1 | The Facebook Message

A stranger reaches out to Lauren Malloy in the middle of a global pandemic with a message that changes everything: her mother didn’t die of natural causes. She was murdered. Lauren’s life is turned upside down and the search for the truth begins. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Lauren Malloy?

  Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of My Mom's Murder early and ad-free. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. This project contains conversations and information obtained over a number of years, and individual memories of events referenced and/or portrayed may differ. Any persons depicted in the project suspected of a crime are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

• 0:36Lauren Malloy?

  My name is Lauren Lee Malloy, and I grew up without my mom. For the first 27 years of my life, I was told that my mom, Lori Lee Malloy, died at age 30 from heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, to be exact. I was only 18 months old when my mother died.

• 0:58Lauren Malloy?

  I've lived in Rhode Island my entire life, mostly around the capital city of Providence. And though I've traveled outside the state, Rhode Island has just always been home. Rhode Island is tiny, and Providence is even smaller. It's a unique place where somebody always knows somebody who can help with whatever you need, and the phrase "how you doing?" is a standard greeting. We have good food and bad roads, and directions are given with long-gone landmarks mixed in. For example, you try that new taco spot? It's where the old Bennys used to be.

• 1:32Lauren Malloy?

  So aside from a few adventures in my younger years, like the time I spontaneously booked a solo trip to California without telling my family, or the time I helped move a friend and her two dogs from Texas back home to Rhode Island in a Chevy Tahoe driving continuously for 29 hours, or the time I went cliff jumping at 17 years old — still can't believe I did that one — I'm sort of a creature of habit. I used to work in finance and now work in communications for a large tech company. My life has pretty much always been about work, my family, and my friends. My day-to-day has just never been anything out of the ordinary.

• 2:11Lauren Malloy?

  Then, in June of 2020, a few months into the global pandemic that had us all in lockdown, something happened that changed my life forever.

• 2:26Lauren Malloy?

  I got this Facebook message from a woman asking me if I was the daughter of Lori Malloy, if I had an Aunt Alison from East Providence, Rhode Island. And I was like, "Sorry, but who are you? And like, what is this?"

• 2:40Lauren Malloy?

  She tells me her name is Louise and some info about my family that I don't understand how she knows. She keeps messaging me and tells me she and my mom were so close that she knows I'm named Lauren after my mom's favorite perfume. She even says I was almost named Louise after her.

• 2:59Lauren Malloy?

  She tries to call me on Facebook Messenger, but this is still all too strange, so I don't answer. Who is this woman? If she was my mom's best friend, why have I never met her, let alone heard of her?

• 3:16Lauren Malloy?

  But then, a couple of days after I received the message, I remember something. I have a photograph of my mom smiling and posing with another woman. They're standing side by side in someone's kitchen. My mom looks like she's in her early to mid-20s and is wearing a blue dress. The other woman is wearing a skirt and a white sweater with a heart on it. On the back, my mom had written, "Me and Louise on our way to a busy town."

• 3:44Lauren Malloy?

  I send the photo to Louise, and she confirms that it's her. "Yep, me and your mom on the way to New York City," she writes. Then she sends me a couple pictures she has of my mom, including one from her wedding day to her ex-husband. I mean, how would she have gotten that if she hadn't actually known my mother?

• 4:07Lauren Malloy?

  So I finally get Louise's phone number and agree to talk to her.

• 4:13Lauren Malloy?

  When I get on the phone with her, Louise tells me she was my mom's best friend from middle school. But the interesting part is what she says next. Louise tells me that my mom hadn't died from heart disease.

• 4:28Lauren Malloy?

  She'd been murdered.

• 4:35Speaker 01

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• 4:55Speaker 02

  I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we go inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, and the stunning mistrial that just reignited a national debate. Listen to Killer Psyche on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 5:21Lauren Malloy?

  Come out, come out, wherever you are. I'm fine.

• 5:37Lauren Malloy?

  Audible Originals presents My Mom's Murder, hosted by me, Lauren Lee Malloy. Episode 1, The Facebook Message.

• 5:48Lauren Malloy?

  Hey, guys. Today, I'm finally talking about my mom's murder cold case.

• 5:56Lauren Malloy?

  When Louise first called me, I had no way of knowing she was going to tell me my mom was murdered, so I didn't think to hit record on my phone. But I took notes on the call, and here's what Louise told me. Not only was my mom murdered, but her death was originally considered a homicide by the police. My mom was found naked and dead on the floor of our apartment in East Providence, Rhode Island, with her hair ripped out, the front door wide open, and the place a mess. There were also two drinking glasses on the table and bread scattered all over the floor. By the next call with Louise, I realize I need to start recording our conversations. Rhode Island only requires one-party consent to being taped, so I'm good to go.

• 6:42Lauren Malloy?

  You really think that that's what happened?

• 6:44Speaker 03

  I know that that's what happened.

• 6:46Lauren Malloy?

  That's her. That's Louise. How do you know, though?

• 6:51Speaker 03

  There was an East Providence detective. I ran into him. I said, "What happened to Lori, my friend?" And he said, "Louise," he was the responding detective up there. He goes, "Somebody was there with her. There was two wines or beers, whatever, on the kitchen table. There was drugs involved. I don't know if there was, you know, a residue of something, whatever. I don't know. We didn't go that deep." And he goes, "Lori was in the bathroom." I said, "She was through the bathroom." He goes, "Well, it looked like she was puking, and she just fell backwards."

• 7:29Lauren Malloy?

  My jaw is on the floor at this point. Not only had I always been told my mom died from a heart problem, but no one really answered my questions about it growing up. Louise not only knows details about my mom's life and death, but she knows about my life after I was adopted, too. She knows where I grew up and even where my adopted family hung out. At this point, I'm not sure what to make of any of this or if I even believe a word she's saying, but I'm completely freaked out.

• 8:04Lauren Malloy?

  The next day, I go to work out at the gym with my best friend, Ramona. There's always so much traffic here. I've only known Ramona since the end of 2015, but she feels like family, like a sister who's been there through the good and the bad. I download her on the weird call I'd had with Louise. Ramona listens to my story, then asks where my mom had grown up. When I tell her, she stops what she's doing because she realizes that my mom and her family lived on the exact same street. What did your family say when you were telling them about all of this? I'm so curious. Like, what was their reaction?

• 8:40Speaker 04

  I think my sister was the first one I called. And I said, "Hey, do you remember Lori? Lori Malloy?" She said, "Oh, my gosh, of course I do. She was my best friend." And I was like, "That's Lauren's mom." And she never put two and two together, and she kind of just paused.

• 8:59Lauren Malloy?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  Because it had been so long. You know what I mean? It'd been so long. And it was like, she was close to your mom, and then, right before your mom passed, she didn't hear anything

• 9:11Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 9:12Speaker 04

  from your mom. And then, years later, like, her daughter is basically in our family.

• 9:22Lauren Malloy?

  My mom died when I was 18 months old, so I only have snippets of memories of her.

• 9:33Lauren Malloy?

  What I remember most about my mom is her voice and how she felt. She used to sing to me all the time. She was warm and light, like sunshine, and her voice was the most comforting sound. All I knew with her was love.

• 9:53Lauren Malloy?

  My Aunt Alison, my mom's sister, always told me my mom's favorite perfume was different than what Louise said, Charlie Red. She even had my mom's original bottle when I was a little kid. I keep a bottle of it with my own collection and, every so often, take the cap off, close my eyes, and breathe in her scent. Floral, woody, and warm. In those moments, it feels like she's with me again. But I have to rely on the people who knew her to give me a better view of her life.

• 10:31Speaker 05

  Inside a dive bar kitchen in upstate New York, the owner cracks open a box and discovers her chicken order misdelivered. All she has to work with are wings. So with a little culinary genius and a dash of luck, the Buffalo Wing is born. Well, so the story goes. That game day staple has humble origins, but its popularity gave rise to two empires, Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop. Hey, I'm David Brown, the host of the podcast Business Wars. Every season, we bring you the true stories behind the companies that shape our world, their rivalries, their reinventions, and their spectacular rises and falls. Buffalo Wild Wings built a sports bar empire. Wingstop went the opposite direction, focusing on getting wings out the door. For years, Buffalo Wild Wings was the undisputed king. But when Americans started ordering in instead of going out,

• 11:16Speaker 05

  Wingstop was ready to tear down its rival. Make sure to follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 11:30Speaker 06

  Ghosts aren't real. At least, that's what journalist Tristan Redmond always believed. Sure, odd things happen in his childhood bedroom, but ultimately, he shrugged them off. Until he discovered that he wasn't alone, that everyone who lived thereafter him also had bizarre experiences they couldn't explain. And it gets even weirder. It just so happens that his wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Is this ghost somehow connected to her murder? He decides to go where no son-in-law should, digging up a cold case and asking questions that nobody wants answered. Like, could his wife's great-grandfather have gotten away with the perfect crime? This is a podcast about family secrets, overwhelming coincidence,

• 12:13Speaker 06

  and the things that come back to haunt us. For the best bingeable series like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can get all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 12:33Lauren Malloy?

  I just still think it's so cool that your mom and her mom both remembered my mom. That our families knew each other, like so random and like divine.

• 12:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, and that I literally grew up in the house that your mom was sitting in. You know, that your mom came to the house I grew up in.

• 12:53Lauren Malloy?

  I don't think people realize, like, I met you in, it was like Christmas of 2015?

• 12:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:59Lauren Malloy?

  2015. And like, at a random party, like, just, you know, did not know you, started a conversation, just happened to be sitting at the same table. And then fast forward, oh, gosh, okay, like, five, almost six years. And then it's like, hey, hey.

• 13:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:16Lauren Malloy?

  My mom lived on Wilmar Ave.

• 13:20Lauren Malloy?

  From everything I've learned over the years from people who knew her, my mom was popular with friends from different crowds, the type of person who could fit in with anyone. While her mom, Alice, worked, my mom was always over friends' houses, running around the neighborhood and having fun.

• 13:41Lauren Malloy?

  I love talking to people who knew my mom growing up. And now, finding out that my mom was friends with my best friend's older sister, Tammy, feels like fate.

• 13:52Lauren Malloy?

  So Tammy, how did you meet my mom? Do you remember?

• 13:56Speaker 02

  Yes, well, we were little kids on the same street and were outside playing hide and go seek, I believe it was, in the neighborhood with a bunch of kids. And we just moved there. And she and her sister Allison were welcoming me and my brothers into the neighborhood and wanted us to play with them. So we just hung around with them and just started playing with them. And she was close to my age. So, you know, we just started hanging out regularly.

• 14:36Lauren Malloy?

  That's cool. What was she like as a kid?

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Oh, my goodness, funny and mischievous.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  She was always trying to do something, always active, always, always active, trying to do things. Hanging out with all the boys. She loved the boys. Just wanted to be around all the boys all the time.

• 15:04Lauren Malloy?

  My grandfather used to tell me about a time when my mom defied her school's dress code in gym class by wearing the boys' uniform, which was much easier to move around in. When she was ordered to get changed, she instead ran to a nearby tree, climbed it, and refused to come down and comply. Grandpa was called to the principal's office over this incident and took his tomboy daughter's side. He always got a kick out of this and would laugh at the memory.

• 15:32Lauren Malloy?

  My mom valued the idea of freedom. In November 1973, when she was just 10 years old, she was one of several children interviewed by a reporter from our local paper, The Providence Journal. The kids were asked what they felt grateful for. While some said their clothes, music records, and nice homes, mom's response was different. Living in America, she said, "If this was one of those horrible countries where the government tells you what to do all the time, we'd only have one television station." And if you believe what Louise says, my mom even turned into an escape artist in her later teen years.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  Well, I gotta say, I gotta say, I've known your mother a long time, right? Every fucking time when she used to run away from her house, we were worried this weekend. I was at Louise's. I was at Louise's. I didn't, Mommy, I didn't care. Because I'm not getting in trouble, you know what I mean? You know? But I said to her, Mommy, why did you use my name? Then what if your grandmother hated me? She says, Well, you can't get in trouble. I said, Yeah. I said, Okay, tell my Louise's. Just tell them why didn't you call, check in. You know what I mean?

• 16:41Lauren Malloy?

  Right.

• 16:42Speaker 03

  And at the end of all that shit, your grandmother knows, because Louise, I know it wasn't, she wasn't with you. Thank you.

• 16:51Lauren Malloy?

  Louise talks more about my grandmother, a divorced mom raising two girls.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  Good people, honey. The mother was very, like, workaholic, very involved in work. Do you know what I mean? Trying to, and I can't understand that because she was alone. He probably wasn't giving her a dollar for child support. Look, Mommy, your mom, your auntie, your mother, and your grandma, they rented a whole house.

• 17:16Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  That was rare to do back then.

• 17:19Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  Everybody had a mortgage. Alice had to have the whole house. She rented the house.

• 17:25Lauren Malloy?

  Sounds like Alice.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  You know what I'm saying?

• 17:26Lauren Malloy?

  Alice was my mom's mother, my grandma.

• 17:30Speaker 03

  But now she has to pay you all this alone. Ed's not giving her a dollar.

• 17:34Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 17:35Speaker 03

  She knows, so that's that mistake. You gotta have children, you gotta put the time in. I mean, especially girls and any child, you know?

• 17:43Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 17:43Speaker 03

  Because these guys, they're the ones that's gonna take advantage. And, you know, we all turned 14, 15. We all, we all want a boy to say, "You're pretty." I mean, think, you know?

• 17:53Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  And she just rolled with it, don't she? Anyway. Oh, rest in peace, Louise. I love it, I miss it, like, you know, fucking, and I think about it all the time.

• 18:05Lauren Malloy?

  Woof, it is a lot. And I'm definitely spooked by these conversations with Louise. But they also make me more determined to find out what happened to my mom. So on August 16, 2020, less than a week after I first speak with Louise, Ramona goes with me to the East Providence Police Department.

• 18:26Speaker 04

  So that day, I remember you wanting to go by the police station to see if they had any information. And us going by, and that being, again, an odd encounter, because it was during COVID time. So we couldn't actually meet face-to-face with any detectives or officers. We had to go into the car, and an officer came out to their car, and we kind of just talked that way.

• 18:52Lauren Malloy?

  It was so weird.

• 18:53Speaker 04

  But then the weird thing that I remember was the officer talking casually and normally to us, looking up the information, and then pausing, looking at us. And then there was just this deep pause, saying that, basically, she couldn't talk about it. And that it was not closed, but like, not continued or something. There was something odd with the case. And I just kept thinking, why can't she just give us whatever information she's looking at? Because clearly, she's reading something. But that kind of opened up my eyes to that there's something more to the case that we don't know, that maybe the police do know, and that there is obviously a reason why they're not saying it.

• 19:38Speaker 04

  So that kind of just

• 19:39Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 19:40Speaker 04

  made it more urgent to figure out what's going on.

• 19:45Lauren Malloy?

  The police officer tells me that in order to get more information, I need to request records. But since it's an old case, they will be in the basement of City Hall and take some time to get.

• 19:57Lauren Malloy?

  Talking to the police almost raises more questions for me. But Ramona has an idea for what to do next. She asks if I've ever gone back to the last place I lived with my mom, the place where she died.

• 20:12Lauren Malloy?

  I hadn't. It had honestly never occurred to me. So that became our next stop. Okay, so we're about to make the left that turns onto where my mom's old house was.

• 20:24Speaker 04

  So it's surreal that that was your old house, because I've passed that house, growing up in East Providence, a million times. You know, we used to call it the ketchup and mustard house.

• 20:36Lauren Malloy?

  Yes.

• 20:37Speaker 04

  Like, that red and yellow house. We were there at that park every weekend.

• 20:41Lauren Malloy?

  So crazy.

• 20:42Speaker 04

  My brothers played football, and they played right there. So we were there all the time, not even knowing what went on in that house.

• 20:51Lauren Malloy?

  The house is right next to a playground. So I'm looking at this playground first.

• 20:55Speaker 04

  So then to be in the parking lot of that house with you in the car saying, "Okay, we're just gonna knock on the door." Okay, let's do it. And then having the owner's sister come out and being so willing just to talk and kind of going over what she remembers. And then, you know, it got weird from there because...

• 21:20Lauren Malloy?

  It was so weird.

• 21:24Lauren Malloy?

  My old house is on North Hall Street, exactly one mile from the police station and not too far from where I live now. When we arrive, it's just getting dark and I spot an older couple bringing their trashcans out to the curb. I remember that Louise had told me the landlords who owned the house when my mom died still lived there. She said she was friends with a guy in high school who was the son of my mom's landlord. When we lived on the third floor, they were below us on the second. So on a hunch, I decide to get out and show the couple a picture of my mom, asking if they happen to recognize her and if they know someone with the nickname that Louise gave me. The woman gasps and says, "That's my brother." Her brother showed up there so fast. Right.

• 22:08Lauren Malloy?

  It was like within minutes.

• 22:10Speaker 04

  Too fast, I think.

• 22:11Lauren Malloy?

  Too fast. Like, he was waiting for that. The brother arrives really quickly when called. It makes me wonder, who cares that much about the daughter of a random tenant who died almost 30 years ago? And who remembers a woman from a picture from that far back? We stand there talking with this man, his wife, and his sister. They tell us that they remember my mom as being quiet, but very nice. It almost seemed like the women were emotional. Right. That stood out to me because it was like, what happened here? The brother's responses are short and he looks flushed. It's not adding up to me.

• 22:52Lauren Malloy?

  Why is everyone else emotional and offering details, but he's quiet?

• 22:57Speaker 04

  So this is what caught my attention. The sister described the house as, you know, it's a tenement house. You can hear everything going up and down the stairs. You can hear whatever they're talking about on the second floor, you can hear it on the first floor. And I lived in those kinds of apartments, so I knew it was 100% true because I was literally hearing my neighbors and I thought. And then they were so detailed about bread on the floor and this water was running. This is what it looked like. And then when [BLEEP] started talking about, no, basically he doesn't remember anything and they couldn't hear anything. And I'm like, two seconds ago, they described that you could hear every sound.

• 23:36Lauren Malloy?

  Yes.

• 23:37Speaker 04

  And now you can't hear anything. And now you don't really remember anything. And you weren't that close to her, but right before you got here, they knew everyone who came in and out of that house. So the same family, husband and wife, different stories. And the women did seem more emotional, but they seemed like they liked your mom.

• 24:02Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah, I got that too.

• 24:04Speaker 04

  They were sad that she had passed. Where his reaction or behavior was more that he was hiding for some, something for some reason.

• 24:17Lauren Malloy?

  It was so weird.

• 24:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't know what reason or why he wouldn't just say what he knows because he was living there. So.

• 24:24Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  You know, but that was odd to me and it stuck out just, why would you react that way? Why all of a sudden did you, you weren't that close to her? You didn't really know her. You couldn't hear anything. You don't remember what the scene looks like.

• 24:37Lauren Malloy?

  It was so weird.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  But you all were there.

• 24:39Lauren Malloy?

  And I remember that too, when, I think it was his wife who was like, yeah, your grandmother used to come over all the time. Like she knew who my grandmother was. Your aunt used to come over and like your mom was a really quiet person though, didn't have a lot of people over. So it was like, she noticed the people going in and out. Right. So like, you didn't notice who was coming in and out? Like a woman's body falls on the floor and you're not hearing that? Like, that's weird to me.

• 25:05Speaker 04

  And I also noticed [BLEEP] wife after he said his piece about not really knowing anything or what's going on, her behavior changed a little bit where she kind of stepped back and didn't say too much after that. So that was just a big clue, like, we don't know what's going on, but something obviously went on for people to react that way.

• 25:28Lauren Malloy?

  It was so spooky. I just remember getting back in the car and being like, what is this? Like, what is going on?

• 25:43Speaker 02

  On January 24th, 2023, in Ducksbury, Massachusetts, Patrick Clancy called 911. He had found his wife Lindsay badly injured and his three children dead and dying. What followed would become one of the most searing and complicated cases in recent memory, raising hard questions about motherhood, mental illness, and how far our justice system will go to understand what really happened. I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psyche. In our latest episode, we take you inside the case of Lindsay Clancy, the postpartum psychosis defense, the courtroom battle, and the trial that just ended in a stunning mistrial.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  Follow Killer Psyche wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Killer Psyche one week early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 26:43Speaker 06

  Journalist Tristan Redman goes where no son-in-law should ever go. Deep into his wife's family history, digging up the cold case of who murdered her great-grandmother. Because, I should mention, he thinks the murderer might actually be the beloved family patriarch. For the best binge-watch series, like Ghost Story, listen to the Audible True Crime Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:06Lauren Malloy?

  Talking to the landlord's family at the house where my mom died, the story is lining up with a lot of details that Louise told me. The wife even says she's the one who let in the police that day. And the scene they describe inside the apartment is very similar to what Louise said, even down to the bread on the floor.

• 27:27Lauren Malloy?

  At this point, I call some family members and start asking questions. Most of them say they don't really know what happened, but thought it was an overdose. You'll hear a lot more about my family and childhood later, but to sum it up for now, after my mom died, her family fought for custody of me against my birth father, Thomas Kelly. I was eventually adopted by my mom's sister Allison and her then-boyfriend, Richard. From my biological father's side, I have four half-brothers with two other mothers. My older half-brother Tommy was 16 when my mom died, so he remembers her pretty well. And when I called to tell him about these crazy conversations with Louise, he drops a bombshell on me.

• 28:11Lauren Malloy?

  What did you think when I started asking you questions about how my mom died?

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Uh, well, I wanted to make sure you knew how your mom died. And because, because we all know there's two stories to the thing. One is she OD'd, which I 100% don't believe. But then there's the other side. And I was like, I made sure I was, I told you the truth. And everybody else was trying to cover it up and not make you, like, I don't even know how to say it. Like it's, they just covered everything up so you wouldn't wonder why or what happened or went back and looked at everything.

• 28:57Lauren Malloy?

  I am in complete shock. My whole family had basically been lying to me my entire life to protect me and to honor a promise to my biological father that they'd never talk about what really happened to my mom. I'd never even heard of this OD story before now. Things keep getting stranger and stranger. Then one adopted relative, who doesn't want to be named, says, "I guess I can't really keep you safe anymore. They asked me if I'm sure I want to look into this and warned me that it could be dangerous. But this is my mom. I need to know the truth about what happened to her." They begrudgingly understand and tell me to stay safe.

• 29:45Speaker 03

  If it was there, they didn't even close the door. They fucking dashed.

• 29:49Lauren Malloy?

  That's awful.

• 29:49Speaker 03

  [INAUDIBLE] doing whatever and just [INAUDIBLE].

• 29:53Lauren Malloy?

  I'm waiting for weeks and Louise is still calling and giving the same odd details about the scene of my mom's death. The front door open, bread around my mom's body, and clumps of hair everywhere. It makes me wonder if Louise's insistence that my mom was murdered could actually be true. I decide to tell her what the landlord's family in my mom's apartment said to see if she'll give me any new information.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  The ladies are saying [INAUDIBLE] was laying between the bathroom and the kitchen floor.

• 30:24Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah, that's what she said.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  I told you that, I told you that, I told you that. That's what my buddy, the detective, told me.

• 30:31Lauren Malloy?

  Louise has vindicated that the story matches up, but it's also extremely strange that she has this inside information of what the scene looked like when that was never released publicly, especially since she says she was in Florida when my mom died.

• 30:47Lauren Malloy?

  Then the conversation takes a weird turn.

• 30:50Speaker 03

  Before we go further.

• 30:51Lauren Malloy?

  Oh.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  Did, did **** or anybody in that house see any kind of a vehicle with New Hampshire plates?

• 31:04Lauren Malloy?

  No, they didn't.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  That would be my question.

• 31:05Lauren Malloy?

  No, they didn't mention any cars or anyone being there. They just said, um, the wellness check was done that day, and that was when everybody found her. So, no, they didn't mention that. Louise tells me about the last conversation she had with my mom. Okay.

• 31:23Speaker 03

  Everything your mom used to say was this. I have a friend named Peter. He's older. He's coming down from New Hampshire. I said, no, it made my person down to Hampshire.

• 31:35Speaker 03

  Hampshire. And she, because I know, you know how we, her and I stuck.

• 31:38Lauren Malloy?

  Right.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  And she told me, she told me, yes. She goes, Louise, he has a Swiss chalet up there. Gorgeous. She goes, he has a lot of money. He's coming down. Why don't you come over? He'll take us anywhere we want to go for dinner,

• 31:55Speaker 03

  cocktails, and he's bringing some shit. And then we'll party later at the apartment. Allison's got the cake. I said, no, I'm going to Florida.

• 32:04Lauren Malloy?

  Louise is placing a rich, secret boyfriend named Peter at my mom's place just before she died. Is Louise insinuating Peter was involved in my mom's death? But who is Peter? And why has she never gone to the police with this information? So we are officially recording. I decide to talk to Joe Broadmeadow, a retired captain from the East Providence Police Department. He was a lieutenant when my mom's body was found and sent the detectives to the scene. I want to ask what he thinks the likelihood is that Louise really learned this information from her cop buddy at a bar, as she claims.

• 32:45Speaker 02

  Whether it's true or not, I don't know. I, I would be shocked. You know, you gotta remember, you know, East Providence, not a big city.

• 32:56Lauren Malloy?

  Right.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  That's why they call it Towneys. You know, it's really a big town. And, um, you know, everybody knows everybody else. So, you know, these kind of incidents, I mean, she, you know, your mother was friendly with a lot of people in, in East Providence and Riverside. And, you know, the rumor mill would have been raging over what happened.

• 33:20Lauren Malloy?

  It's still unclear how Louise has these details, but at this point, I'm skeptical she heard about it from a cop friend. In spite of that, or maybe partially because of it, I want to keep talking to her.

• 33:34Lauren Malloy?

  But suddenly, after seemingly trying to pin my mom's murder directly on Peter, she changes her tune.

• 33:41Speaker 03

  Well, you know, um,

• 33:44Speaker 03

  what went down?

• 33:47Speaker 03

  What went down with her was an accident.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  And you can take that to the fucking bank. It was an accident.

• 33:54Lauren Malloy?

  Okay. So after two weeks of talking to Louise, where she starts off by telling me mom was murdered and this theory that it was a secret, rich boyfriend from out of state, she suddenly changes her story altogether and claims that my mom's death was an accident? Do you think it wasn't overdose with her? Or do you think it was something else?

• 34:14Speaker 03

  I think it was OD.

• 34:15Lauren Malloy?

  You do?

• 34:17Speaker 03

  Yeah. But by accident.

• 34:21Lauren Malloy?

  Well, but do you?

• 34:22Speaker 03

  Not, not where she's partying and I want to die. Nobody sits down with that, I want to die. That's just not how it works. I think, again, your mother's told me other times,

• 34:38Speaker 03

  her friend coming from New Hampshire has really good coke.

• 34:43Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  Her words, not mine.

• 34:49Lauren Malloy?

  Now Louise says that it was an accidental overdose, but on Peter's coke. I ask again how involved she thinks this Peter was.

• 34:59Lauren Malloy?

  And you think he would have just take? Well, of course, he would have just taken off like that. Because if he was caught there, that's.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  And he had the shit, yeah.

• 35:06Lauren Malloy?

  Wow. But he couldn't have just called 911 anonymously?

• 35:11Speaker 03

  My opinion, he didn't. He didn't. I, we, let's talk, but we know he didn't. He didn't.

• 35:18Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 35:19Speaker 03

  He didn't. Unless it shows you what kind of fucking human being he is.

• 35:22Lauren Malloy?

  And you never, you never, but she, so he never invited you to go with them any other times? You never got to see him at all or anything?

• 35:30Speaker 03

  No, I wouldn't. I, I wouldn't.

• 35:32Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah. Why?

• 35:34Speaker 03

  Last time she was, he was coming down. I was going to Florida with my children.

• 35:39Lauren Malloy?

  Louise keeps reminding me she was not there and not even in the state. She doesn't want me to forget that part.

• 35:47Lauren Malloy?

  But before we get off the phone, Louise tells me that she has homework for me, and it's not what I'm expecting. Louise wants me to take a DNA test to see if Peter is my biological father. But what she doesn't know is that I know definitively that my bio dad is Thomas Kelly, an ex-boyfriend of my mom's. I was always told Thomas was my biological dad, and I even look a little like him. But ancestry.com later confirmed that through a match with my paternal half-brothers.

• 36:18Speaker 03

  DNA test for you and whatever fucking brother Tommy had.

• 36:22Lauren Malloy?

  She's referring to my oldest half-brother Tommy here, who you heard from earlier in this episode.

• 36:27Speaker 03

  And he kissed. That's your first fucking step.

• 36:30Lauren Malloy?

  All right, I wrote it down. I circled it.

• 36:32Speaker 03

  Okay, because that's going to let, that's going to let Peter, Peter follow go out of your mind or bring him closer, bring him closer in.

• 36:40Lauren Malloy?

  Okay. I don't know exactly why Louise would want me to be Peter's daughter, but it seems like it might be connected to her repeated mentioning of how rich Peter was. So while I'm trying to uncover whether my mom was murdered, and if so, who did it? It seems like Louise is laser focused on ways for me to make a quick buck.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  Don't let anybody put up a fucking wall. You hear me?

• 37:06Lauren Malloy?

  But why the rush now? You know what I mean? Like, I.

• 37:09Speaker 03

  This is not, not for me, for you.

• 37:11Lauren Malloy?

  You, like, you think so? You think I'm going to get this kind of closure out of it?

• 37:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:18Speaker 03

  We don't know. We don't, we even lie.

• 37:20Lauren Malloy?

  You, but you think, like, after all these years, those answers can actually be found? You know what I mean? Like.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  How do you know if you don't try?

• 37:28Lauren Malloy?

  I agree to look into what's most important to Louise. But before I let her go, I have to ask her one more time about what's most important to me. But you think what happened with her was an accident?

• 37:44Speaker 03

  Yes, 100%.

• 37:46Lauren Malloy?

  Why 100%? When, like, there's so much mystery to it. You know what I mean?

• 37:52Speaker 03

  Well, I do, but you know what? Get the fucking DNA test done.

• 37:56Lauren Malloy?

  Yeah.

• 37:57Speaker 03

  Then you get rid of Peter. If you still want to know really what happened, get all them other things. If there's nothing, there's nothing. You, young lady, have to get off your pedestal. Come down and deal with the shit head on.

• 38:12Lauren Malloy?

  To be clear, I am definitely dealing with shit head on. But for me, that's my own investigation. Unfortunately, nothing is moving fast, and that's making me nuts. I went from being totally fine with my very predictable, routine life to running head on into chaos with so little control. Something just shifted when I got that Facebook message from Louise. Now I will do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this mystery.

• 38:41Lauren Malloy?

  Weeks after speaking to the cold case detective, she finally tells me she's had no luck getting my mom's records, so she's sending things back to the East Providence Police Department.

• 38:52Lauren Malloy?

  I call the East Providence Police myself and speak to a detective lieutenant. The lieutenant kindly agrees to look into the case, but he isn't too optimistic since it's a closed case. He tells me, quote, "It's going to take an act of God or Congress to get it reopened." But guess what? I don't plan to let either God or Congress stop me from getting to the bottom of what happened to my mom, Lori Lee Malloy.

• 39:32Lauren Malloy?

  This has been My Mom's Murder, an Audible original, produced by Audible and Ayr Media and hosted by me, Lauren Malloy. Executive produced by MGM Television and Toluca Pictures. Executive producer for Ayr Media, Eliza Rosen. Executive producer for Audible, Laura Regan-Klein Schmidt. Executive producer for Toluca Pictures, Stacy Levin. Executive producers, Lauren Malloy and Chloe Grace Moretz. Produced and written by Michelle Simon. Edited and mixed by Tristan Bankston. Coordinator for Ayr Media, Andy Levine. Audio engineering and mastering by Justin Longerbeam. Theme music by Jonathan Brooke.

• 40:16Lauren Malloy?

  Legal counsel for Ayr Media, Gianni Douglas. Head of creative development at Audible, Kate Navin. Chief content officer, Rachel Giatza. Copyright 2024 by Ayr Media. Sound recording copyright 2024 by Audible Originals LLC.

• 40:41Speaker 01

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• 41:27Speaker 01

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