreland?

  You know what I mean? So, because that doesn't happen that often here. Now, there's a girl missing. Everyone's immediately connecting the dots, and these parents have no idea, which is just.

• 19:01Garrett Moreland?

  It's sad.

• 19:02Payton Moreland?

  It is so devastating. So, they are like, "Hey, she didn't make it home from a night out." At first, they suspected that Lois had gotten into a car accident the night before. I mean, the roads along Tortola were pretty dangerous, winding, not well lit. Many of them didn't even have guardrails to prevent a car from veering off a cliff into the water below. I mean, it's an island.

• 19:26Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 19:27Payton Moreland?

  And foul play was probably the last thing on the McMillan's mind since violent crime is basically unheard of, and they know a lot of people around the area. However, once the McMillan stepped foot into that police station looking for Lois, the officers put two and two together. Thirty-four-year-old, missing Lois McMillan was their victim. By that afternoon, with the McMillan's help, police also located Lois's car. But when they find it, it is in perfect condition. There's no signs of an accident or anything of that sort. It was actually discovered less than a mile away from her body, just parked at a ferry dock.

• 20:07Payton Moreland?

  Now, inside, they discover a single gold earring and a brass-colored heart pendant that actually matched the necklace they had found earlier near her body, which basically just confirms the necklace had fallen off. Police also noticed the floor on the driver's side of the vehicle was wet and sandy. Not that rare for an island, but.

• 20:33Payton Moreland?

  It's

• 20:34Garrett Moreland?

  Something, I don't know.

• 20:35Payton Moreland?

  I mean, it's the driver's side is wet and sandy, so that means that maybe she was wet and sandy. So detectives tried to gather some fingerprints from the vehicle, thinking, okay, maybe it wasn't her who was wet and got in here. Maybe someone chased her down and then got in her car and parked it here. But there were barely any fingerprints, not on the steering wheel, gear shift, door handles, which means someone had likely wiped the vehicle down. So it was most likely parked here, which does answer a question for them, but doesn't really get them any closer to finding out who. The only thing of note was a shoe print found on the rear door panel of the car.

• 21:16Payton Moreland?

  So the next step for detectives is to try to retrace Lois's steps from the night before. Her parents tell police, you know, we had dinner with her at our beach house after a long day of shopping. They say Lois seemed to be in good spirits. She was excited about going to the bar at the Jolly Roger Inn to listen to some music. She had put on a new outfit she had bought with her mother shopping that day and then left around 9:00 PM. The officers check and a bartender said Lois did come in by herself that night and ordered a drink. But some witnesses saw her talking to an unidentified man at the bar. And another witness claimed they saw Lois leave the bar around 10:30 PM.

• 22:01Payton Moreland?

  They say she got into her car and she did drive off alone and they didn't see anyone follow her. Now, after that, no one admitted to seeing or speaking to Lois again, until the following morning, when her body was discovered on those rocks along the surf. Now, news of this is gonna spread fast, so a lot of the McMillan's friends and neighbors reach out to express how sorry they are for their loss. But there's one group that hasn't reached out to Lois's mother, Josephine, that she finds really strange.

• 22:34Payton Moreland?

  Michael Spicer and his friends. She knows that these two know each other. They were, you know, friends on this island and she knows they were just hanging out together the night before. So why wouldn't he at least be especially upset over Lois's death? And then you also have Alex, her old summer fling. Why wouldn't he be upset? Why wouldn't he have reached out? In fact, she thinks it's suspicious. And so she has no problem telling police. A lot of people have reached out. I know she hung out with this group of boys the night before. And this is suspicious because they have not said anything to me. And these two were pretty good friends.

• 23:16Payton Moreland?

  So police waste no time racing up to the Spicer home to talk to the four guys.

• 23:22Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, because here's the, here is the thing. You're in a small town or on an island. There's not many suspects.

• 23:28Payton Moreland?

  And there's even less snowbirds who know each other.

• 23:31Garrett Moreland?

  There's only a handful of suspects. This could be like, I'm hoping it's open and shut. I'm hoping they find out who it is. If there's lack of evidence, it's going to be hard, but there can't be that many people.

• 23:43Payton Moreland?

  So they get to the Spicer home and they actually find the boys sleeping off a hangover from the night before, which could explain why they hadn't reached out because they weren't even up for the day and had heard the news. So police break the news to Michael Spicer on why they're there and he does come off totally blindsided. Like the news of Lois's death was shocking. It wasn't even really reaching them. Now, when detectives asked Michael when he last saw Lois, he says it was Thursday around 11:00 PM. She dropped off Michael and his friend Evan before heading home. But as they start questioning Michael, one of the detectives notices something.

• 24:26Payton Moreland?

  There is a few pairs of wet sandy sneakers lined up near the pool area of the home. Obviously, they're in a beach town, so this might not seem that weird, but police do have to make the connection that there was wet sandy spots in Lois's car and they do believe whoever had done this moved the car. I mean, this really does seem to set off alarm bells for detectives, but it doesn't seem that out of place for me. Eventually, the other guys start to come out of the house to speak with police, each appearing just as shocked as the last, to find out why the police were there, to find out the news about Lois, the girl they had just gone to dinner with. So the detectives start asking them some questions, including what clothes they were

• 25:11Payton Moreland?

  wearing last night. Now, the four guys go inside, they grab the items of clothing and happily hand them over to police. But there's one thing on Michael Spicer's shirt that immediately does look worrisome to them. It's a small red stain about the size of a quarter just above the breast pocket.

• 25:28Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, I get it, it makes sense, but I don't think walking around, I would ever think of that. Like, if I saw a stain on someone's shirt.

• 25:34Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, but if you're a cop.

• 25:36Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, if you're a cop, sure.

• 25:38Payton Moreland?

  Investigating homicide?

• 25:39Garrett Moreland?

  Mm-hmm. Or it's spaghetti.

• 25:41Payton Moreland?

  Okay.

• 25:42Garrett Moreland?

  You know what I'm saying? Not, I'm just-

• 25:44Payton Moreland?

  I mean, if it was you, probably you do love to spill spaghetti.

• 25:46Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, all the time, I'm a major spaghetti spiller.

• 25:48Payton Moreland?

  So, of course, they're like, "Thank you, thank you for this clothing. Uh, Michael, you just handed us clothing with a red stain on it. What is this?" He tells the police, "Um, I don't know what that is, but you're more than likely to take it and figure it out."

• 26:05Garrett Moreland?

  Hmm.

• 26:06Payton Moreland?

  So, police are like, it feels like he has nothing to hide. In fact, all of the boys deny having anything to do with Lois's death. Still, the police are thinking these four guys are their best lead at the moment. So, they tell them they'll come back later that day with an official search warrant, and they do. And keep in mind, her mom has said this is suspicious. She was with these four boys two nights earlier. So, I mean, police are working on a hunch, but from the outside looking in, it seems abrupt.

• 26:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, it doesn't seem like there's anything. This is, it's hard.

• 26:41Payton Moreland?

  But as they're searching the house and collecting potential evidence, police notice that Alex, the one who used to date Lois, is acting a bit strange as police are there. He blocks the door to the room he's staying in and sort of goes on about, "I don't want you going in here, this is an infringement of my rights, didn't do anything wrong." Michael, who is also there, says, this is actually typical Alex. He's the kind of guy who is not gonna let cops search his room just because it is an infringement of his rights and he he's gonna be honest about it. I mean, he

• 27:19Garrett Moreland?

  They have a search warrant.

• 27:20Payton Moreland?

  He's also a lawyer.

• 27:22Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay.

• 27:22Payton Moreland?

  I mean, he's in his 30s. He's a lawyer. So even if he has nothing to hide, there is something about like sticking it to the man.

• 27:30Garrett Moreland?

  For sure.

• 27:31Payton Moreland?

  And and Michael, his friend is like, yeah, this is totally something he would do. He's the guy and a guy would make a scene. But the police find it suspicious. Now, eventually, they move past him. They collect a bunch of items from the room he's staying in pillows, bedding, clothing. By the end of the search, they've taken more than 85 items from the beach house, including fingernail clippings and tampons that they found in a waste basket inside Alex's bathroom.

• 27:57Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 27:57Payton Moreland?

  Which obviously the police find particularly strange because the men had told them Lois was never inside the house the night they hung out. But police also know she was on her period when she died.

• 28:11Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, that's actually really interesting. Okay.

• 28:14Payton Moreland?

  And she did have the exact brand of tampons they found in Alex's wastebasket in his bathroom inside her purse that they found.

• 28:24Garrett Moreland?

  So they're gonna test them for DNA, see if they match.

• 28:27Payton Moreland?

  I mean, almost, most girls do get a period. So if he had any other girl, but it is weird, I will say.

• 28:32Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 28:33Payton Moreland?

  So by later that afternoon, all four men are being called down to the station to give more formal statements to the police. And all of the men give the same story they initially did. They say they saw Lois the night before she was last seen on January 13th, but not the final night of her life, January 14th. They said the night she did die, they had dinner at the Spicer's home and then went out around 11:00 PM to a club called Keto's. But William Labrador actually did stay home that night. He said he was tired since they were up at 7:30 that morning hiking. Now, while the other guys were out partying till 3:00 AM, which other witnesses at the club do confirm.

• 29:14Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:14Payton Moreland?

  William was home at the Spicer's home. He just watched some TV and then went to bed around 12:15 AM. But there was one thing that raised red flags for detectives. William Labrador did have a small cut on his nose. He said, oh, I got it earlier in the day hiking. And apparently Alex also had a few scratches on him, which he said, no, that was from the hike as well. But there was something else the police found suspicious. All of the men had recently cut their fingernails, like very short, to the point where it was hard for detectives to cut them again for samples.

• 29:52Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, I'd be screwed. I bought my nails every single day.

• 29:56Payton Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:58Payton Moreland?

  They figure

• 29:59Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 29:59Payton Moreland?

  between the lack of reaching out to Lois's family, which the boys claimed they were asleep, the wet sandy shoes at a beach house, the stained shirt, Alex's reaction when they searched his room, the tampon, the cuts and the scratches on two of the men, the cut fingernails. They believe someone here is guilty.

• 30:23Garrett Moreland?

  This is hard because this is very circumstantial.

• 30:26Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 30:27Garrett Moreland?

  Like from the outside looking in right now, extremely difficult. Like, I don't think you, there's no way this gets passenger-y like this. It's all circumstantial. It's all kind of random stuff too. Like, oh, these guys cut their nails short. Okay.

• 30:43Payton Moreland?

  It feels definitely like-

• 30:44Garrett Moreland?

  There's wet shoes. Hey, you're by a beach house.

• 30:46Payton Moreland?

  A lot of coincidences, but also-

• 30:49Garrett Moreland?

  Not saying they didn't do it because I don't know what's gonna happen yet in the case, but difficult.

• 30:54Payton Moreland?

  On the flip side, the mom's gut thought it was suspicious. She was just with these boys. She had dated one of them. So there's an ex-boyfriend.

• 31:03Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 31:04Payton Moreland?

  They do find a tampon in the bathroom of that ex-boyfriend's bathroom. The same tampon she was wearing. So there are like, you understand why they're suspicious, but it doesn't feel like enough to arrest them. Now, despite that, that day, January 15th, this is literally the next day. They arrest all four of them on suspicion of murder. Now-

• 31:28Garrett Moreland?

  Hoping they have something.

• 31:29Payton Moreland?

  Keep in mind, we're in the British Virgin Islands.

• 31:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 31:32Payton Moreland?

  They can hold people for days or weeks without officially charging them with a crime, which is why they probably just make the arrest. I'm sure America would do that too, if you weren't on a time crunch. So that is basically what ends up happening here. Now, after confiscating the men's wallets, they find something interesting in Alex's. It is an ATM receipt from that night. Money was taken out around 11:15 PM in an area super close to where Lois was last seen by the Jolly Roger Inn. But the three men who went out never even mentioned to police that they were in that part of town that night,

• 32:14Payton Moreland?

  which only bolsters their case against them further. So by January 19th, all four men are officially charged with murder. But their families and many locals alike say, these boys didn't do this. Like, these four snowbirds did not do this. They are four professionals with careers. They have no history of violence. They come from good families who have lived here like they haven't established life here. There was no motive for all four of them to want to kill or harm Lois.

• 32:49Garrett Moreland?

  Which is interesting that I feel like this happens a lot. People say, there's no way this person could have done this. It happens like every single case we have, unless it's a serial killer. And it just comes down to, you don't really know somebody.

• 33:01Payton Moreland?

  You don't.

• 33:02Garrett Moreland?

  You just don't really know.

• 33:03Payton Moreland?

  We understand gang mentality, but also, like, all four men agreeing to murder does seem odd.

• 33:10Garrett Moreland?

  For sure.

• 33:11Payton Moreland?

  But maybe one, I mean, there's so many.

• 33:13Garrett Moreland?

  You just never know, yeah.

• 33:15Payton Moreland?

  So a lot of people are like, this just doesn't make sense. And it starts to spread around. Some locals believe that because Lois's car was found by the docks, that the person who drove it there probably drove it there, got out and hopped on the first ferry out of town that morning, which. Does make sense because that's how you get off the island. The car that they believe was driven by a suspect is found at the ferry dock that you used to leave the island. So they're like whoever did this obviously parked the car and left. It's not these boys who were asleep.

• 33:51Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 33:52Payton Moreland?

  The locals are like this person was long gone by the time police were looking for suspects. They think it seems more likely that A, the local police aren't used to dealing with a homicide case like this and B, they want to wrap it up quickly and place blame on someone so it doesn't affect their tourism, which is a major source of income for the island. They can't have this unsolved murder on the island. So regardless, a preliminary hearings scheduled for the four men in March of 2000, but that gets pushed to July as the prosecution waits for DNA results to come back.

• 34:26Garrett Moreland?

  So are they just sitting in prison this entire time?

• 34:28Payton Moreland?

  Yep. I mean, you're not, you're in the British Virgin Islands.

• 34:31Garrett Moreland?

  That sucks.

• 34:32Payton Moreland?

  And when it does.

• 34:33Garrett Moreland?

  It sucks if they didn't do it.

• 34:35Payton Moreland?

  The DNA is not exactly a smoking gun. The stain on Michael's shirt did test positive for blood.

• 34:42Garrett Moreland?

  For spaghetti?

• 34:43Payton Moreland?

  It didn't belong to any of the guys. Now, the results show it could have come from Lois, but it also could have come from tens of thousands of other people. I mean, it wasn't like a solid hit. What few prints they were able to find on the vehicle were also not a match to any of the four suspects. And when those wet sandy shoes were tested, only 15% of the sand on them matched the sand found where Lois's body was discovered.

• 35:12Garrett Moreland?

  Wow.

• 35:13Payton Moreland?

  They were obviously worn in other beach areas. And that shoe print that was found in the back of Lois's car wasn't a match either. In fact, 90 items in total were tested from clothes to shoes to hair samples found in Lois's vehicle. And all of it told the same story. None of it connected to any of these four men. So the case is purely circumstantial. That was until a man named Jeffrey Plant came into the picture.

• 35:46Payton Moreland?

  Jeffrey Plant was a businessman from Texas who had been caught trying to pass bad checks. He happened to be in jail awaiting trial at the same time as the other defendants. And he told police and prosecutors he had seen and heard some stuff from the suspects that might be of interest to their murder case. Apparently Jeffrey had witnessed Alex and William argue on more than one occasion in jail. And at one point, he claimed Alex pointed the finger at William accusing him of being guilty. Jeffrey also claimed that William asked him once if he thought God would forgive him if he had had something to do with Lois's murder.

• 36:26Garrett Moreland?

  How do you trust this?

• 36:27Payton Moreland?

  I don't know.

• 36:28Garrett Moreland?

  And how do you, how do you trust that this is even true information?

• 36:31Payton Moreland?

  Jeffrey said during this conversation with William, he was like, well, were you involved? And William told him, yes. Apparently, William confessed to Jeffrey that on the evening of Lois's death, he was in her car. They got into an argument over money she owed him. She tried to pull into the police station, but he chased her down to the water and drowned her by putting his foot on the back of her neck. And so in his story, the other guys weren't there because they were out partying. Remember?

• 37:00Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 37:01Payton Moreland?

  He was the only one who was supposedly home alone, watching TV.

• 37:04Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 37:05Payton Moreland?

  Now, when the prosecutors hear this, they find the statement interesting because Lois did die by drowning, not by any other manner like strangulation. And that was something that wasn't exactly public knowledge at this point, but she was found in water. So it's not that big of a jump to think that she drowned. William tells his lawyer, this is complete nonsense. He never said anything like this to Jeffrey in prison. In fact, Jeffrey had a history of being a prison snitch because he did the exact same thing when he was in jail back in 1995. He lied about another inmate to try and lessen his own sentence.

• 37:44Garrett Moreland?

  We talked about this, I think, last podcast, last episode. You can't, trusting an informant seems extremely difficult.

• 37:52Payton Moreland?

  Especially one who has a history of lying, like knowingly lying.

• 37:55Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, get out of here. Nah.

• 37:57Payton Moreland?

  But the prosecution uses it to bolster their case. And in the spring of 2001, all four men are in the courtroom being tried together. And I just say you are innocent. Say you are innocent. You go out with this girl. You're just on vacation with your friends and police show up, wake you up out of sleep. Tell you this girl died and the next day you're arrested. You've been in jail since and now you're at trial.

• 38:25Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 38:25Payton Moreland?

  Like that's low key wild if you're a hundred percent guilty.

• 38:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I don't know what to expect. I don't know how this is going to go. Also, it's kind of a, an example of last time we're talking about criminal defense attorneys, how now prosecutor prosecutors will take stuff and run with it. Interesting.

• 38:43Payton Moreland?

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• 40:11Payton Moreland?

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• 40:54Payton Moreland?

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• 41:36Payton Moreland?

  So there is basically a month's worth of testimony that the judge hears against all four men. And after a month, he decides there simply isn't enough evidence to uphold the charges against Michael Spicer, Evan George, or Alex Benedetto. All three of them are acquitted immediately and free. The judge is like, you have no evidence on these three men. And that probably would have been the case for William as well, except for Jeffrey, the jailhouse snitch.

• 42:10Garrett Moreland?

  I, this is wild. If he goes to prison, I mean, I don't know who did this, but. I don't think you can put someone in prison for life if he gets this based off of an informant that was a liar previously. That's not fair.

• 42:25Payton Moreland?

  Okay, and say William's innocent. He decided to stay home because he was tired and not go out with his friends.

• 42:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, yes.

• 42:32Payton Moreland?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 42:33Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 42:34Payton Moreland?

  But maybe he's not. So unfortunately for William, the trial continues. So they paint a very similar picture that after a heated argument, William was actually with Lois that night. And he chased her down to the water and drowned her. So with hardly any concrete evidence, the jury's decision comes down to one thing. Remember, there is no

• 42:59Garrett Moreland?

  There's no evidence.

• 43:00Payton Moreland?

  DNA.

• 43:00Garrett Moreland?

  No.

• 43:00Payton Moreland?

  There's no nothing. I mean, the tampon in Alex's room now has nothing to do with this because they're saying it was William, who just wasn't with his friends that night. The jury has to decide, do they find Jeffrey Plant a reliable witness or not? That's all this case basically boils down to. William's lawyer tells the jury about Jeffrey's past, how he had been married 10 times. He was a proven con man. He was currently in prison for grand larceny. What wasn't mentioned in the courtroom was how after Jeffrey had told police about William's confession, he was released from jail, his charges were dropped, and he was put up in a seafront villa with a nice little stipend from the government waiting to testify.

• 43:45Garrett Moreland?

  This is nuts.

• 43:46Payton Moreland?

  I will say six months later, he was back in jail, this time in Texas with 34 new counts of fraud and theft. Still, Jeffrey's story is enough to send jurors away for seven and a half hours of deliberation. I mean, this is all they've got.

• 44:03Garrett Moreland?

  Come on, we've got to have smarter jurors.

• 44:07Payton Moreland?

  Despite his inconsistent account on the stand, the jury sides with him. They find 37-year-old William Labrador guilty of murder.

• 44:17Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap.

• 44:19Payton Moreland?

  And in the British Virgin Islands, that means an automatic sentence of life behind bars.

• 44:26Garrett Moreland?

  Nah, there's no way. He doesn't stop here.

• 44:28Payton Moreland?

  The story does not end here.

• 44:30Garrett Moreland?

  There's no way. There's no way.

• 44:32Payton Moreland?

  William obviously continues to maintain his innocence, filing appeal after appeal. I mean, even if he's guilty, this trial was not enough to put him away. So finally, on April 7th, 2003, the British Court overturns William's conviction due to what they call judicial errors. They point to the fact that the prosecution's key witness was a proven, quote, habitual liar.

• 44:55Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's, it's ridiculous.

• 44:57Payton Moreland?

  And they were like, you, the prosecution made some improper comments during the trial.

• 45:01Garrett Moreland?

  Hundred percent.

• 45:02Payton Moreland?

  Their ruling also comes with another win for William Labrador. It bars a retrial, which means after nearly three years behind bars in the British Virgin Islands for murder? He's finally allowed to return to the States, get back to his life without fear of being retried. Now, one of the first things he does before getting on the plane to go home is actually take a swim in the ocean. Keep in mind, he, his parents didn't even have this place. He was here with friends, was in jail for three years, gets out and is like, well, now I have to go home? Somewhere I haven't been in three years? He tells Good Morning America, quote, "That's when I finally felt my freedom,

• 45:45Payton Moreland?

  being able to do that without someone turning a key on me." Unfortunately for the McMillan family, this means justice hasn't really been served because in the eye of the law, no one, no one has been charged officially now with her murder. And there are still plenty of theories about who might actually be responsible for Lois's death because she, she was murdered. One of the names thrown around was Lois's former boyfriend at the time Luigi Lungarini. Luigi was an architect who was pretty well known on the island. Apparently, the two began dating in the spring of 1998, two years before her death. They even were engaged at one point.

• 46:28Payton Moreland?

  But people who knew Lois and Luigi said the relationship was really toxic, hot and heavy one minute, and then they were screaming at each other in public the next. One source even claimed that after her parents told her to break things off with Luigi, Lois listened, but he continued to stalk her, refusing to accept things were over. Luigi also did have a history of domestic violence with his ex-wife and previous girlfriends, and Lois had tried to get a restraining order against him in the past. There were also sources who claimed she approached Luigi a few times since their breakup to ask him about a debt that he needed to repay her father. So we have someone in prison with no motive.

• 47:09Garrett Moreland?

  Why, yeah, why wasn't this guy?

• 47:10Payton Moreland?

  And we have an ex-boyfriend.

• 47:13Garrett Moreland?

  Who's abusive.

• 47:14Payton Moreland?

  Who has domestic violence, has a record, had motive, owed her money.

• 47:18Garrett Moreland?

  And he wasn't a witness, and he wasn't a suspect at all.

• 47:21Payton Moreland?

  Right. I do want to mention what is strange here is during the investigation, like Garrett said, police never took any DNA or fingerprints from Luigi. In fact, they never even reached out to him. They didn't even take a statement.

• 47:37Garrett Moreland?

  I wonder if this, I don't know, I mean, it could be multiple things. It could be lack of experience. It could be we're protecting their quote unquote own people that were part of the British Islands and not some Americans that are visiting. I mean, it could be so many different things, or I mean, or it could still be them. I don't know.

• 47:53Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I want to say.

• 47:54Garrett Moreland?

  I don't know.

• 47:55Payton Moreland?

  This is alleged. We're obviously discussing potential suspects at this point.

• 48:00Garrett Moreland?

  No idea.

• 48:00Payton Moreland?

  I'm not trying to drag Luigi's name through the mud because this is alleged, but we do also have to point out every suspect in a case that is unsolved.

• 48:09Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 48:10Payton Moreland?

  Police do answer for why they never reached out to him. They claimed they had evidence he was on his boat during the time of the murder and Lois's family didn't suspect him. It's pretty apparent they trusted.

• 48:23Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, I mean, if he had an alibi, then. Okay, I guess. I don't know.

• 48:28Payton Moreland?

  Now, there's a ton of other loose ends regarding Lois's case, like the fact that it was proven she had intercourse within 48 hours of her death, but she didn't appear to be sexually assaulted. And semen tests were not a match for any of the four men suspected of her murder.

• 48:44Garrett Moreland?

  There's just no way. I mean, I just, I don't think it's them, but I could be totally wrong.

• 48:50Payton Moreland?

  There was also some indication that she had fish bites on her body, which would suggest she drowned further out from the shoreline and then her body washed up in more shallow water. So maybe she was on a boat and then her body washed up. There was also never an ID made on the man that she was talking to at the Jolly Roger Inn. The night she died, remember she was talking to a man. But there is one terrifying truth in this case. What began as a dream getaway turned into a walking nightmare for a lot of people. And sometimes it doesn't matter how friendly an invitation seems, or how safe you think you are.

• 49:33Payton Moreland?

  One single night can change everything, whether victim or suspect. One wrong reaction, one sandy shoe, one drop of blood is all it takes to turn paradise into hell. And that is the murder of Lois McMillan and the attempted trials.

• 49:53Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy. So it's just never been solved or never know?

• 49:57Payton Moreland?

  Nope.

• 49:57Garrett Moreland?

  That sucks for her family. That's horrible. I mean, who else could it? I mean, if, here's the thing. There just isn't enough evidence for me to think it was them. I, there's no other suspects. Like, how does that happen? Just a cold case, gone, just nothing.

• 50:14Payton Moreland?

  And I will say, sometimes we see unsolved cases. That the investigation has been like pounded into the dirt, right? Like, they have attempted and attempted and attempted and they just don't know where to go. But there is so much investigation done. I do feel like this investigation was just handled improperly from the beginning.

• 50:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 50:35Payton Moreland?

  And got so skewed, whether it was the men or an ex-boyfriend or a random stranger, whoever it was, the investigation was just not done in a proper way.

• 50:46Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 50:47Payton Moreland?

  We have DNA, we have evidence, and it feels like we have nothing.

• 50:53Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 50:54Payton Moreland?

  All right, you guys, that was our episode this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 50:59Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 51:00Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

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