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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and
violence, and is not intended for all

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audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
She's just trying to do her job.

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That makes sense. What doesn't make
sense is that attack on her. That

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attack and you decide your mind to
go with her under to such force and

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dinges that that much blood is produced. Hello and welcome. This is season

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ten, episode two hundred and fifty
three of Sword and Scale, a show

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that continues to reveal that the worst
possible monsters are real. If you still

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have not downloaded our app available on
iOS and Android, it's available, but

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we're working on a new one which
will be coming out really really soon.

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We got lots of stuff planned for
twenty twenty four. In fact, stay

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tuned. If you've ever accepted a
moderate or high paying job, then you've

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probably had people work for you or
under you. Well, it might not

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always feel like it. This can
be a really powerful position to be in

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to a boss or supervisor, having
employees is just part of the job,

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but to the employees themselves, the
supervisor is pretty much the gatekeeper of their

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livelihoods. An employee's necessities of life
are dependent on what their supervisor thinks of

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them and their work performance. In
many cases, the relationship between a boss

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and employee is at minimum tenable.
There is this baked in understanding that the

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boss gives an order or direction and
the employee follows that direction. There are,

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of course, many many exceptions to
this, but generally speaking, that

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is usually how it works, which
is kind of amazing when you think about

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it. Up until the moment of
becoming coworkers or colleagues or whatever you want

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to call them, a boss and
an employee are usually just strangers very well

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might have never associated with each other
had it not been for their chosen place

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of work. That is, they
may have personalities that clash and completely different

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perspectives on life. They may come
from completely different backgrounds, have different cultural

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ideals. They may even have completely
different opinions on how a particular job should

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be done, or if a particular
job should be done at all, And

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that is where things can go wrong
and the relationship can break down. This

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is when the employee's livelihood can be
put at risk. And when someone's livelihood

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comes under threat, well, there's
no telling how they might respond and what

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they might do. On the morning
of June fourteenth, twenty thirteen, a

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young man in Baltimore County, Maryland, finished making arrangements to have his car

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towed from his apartment complex. His
car had recently broken down and he needed

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a taken to a repair shop.
After the car was carted off, the

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young man returned to his apartment,
but he wasn't there for long before someone

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began banging on his front door.
Startled and confused, the man answered the

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door and saw the apartment complex's cleaning
lady. She was in tears, completely

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hysterical, and it looked like she
had just seen a ghost. Bottomer County

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nine one one. What is see
address of your emergency. I'm actually has

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two Augusta Ridge Road in versus Down, Maryland. I have a cleaning lady

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who cleans the rental office main office
in my door. I have not walked

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into the rental office, but she
said that the girl that's inside do you

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think that she does? Showing just
off the northern edge of Maryland City of

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Baltimore is the towns of Harvest View, a townhouse style apartment complex often referred

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to simply as Harvest View. This
complex is owned by its parent company,

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ba Zudo, and it offers potential
residents a fairly standard package when it comes

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to apartment living. Naturally, their
website adds a few bells and whistles to

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exaggerate what they provide. Spread Out
and relax and town home style comfort and

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our spacious two and three bedroom apartments. Experience the joy of gas cooking in

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an exceptionally appointed kitchen. You can
find room to breathe in open layouts,

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relax on your private balcony, and
cozy up by your living room fireplace,

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all in the same day. Ah. Yes, don't we all just love

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to experience the joy of gas cooking. Don't get me wrong. Harvest View

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seems like a perfectly fine place to
live, according to most of the online

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reviews. The apartments are clean,
there's lots of space, the grounds are

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well maintained, and management is typically
helpful and prompt when addressing any issues that

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the tenants may have. But on
June fourteenth, twenty thirteen, not all

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was well at Harvest View. A
crying and hysterical cleaning lady had alerted one

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of the tenants that she found something
horrible in the leasing office. According to

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the cleaning woman, a bloody body
was lying on the floor in the office

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and they appeared to have been shot. Was she knocked on your door to

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cleaning lady? She just knocked on
my door. She must have just gotten

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back in other places. Was just
saying in my door, and I'm like,

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who is this? You know?
So I Randolf stairs and she's there.

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She's crying, and I thought she
said this girls hurt or she got

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shot. I'm going to see this
clean lady. It's almost every day right,

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always here, right. I don't
know where the maintenance guy is.

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He's always here two and I don't
see him either. Oh my god,

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I can't believe this happened. Oh
my god. Okay, just stay on

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the line with me. I have
them on their way. Okay, okay,

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okay. As the nine one one
operator worked to get emergency services dispatched

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to the scene, she also attempted
to get as much information as possible.

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This wasn't exactly easy because the caller
hadn't actually been inside the leasing office and

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they hadn't witnessed anything. I have
not walked in. She has. She

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cleaned here the grounds, and she
had left and she'd come back, and

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she said that she walked in the
return the vacuum cleaner, and she said

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that the girls shot. I haven't
walked in. Okay, I understand.

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That is the female still standing there
with you, mister Lee. Okay,

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now ask her why does she say
that? What happened for her to say

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that? Let me ask her real
quick. Okay. The reason the caller

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didn't just hand the phone over to
the cleaning woman was because she was completely

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hysterical, and well she wasn't fluent
in English, if that's a surprise to

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you, So a kind of telephone
game had to be played. So she

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walked in the side and she's on
the ground, okay, Okay, the

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blood there, she's been her blood
everywhere, Okay, And she believes she's

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been shot. Is that correct?
Does she see anyone? Did you see

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anybody? Do you see anybody come
and go? The thing is I was

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just outside maybe twenty minutes ago,
which is strange. Anything you didn't hear

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anything? Well, I didn't hit
my paw code. I've been out here

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this whole time. Bizarrely, nobody
heard any gunshots, and neither the callar

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nor the cleaning lady saw anyone come
and go from the leasing office. If

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someone fired a gun, surely someone
would have heard it. Something wasn't making

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sense, asked her, and she
said it was blood everywhere. Okay,

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let me ask her. The blood
everywhere? There's blood everywhere, a lot

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of blood. Blood. There's something
in her back. Okay, So is

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she bleed? Is the bleeding serious? Is she bleeding a lot? She

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said, there's blood over the window
and everything. Okay, I'm not walking

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in there. Okay, that's fine. Ask the cleaning lady. Does she

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see anybody leaving somedayil or does she
know who's responsible for doing this? Did

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anybody leave? I mean I just
didn't. I was just outside. So

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ask her does she hear any gunshots
or anything? I don't think she was

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here? Okay, okay, okay, she said she was, okay,

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and then when I was crazed with
my car coast, she has just left.

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And then I guess she must have
come back just now. At this

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point, nobody knew who the supposed
victim was, but everyone that lived at

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Harvest View knew who worked in the
leasing office. There was really only one

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person that it could be about.
How old is this female? If the

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girl I know that work here,
I think she's probably about thirty, about

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thirty, okay, now ask her
is she awake? No, she says

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she she moving? Or no,
is she moving? No, she's just

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laying on the floor. Okay,
is she breathing? I don't know.

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Is she breathing? Breathing? Is
breathing? I still no, she's okay,

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okay, okay, yes, saying
that's fine. I don't know if

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you have any kind of cameras in
there. I hope they do. Yeah.

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Wow, Oh my god, Oh
my god, this is crazy.

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I know this girl too, because
she's the one we kind of us off

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for this place. The person in
the rental office. Yeah, her name's

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Melinda something. So that I can
see your car at here. Twenty nine

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year old Melinda Shaeffer was born in
August nineteen eighty three. She grew up

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and spent most of her life in
San Diego, California, but at some

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point in her mid twenties, Melinda
decided that she wanted to move to the

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East Coast. Melinda settled on moving
to the Baltimore, Maryland area because some

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of her extended family also lived there. Not long after Melinda made this move,

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she landed a job as the assistant
property manager at Harvestview. She also

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met and married her husband, Mike
Shaeffer, who was welcomed into Melinda's family

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with open arms. Michael Maltese says
his daughter grew up in California but wanted

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to live on the East Coast.
Her extended family is in Baltimore. Maltese

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says, Melinda just got married.
It's the best guy you could ever imagine.

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And uh and he just got married
a year ago. Around the time

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that she got married, Melinda was
also promoted from assistant property manager to property

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manager. This promotion came as no
surprise because Melinda was good at her job,

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like really good. Melinda oversaw every
aspect of the Harvest View property.

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This included maintenance, grounds, upkeep, dealing with tenant concerns, marketing,

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and more. She excelled on all
fronts. But that wasn't all. Melinda

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was working on having a private website
built just for her tenants and organizing gatherings

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and events so that the tenants could
meet each other. Melinda wanted Harvest View

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to be more than just the run
of the mill apartment complex. She wanted

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it to be a community. Unfortunately, she didn't have many hands to help

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her with much of anything. Aside
from the cleaning lady. The only other

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regular employee at Harvest View was the
maintenance supervisor. Anybody else that does that?

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No, she's me. Theres only
no other office worker. No,

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from what I understand. No,
okay, it'sn't even cleaning lady. She

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only come up three days weeks.
Clinton lady comes up three d the week.

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Did clean that place for a time. Melinda did have an assistant help

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her with daily office operations, but
that assistant had recently been fired for repeatedly

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coming into work late, among other
reasons. So Melinda was left on her

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own to run the leasing office,
which had an open door policy during normal

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working hours, anyone could walk in
for any reason at all that that rental

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office. Did she keep the door
locked or anything? Or is it always

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open so it potential customers can come
in? Yeah, always open, both

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doors open. Front end. Well, we'll keep the toddle lot top of

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stays locked. Yeah. Basically it's
just a school, okay. Yeah,

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so even like the residence, even
if they live on that side, they

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don't even come through there. No, Just like any apartment complex, Harvest

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View had its fair share of complainers
some tenants. No matter what anyone does

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for them will always find something to
moan about. They're similar to Sword and

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Scale listeners in that regard. But
even so, unlike me, Melinda was

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extremely well liked by all of her
tenants. She apparently had this way of

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talking with people that made them feel
like their concerns or issues were truly important

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and she wanted to help. Melinda
wasn't all talk either. She wasn't one

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of these fake fucks. She always
went out of her way to make sure

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the Harvest View residents were well taken
care of. Melinda was personable and friendly,

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and she genuinely cared about people.
According to the maintenance man, there

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wasn't anyone at Harvest View that would
have any reason to hurt her. Has

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she talked to you about? How
many problems with anybody? Do you know

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of any residents that are upset with
her? Would not would necessarily hurt even

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with the company. Nah, anybody
caused issues. I didn't know as got

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ahead them technics. We always got
complainers belt yeah, well blown two or

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or something yeah based somebody know what
I mean. But yeah, Nah,

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for the most part, everybody's cool. You know. She usually tell me

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stuff. On June fourteenth, twenty
thirteen, at about eleven am, police

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in Baltimore County arrived at the leasing
office where Melinda worked. When they walked

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inside, they found a chaotic and
bloody scene. When police arrived at the

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scene, we found evidence of an
extremely violent confrontation police a Shaeffer fought for

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her life. There was blood all
over the walls and blinds, The office

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was in shambles, furniture and files
everywhere, and detectives responding to a call

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from a cleaning lady found Shaeffer lying
face down in her own blood. The

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police found that Melinda's office was a
complete mess. Her desk was slid across

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the room, paper documents, and
broken office equipment were strewn all over the

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floor. The vertical window blinds were
lopsided, and an office chair was tipped

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over. Clearly a violent struggle had
taken place. The police also found that

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the office was a gory bloodbath.
There was blood spatter and blood smears everywhere,

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and the apparent source of blood was
the dead body lying face down on

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the floor. Twenty nine year old
property manager Melinda Schaeffer was found in responsive

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in a large pool of her own
blood. When medical responders arrived, they

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pronounced her dead on the scene.
Baltimore County homicide detectives were assigned to the

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case, and to them, it
was obvious that Melinda had been brutally murdered

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during a very violent attack. But
what they didn't immediately know was that this

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was going to be a very difficult
case to solve. Due to the communal

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nature of the crime scene and the
fact that many people would frequently walk in

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and out of the office. The
detectives weren't going to be able to rely

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on DNA or forensic evidence to solve
this. They are going to have to

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use old fashioned police work to find
out who murdered Melinda Shaeffer and why.

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On June fourteenth, twenty thirteen,
the dead body of twenty nine year old

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Melinda Shaeffer was found in the leasing
office of the Harvest View Apartments in Baltimore

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County, Maryland. Was the property
manager at Harvest View, and shortly after

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Melinda's body was found, a nine
to one one call was placed. The

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cleaning lady had told one of the
apartment residents that Melinda had been shot,

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but when police examined the scene,
they found that no shots had been fired.

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Well, you say, Melinda Schaeffer
was stabbed over and over again in

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the leasing office of the towns at
Harvest View Apartments in Westerstown. The twenty

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nine year old was the property manager. The leasing office was a wreck of

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the chairs, the desks were strewn
everywhere, and there was blood all over

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the walls and the blinds. The
cleaning woman was wrong. Melinda had not

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been shot. She had been stabbed
a total of seventy nine times in her

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upper body and her head. Her
murder was vicious and bloody. The killer

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00:19:57,839 --> 00:20:04,000
were killers had seemingly made a brief
attempt to clean up, as there were

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several areas in the office where blood
was smeared with some kind of rag or

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cloth. Melinda had clearly fought for
her life. The leasing office was a

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disaster, the documents and office equipment
all over the place. The office chair

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was turned over, the desk was
pushed to the other side of the room.

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The blood spattered window blinds were lopsided
and nearly torn off the window frame.

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Notably, nothing appeared to be stolen. Melinda had bank cards and a

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signed check still in her purse for
police. Whatever happened in the office that

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morning, it clearly wasn't a robbery. After Melinda was pronounced dead, her

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family was made aware of what happened. This included her father. What kills

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me the most is that my poor
daughter. We never hurt a person in

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her life, and to have something
as brutal and senseless as as to her

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drives me insane. Melinda's parents lived
in California, over three thousand miles from

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where Melinda was living in Baltimore County, Maryland. Even so, Melinda communicated

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with them almost daily. When Melinda's
dad was interviewed by the media, his

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reaction to his daughter's murder appeared to
be rage well. Milinda's mom responded with

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a broken heart and indiscernible sadness.
I'll never get over this never. It

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seems like it's getting her. It's
left me feeling still empty in my heart.

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Like I said, don't think I'll
ever get over this. As Melinda's

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family mourned, detectives at the Baltimore
County Police Department worked the case, but

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for several weeks appeared to be no
new developments at all. Baltimore County Police

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tal eleven News they are aggressively working
on the murder case of twenty nine year

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00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,799
old Melinda Shaeffer. She's the property
manager of the towns that Harvest the U

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00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,839
town Home Complex and Reisterstown, who
police said died from multiple stab wounds while

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she was working in the leasing office
two weeks to the day, and no

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word on who did this or why
as far as potential suspects were concerned.

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The detectives started where you might expect, with her husband, of course,

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according to the maintenance supervisor at Harvest
View, Melinda's husband, Mike Shaeffer,

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had visited Melinda at her office on
a few occasions before she was killed.

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Did she ever have personal visitors come
there? Did you know your ninety office

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all the time? Don't her husband
come to right? When Melinda's husband was

239
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:57,359
questioned by detectives, he was especially
cooperative and appeared willing to do anything,

240
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in everything he could to help the
police find out who had murdered his wife.

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He explained that the last time he
saw Melinda was on the morning of

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00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,400
the murder, just before they both
headed off to work, and his last

243
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:18,039
communication with her was a text message
Melinda had told him to have a good

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day. When detectives looked into Mike
Shaeffer's story, they found that he was

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00:23:22,799 --> 00:23:27,079
working around the time of the murder, and they couldn't make any timeline fit

246
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:33,440
that placed him at Melinda's office.
With the husband pretty much eliminated as a

247
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:40,319
potential suspect, the detectives turned their
attention toward the Harvest View tenants and Melinda's

248
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:45,960
co workers. Maybe someone at Harvest
View had an axe to grind. Maybe

249
00:23:45,039 --> 00:23:52,680
Melinda or the company she worked for
made someone very, very angry, unable

250
00:23:52,799 --> 00:23:59,400
to control their own emotions type angry. The process of looking into all of

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these people took a lot of time, which is why the case appeared to

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00:24:03,759 --> 00:24:10,480
drag still. The media and public
kept asking questions, and the police department

253
00:24:10,519 --> 00:24:15,880
assured them that they were working very
hard to deliver answers. Police say Melinda

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00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,039
was the only one working in the
leasing office at the time, and sources

255
00:24:19,079 --> 00:24:23,960
say this appears to be an isolated
incident and that Schaeffer was targeted. Our

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00:24:25,039 --> 00:24:30,720
detectives continue to work this case very
aggressively. They do have some leads that

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they've been pursuing over the past two
weeks. In researching Melinda's work life,

258
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detectives learned that Melinda had until very
recently been working alongside an assistant, but

259
00:24:42,279 --> 00:24:48,720
that assistant was let go just two
days before Melinda was murdered. Any ex

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employees, anybody got beat with her
early company, I mean the only of

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00:24:52,599 --> 00:24:59,039
the Cherchon never haven't worked over There
was nothing. She just got five okay.

262
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:03,599
Twenty year old Vanessa Coates worked in
the Harvest View leasing office for a

263
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:08,759
short time. She didn't so much
work with Melinda, as she filled in

264
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:15,480
for her when needed. Harvest View's
district management preferred to have the leasing office

265
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open and available to tenants and potential
residence as often as possible, so on

266
00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:26,039
weekends and whenever Melinda needed to be
out of the office, Vanessa filled in

267
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:33,240
for her. Unfortunately, Vanessa was
either unwilling or unable to live up to

268
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the requirements of the job. Frankly, she kind of sucked at being an

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00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:44,839
assistant property manager. At least that's
what Melinda seemed to think. She got

270
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some trouble foot being leads. Yeah, okay. Was there any bad blood

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there the company or Vessa and her? I think with Vanessa and her.

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She had told me a couple of
times about how she got right enough.

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00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:04,519
Melinda and Vanessa ended their work partnership
on bad terms. Perhaps this disgruntled ex

274
00:26:04,599 --> 00:26:11,960
employee was angry enough to attack and
murder Melinda. When detectives tracked Vanessa Coats

275
00:26:12,079 --> 00:26:18,920
down and questioned her, she admitted
that Melinda wasn't her favorite person. But

276
00:26:18,079 --> 00:26:22,000
Vanessa also explained that on the morning
of the murder, she was sleeping at

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00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:29,559
her boyfriend's house several towns away from
the Harvest View leasing office. Using Vanessa's

278
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,880
cell phone records, detectives were able
to confirm this, and, just like

279
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:41,400
Melissa's husband, Vanessa Coates was eliminated
as a suspect. As far as coworkers

280
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:48,319
went, there were really only two
other people left that could be considered potential

281
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:56,400
suspects. The cleaning lady that was
hysterically crying when she found Melinda's dead body

282
00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:02,200
or the maintenance super. How long
you've been employed by the end by the

283
00:27:02,279 --> 00:27:04,319
company there. I've been in Zuto
for about two years now, okay?

284
00:27:06,319 --> 00:27:10,519
Is that the only property that you
you worked at a run before I went

285
00:27:10,559 --> 00:27:14,880
to harves Okay, your maintenance super
bows with there? How many guys for

286
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,279
people are on me? Just you? Okay? And I assume you work

287
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:25,119
day work, Yeah, like eight
to four, eight to five, on

288
00:27:25,319 --> 00:27:32,799
friders. Okay. Twenty seven year
old Rashad Williams was hired to work at

289
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:37,680
Harvest View in twenty eleven, and
as the maintenance man, he worked closely

290
00:27:37,039 --> 00:27:44,119
with Melinda almost every day. What
is it about maintenance men and murder?

291
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,279
What do you call her? Melinda? Okay? Has she been there the

292
00:27:48,319 --> 00:27:49,920
whole time you've been there? Yeah? She was for me? Okay,

293
00:27:51,759 --> 00:27:56,720
she has for me that I'm sorry
jay is Yeah. Do you consider her

294
00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,759
a friend? Yeah? Wenda school, Yeah, I mean business at the

295
00:28:00,839 --> 00:28:03,920
end of the day, going out
and hanging out or no, but I

296
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:14,599
mean According to Rashaan, his relationship
with Melinda was all business and he had

297
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:19,720
nothing against her. To him,
she was just his boss and they would

298
00:28:19,799 --> 00:28:26,000
usually meet every weekday morning to discuss
anything that needed to get done. Come

299
00:28:26,079 --> 00:28:27,960
in around nine, going to office. We sit down. Good, who's

300
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,839
going on for the day? That's
what Melinda? Yeah, you always sit

301
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:37,559
down with her most of the time. We tried to Yeah did you do

302
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,640
that today? Yeah, we actually
did. We was talking about the touchho

303
00:28:41,759 --> 00:28:47,599
claim they needed to get done.
On the morning of the murder, Melinda

304
00:28:47,759 --> 00:28:52,559
was preparing for new tenants to move
into Harvest View and she tasked the cleaning

305
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,559
lady with some touch up cleaning that
needed to be done to their apartment.

306
00:28:56,599 --> 00:29:03,200
According to Rashaan, during this typical
morning meeting, Melinda talked about the new

307
00:29:03,279 --> 00:29:07,559
residents while Rashawn collected everything he needed
for the day's work. So after your

308
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,839
and you said, you pick up
your tickets and stuff too, right?

309
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:17,480
Yeah, tickets, keys in my
kneed. Let's get the work. So

310
00:29:17,599 --> 00:29:21,519
how long did that meeting take today? Twenty minutes? Give the tea.

311
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,359
Rashawn claimed that he left the leasing
office and delivered keys to the cleaning lady

312
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,960
so that she could get into the
apartment that needed some touch ups. He

313
00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:36,279
then returned to the leasing office to
get the company debit card. After you

314
00:29:36,319 --> 00:29:38,599
give her the key, and where
do you go from there? Back to

315
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:44,480
the office. My head to go
get some called batteries for the remotes.

316
00:29:45,359 --> 00:29:51,160
So I went to get the h
called Linda for that. What'd you get

317
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:57,880
at the office? Is the property
card? RD? How you go buy

318
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,559
the the for the Yeah? Some
of the garage remotes that Harvest View needed

319
00:30:03,599 --> 00:30:08,920
their batteries replaced. So Melinda gave
her Seawan the company debit card and tasked

320
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,240
him with going to the nearby dollar
store to buy some fresh batteries, which

321
00:30:14,599 --> 00:30:18,480
he did at the batteries, came
back. Did you return the double card

322
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:23,720
to her? Was anybody there with
her? No? By ourselves. You

323
00:30:23,759 --> 00:30:26,599
stick around and have more conversation with
her, do you want? Yeah,

324
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:32,039
a little conversation here, Nick,
because she uh, she had told me

325
00:30:32,079 --> 00:30:36,079
to fix the door closet door head
came off, so I put that and

326
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,960
fixed that real quick, and then
we talked about going to home Depot looking

327
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,640
to that lawn for the garage.
Rashaan explained that after he returned from the

328
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:52,119
dollar store, Melinda tasked him with
going to home Depot to get supplies for

329
00:30:52,279 --> 00:30:57,400
some other garage repairs that needed to
be done, and Rashaan left the office

330
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:03,480
again to do exactly that. But
when he returned from Home Depot, he

331
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,920
found a swarm of cops around the
leasing office, and for Sean's story was

332
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:12,839
accurate, it meant that he was
the last person to have seen Melinda alive.

333
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,279
After detectives spoke to Rashaan, they
began looking for ways to either verify

334
00:31:18,359 --> 00:31:25,279
his story or discredit it. After
a few days, they questioned him again.

335
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:27,839
You guys had a little discussion,
and then how do you get the

336
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,759
car from her? How's that worked? She gave it to me, all

337
00:31:30,799 --> 00:31:37,359
right, And then you walked there
too. That Soolo true batch your batteries

338
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:44,319
and when you came back out down, you just walked back to the office.

339
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,519
So while you while you're in there, he said, you fixed the

340
00:31:47,519 --> 00:31:49,920
door with the screwdriver, right,
yeah, okay, And then you guys

341
00:31:52,119 --> 00:31:55,480
have a little conversation. And the
conversations were about what you're going to do.

342
00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:00,680
Yeah, basically just small talk.
During this second interview, you Reshawn's

343
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:05,480
story was consistent with the first time
he told it, but now the detectives

344
00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:09,640
had new information that contradicted what he
was telling them. Where is anybody in

345
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:15,160
there besides you and her? No? Okay, so you're the last So

346
00:32:15,599 --> 00:32:19,519
what was the last time? So
you estimate maybe you saw her a while.

347
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:25,279
See, I don't know. Maybe
they're not there to give a teake

348
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:30,519
somewhere non thirty to give her safety, okay. On the morning of the

349
00:32:30,599 --> 00:32:36,119
murder, Melinda's last known contact with
anyone was at about eight fifty am,

350
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,319
when she sent an email to a
tenant. About an hour later, at

351
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:45,119
nine to fifty am, a different
tenant called the leasing office, but the

352
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,839
call went unanswered, as did all
the other calls made to the leasing office

353
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:54,480
after that one. Then one more
hour later, at ten fifty am,

354
00:32:55,359 --> 00:33:01,599
the cleaning lady discovered Melinda's body.
The cops believed that Melinda was murdered between

355
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:09,200
the one hour window of eight fifty
am and nine to fifty am. According

356
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:15,480
to Rashaan, he left the leasing
office to go to home depot around nine

357
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:20,559
thirty. And then you go to
home depot. What route did you take

358
00:33:20,559 --> 00:33:23,319
to home depot? Highway? Highway? Like? Can you give me?

359
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:29,200
And where'd you go for seven nine
five h seven ninety five six ninety five?

360
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:34,920
Just go straight up from me?
Nowhere else you stopped on the way.

361
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:40,039
Okay. The route that Rashawn described
would take him about twenty minutes to

362
00:33:40,119 --> 00:33:45,880
get from Harvest View to home Depot, placing him there around nine to fifty

363
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:50,319
or ten am. So you go
there, and when you were in there

364
00:33:51,039 --> 00:33:53,599
anything, Now, I wouldn't look
around for the lawn and didn't see it.

365
00:33:54,039 --> 00:33:57,519
That's the guy about it. He
said, he didn't take it down

366
00:33:57,599 --> 00:34:02,119
yet, that's that today? And
why didn't you buy? Well? Why

367
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,640
he said he didn't take it down
too. I forgot to go the cub

368
00:34:06,279 --> 00:34:09,800
Diet, the Club Baier, and
then you came back here. And the

369
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:17,320
time he says, the maybe you
got here ten minutes later, something twenty

370
00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:23,079
minutes later, So now we're maybe
like ten thirty give or to you.

371
00:34:24,519 --> 00:34:28,760
Rashaun claimed that he didn't buy anything
at the Home Depot because the supplies he

372
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:34,559
needed weren't ready, and because he
forgot to get the Harvest View debit card

373
00:34:34,679 --> 00:34:39,199
back from Melinda. If for Seawn's
story was true, it would have put

374
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:45,519
him arriving at Home Depot at around
ten am and returning to Harvest View thirty

375
00:34:45,559 --> 00:34:52,559
minutes later at around ten thirty am. But there was a problem. The

376
00:34:52,639 --> 00:35:00,280
surveillance camera at Home Depot captured Rashaan
arriving there at ten forty am. I

377
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:05,119
realized that all these times I'm throwing
at you might make things a little hard

378
00:35:05,199 --> 00:35:08,880
to follow. But all you really
have to know is that what Rashwan told

379
00:35:09,039 --> 00:35:16,679
detectives was inconsistent with the surveillance footage
that was shown to them. For police,

380
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:23,039
this inconsistency in Rashawn's story was pretty
important, and there was also something

381
00:35:23,119 --> 00:35:30,360
else that happened that morning that made
Rashawn's story pretty hm hmm. Suspect your

382
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:37,199
your boss had told us Stans that
was the maintenance firm. Yeah. Yeah,

383
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,159
I had thought I had left it
in the office, but when they

384
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:43,719
said that, maybe y'all had pro
took it. When do you think you

385
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,719
lost it in there? I don't
know what, because sometimes I set my

386
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,039
phone down for a second while I'm
doing something and I thought I might have

387
00:35:50,199 --> 00:35:52,039
just a end. So you have
no idea, and you didn't ring it

388
00:35:52,079 --> 00:35:54,440
to see maybe so your house.
Yeah, I checked all that, you

389
00:35:54,559 --> 00:36:00,360
checked all that, but it's As
the maintenance supervisor, Rashawn was a shoe

390
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:06,280
to work cell phone by Harvest View. This way, tenants or Melinda could

391
00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,119
get in touch with them if there
was some kind of repair that needed to

392
00:36:09,159 --> 00:36:14,079
be addressed quickly. On the morning
of the murder, that cell phone had

393
00:36:14,199 --> 00:36:21,320
seemingly vanished. During his first interview
with detectives, Rashawn didn't mention a lost

394
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:29,639
cell phone at all. I think
about nine in your possession. Okay,

395
00:36:30,559 --> 00:36:34,079
So where did you lose the son
that? That's what I'm saying. I

396
00:36:34,119 --> 00:36:36,119
didn't know. I thought, I
mean, maybe it might have fought on

397
00:36:36,199 --> 00:36:38,519
my pocket or something. Sell out
of your pocket. There was one more

398
00:36:38,559 --> 00:36:44,519
important thing about Rashawn that caught detective's
attention, and it had to do with

399
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:49,519
what Rashawn was wearing on the morning
of the murder. Did you have on

400
00:36:50,159 --> 00:36:52,320
those pis? No, I don't
think of this team you said. Never

401
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:57,239
did. It's like these. It's
like a straight cake. You though you

402
00:36:57,360 --> 00:36:59,920
could so Friday when you want to, I don't know. I'm trying to

403
00:37:00,119 --> 00:37:07,280
her dollars tree. You had on
straight Khakisslisa. Did you have one on

404
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:13,119
a jacket or anything? And you
didn't change clothes on all side that you

405
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,320
remember, I was like pants or
anything like that was no reason, sir.

406
00:37:17,679 --> 00:37:22,360
On the morning that Melinda was killed, Rashawan purchased batteries at the nearby

407
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:27,960
dollar store at around nine to twenty
am, and the surveillance camera in the

408
00:37:28,039 --> 00:37:34,440
store captured him wearing a Harvest View
issued black jacket and ten cargo pants.

409
00:37:35,639 --> 00:37:39,719
At ten forty am, after Melinda
had been killed, the surveillance cameras at

410
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:47,159
home depot captured Rashwan wearing a black
polo shirt and straight white khakis. Yet

411
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:52,119
Rashwan claimed that he never changed his
clothes that morning and that he would have

412
00:37:52,199 --> 00:37:59,039
had no reason to change them at
all. When asked about his harvest view

413
00:37:59,199 --> 00:38:04,159
jacket, Rashad did admit that he
owned one. If you have the jacket,

414
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:09,159
W also all right, thanks?
We checking your truck after Yeah,

415
00:38:09,199 --> 00:38:17,280
I checked sonca all wait. Conveniently, Rashawn was never able to find his

416
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:23,440
harvest view jacket. The second interview
with Rashawn was conducted three days after Melinda

417
00:38:23,960 --> 00:38:30,639
was murdered, after which all went
quiet for a while. For two more

418
00:38:30,639 --> 00:38:35,840
months, detectives continued to work the
case, and all the DNA testing relating

419
00:38:36,199 --> 00:38:39,760
to the crime scene came back in
conclusive. Of course, even so,

420
00:38:40,039 --> 00:38:45,280
between the inconsistencies in Rashawn's story,
the lost cell phone, and his change

421
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:52,719
of clothes, the detectives did have
enough evidence to make an arrest. Good

422
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,519
evening, every one, our big
story tonight, and arrest has been made

423
00:38:54,559 --> 00:38:59,920
in the murder upper property manager who
was found stabbed to death inside a Reisterstown

424
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:04,519
and tonight, a maintenance worker is
being held without bond, charged in that

425
00:39:04,599 --> 00:39:07,679
brutal attack. Police say the suspect
has not confessed, but a change in

426
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:12,599
clothing was enough to charge him.
We have asked this to fend and to

427
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:17,039
produce the clothing that he was wearing
in the Dollar General video. He has

428
00:39:17,199 --> 00:39:22,599
been unable to do that. Police
say that Williams could not explain the discrepancy

429
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:24,800
in what the surveillance video shows,
and police say at this point they don't

430
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:30,519
have a motive in the case.
Just over two months after Melinda Schaeffer was

431
00:39:30,639 --> 00:39:37,280
murdered, Rashawn Williams was arrested and
charged with a crime. While things did

432
00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:45,480
look pretty bad for Rashwan, all
the evidence against him was circumstantial and there

433
00:39:45,519 --> 00:39:51,280
were no witnesses and no forensic evidence
to link him to the murder. The

434
00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:58,719
detectives could prove that Rashawn had the
means and opportunity, but if they had

435
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,920
any hope of making the murder charge
stick, they were going to need one

436
00:40:04,199 --> 00:40:34,840
very important thing, a motive.
On August twentieth, twenty thirteen, in

437
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:39,800
Baltimore County, Maryland, the maintenance
supervisor at the Harvest View apartment complex was

438
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:46,119
arrested and charged with brutally murdering his
boss, Melinda Schaeffer. Twenty seven year

439
00:40:46,159 --> 00:40:51,599
old Rashawn Williams, the man police
say is behind the brutal killing of twenty

440
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:55,199
nine year old Melinda Maltese Schaeffer,
the leasing agent, was found stamped to

441
00:40:55,360 --> 00:41:00,280
death inside her office in June at
the towns of Harvest View. Before Melinda

442
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:05,800
Shaeffer was murdered, she was living
in Baltimore County with her husband. They

443
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,840
had only been married for about a
year before she was brutally stabbed at death

444
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:15,599
on the morning of June fourteenth,
twenty thirteen. Melinda's body was discovered in

445
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:22,880
her office by the apartment complex's cleaning
lady. When police arrived at the scene,

446
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:28,599
they found the office was wrecked.
Melinda's chair was overturned, her desk

447
00:41:29,199 --> 00:41:34,800
was slid across the room in files
and office equipment were scattered all over the

448
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:40,039
floor. The police also found blood
spatter and blood smears everywhere, and they

449
00:41:40,119 --> 00:41:46,920
later determined that Melinda had been stabbed
sixty nine times in her upper body and

450
00:41:47,039 --> 00:41:55,320
her head. After an exhaustive investigation, Baltimore County homicide detectives determined that the

451
00:41:55,400 --> 00:42:00,079
maintenance supervisor, twenty seven year old
were Shawn Williams, was the killer,

452
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:07,960
and they arrived at that conclusion based
on inconsistencies in Rashon's statements to police.

453
00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:13,079
Williams told investigators he'd left a Dollar
General store around nine to twenty am.

454
00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:16,000
He went to the leasing center from
nine thirty to nine forty five, the

455
00:42:16,119 --> 00:42:21,719
time frame in which detectives believe Shafer
was killed. Williams is then seen on

456
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,320
a surveillance tape at a home depot
at ten thirty three am. Let security

457
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:30,599
cameras here at the Dollar Generals show
Williams wearing a completely different outfit than he

458
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:36,960
was wearing at the home depot just
an hour later. Before Rashawn was arrested,

459
00:42:37,079 --> 00:42:40,920
he had been questioned by police about
Melinda's murder on two separate occasions,

460
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:46,960
once on the day of the murder
and again three days later. Two months

461
00:42:47,039 --> 00:42:52,519
later, he was charged, arrested, and brought in for a third and

462
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:57,519
final interview. So why are you
bring me up for you again? Because

463
00:42:57,519 --> 00:43:04,599
you're getting charged with the murder based
on what the probable calls that we submitted

464
00:43:04,599 --> 00:43:07,480
on the applications of the commissioner.
So that's that works. We wrote down,

465
00:43:07,559 --> 00:43:12,239
we wrote the warrant, some of
the information that we have submitted to

466
00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:15,760
the commissioner, get signed off on
the warrant, gets his shooting, and

467
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:22,440
the guys can down wrest what probably
because you'll have me talking about it.

468
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:29,239
Don't make no sense. This third
interview with Rashawn ended up being mostly a

469
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:35,760
jousting match between him and one of
the detectives. While the detective was trying

470
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,760
to get Rashaan to confess, Rashawan
was trying to find out exactly what cops

471
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:45,800
had on him. I'm giving your
information. Did you give me the information?

472
00:43:45,159 --> 00:43:47,679
What was it? Would you tell
me I was on vacation for two

473
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:59,639
days? Yeah, but take that
to the bank, get right? Yeah?

474
00:44:00,079 --> 00:44:04,840
Who. Throughout this interview, Rashawan
tried to play cool and collected.

475
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:10,519
He also did this really annoying thing
where he feigned exhaustion and yawned over and

476
00:44:10,639 --> 00:44:15,519
over again, as if to say
that being charged with first degree murder it

477
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:21,880
was a little boring and not much
more than a small inconvenience for this fine

478
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,960
gentleman. You talking about nothing,
though, Man, you might have told

479
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,239
about anything. I'm talking about something. I'm talking about the death of a

480
00:44:29,519 --> 00:44:34,360
young lady. That's understandable, But
that's what I'm talking about. That might

481
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:37,559
not be anything to you, but
a sound to me. I don't know,

482
00:44:37,039 --> 00:44:40,119
I don't know, I didn't know. I never got a chance to

483
00:44:40,159 --> 00:44:45,800
know I would like to what I
hear is a nice lady. I know

484
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:52,719
I had it. That's why,
despite Rashawon's performance, the detectives were entirely

485
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:58,159
confident that he was the killer.
But the one thing they didn't know was

486
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:02,599
if Rashawn had planned to murder or
or if it happened on a moment of

487
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:08,840
unexpected rage. That piece that we're
looking for as to whether the person planned

488
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:17,079
it out, whether the person snapped
which caused death. You know how many

489
00:45:17,119 --> 00:45:23,360
people can say that say what it
was? What one the person? M

490
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,400
end of the day that day,
girl, we got to deal with nummy.

491
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,960
Yeah, lead up to the people
decide whether or not just planned or

492
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,559
whether it happened off the cuffs for
a moment we should come. Man,

493
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:44,920
Rashawn wasn't willing to provide insight into
his final thought process on the day of

494
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:52,480
the murder, so detectives began questioning
Rashwan about the inconsistencies in his original statements

495
00:45:52,559 --> 00:45:57,760
to police. At one point in
that morning, did you change your clothes?

496
00:46:00,039 --> 00:46:07,760
You don't know you remember changing your
clothes. Well, one of the

497
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:14,079
times that we talked to you said
you didn't change it. Clothes in the

498
00:46:14,199 --> 00:46:17,480
following days. I was said I
changed smoke. Who you said I changed

499
00:46:17,519 --> 00:46:21,199
my Well, I mean I know, I know you changed it clothes,

500
00:46:22,119 --> 00:46:28,239
Okay, I'm just asking when I
don't know. Again, detectives knew that

501
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:32,079
Rashwan changed his clothes on the day
of the murder. The Dollar Store surveillance

502
00:46:32,119 --> 00:46:37,440
camera captured him wearing a black jacket
and tan cargo pants. About ninety minutes

503
00:46:37,519 --> 00:46:44,159
later, the home depot surveillance camera
captured him wearing a black polo shirt and

504
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,599
straight white khakis. Who wears white
khakis? By the way, because I

505
00:46:47,639 --> 00:46:53,280
can tell you that it happened between
Dollar General and Home Depot? So why

506
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:57,360
are you asking me? Man?
Because there's a bit of a window in

507
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:00,440
there. So if you shed some
light on when you change them and where

508
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:06,559
you change them, I just say
I don't remember changing. I tell me

509
00:47:06,639 --> 00:47:10,280
I can ask the question man.
Yeah, but that's redundant. It's the

510
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:14,760
same question over and over and over
again, same as they want bout some

511
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:19,760
clothes. I just told you all
because it's important. I just said I

512
00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:24,639
don't remember. Rashaan maintained that he
had no memory of changing his clothes that

513
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:30,800
morning, and he also seemed unable
to understand why this was important to the

514
00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:35,800
case, whether that or he was
just pretending that he couldn't understand. You

515
00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,239
knew I changed my clus So if
as you say so, as you say

516
00:47:38,599 --> 00:47:43,480
you knew I changed my CW,
you see why why that can be a

517
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:45,840
bitter than this in our eyes?
Right? So it's that yob probably because

518
00:47:46,199 --> 00:47:51,840
it's a piece of power costs.
I'm gonnati see locked me up and changing

519
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:55,719
clues to a piece of it.
Crazy. But when you change your clothes

520
00:47:55,800 --> 00:48:00,159
in the timeframe, and in that
time frame is also when the person gets

521
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:06,400
killed, it goes towards that probable
cause. And then when we talked to

522
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:10,000
you a couple of days after the
murder and ask you about change your clothes,

523
00:48:10,079 --> 00:48:14,679
you say you would have no reason
to change your clothes. So when

524
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:17,199
you take those two things couple with
the fact that you change your clothes,

525
00:48:19,159 --> 00:48:23,480
it's a bit of a red flag
force. Because Melinda gets brudely murdered in

526
00:48:23,599 --> 00:48:28,800
a very bloody scene. I know
this, dude, and in that time

527
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:34,119
you change your clothes. Something else
that the detectives focused on was Rashawan's work

528
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:38,440
cell phone, which went missing on
the morning of the murder. When Rashawn

529
00:48:38,679 --> 00:48:44,440
was first questioned, he never mentioned
anything about the phone to detectives. One

530
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:45,840
of the other things I wanted to
go over with you was an issue I

531
00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:51,639
know that you and Patrick talked about. Was the work cellphone that you lost

532
00:48:51,679 --> 00:48:55,920
that day? Is that ring belt? Any reason you didn't tell us that

533
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:05,480
it was that it was missing?
No, didn't know what She called Patrick

534
00:49:05,519 --> 00:49:07,920
hat two something to tell me it
was missing. And I talked to you

535
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:13,199
at the starting at three. Sure
say, I'm saying that you call Patrick

536
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:15,119
Patrick had two something to let him
know that the cell phone was missing,

537
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:19,960
but you didn't didn't tell us that
it was missing, didn't tell the police

538
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:22,400
department I was missing. But then
in just a minute ago you said that's

539
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:25,840
because you didn't realize he was missing
yet clearly did did you call Patrick Patrick

540
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:32,159
and told him you didn't even make
sense? Yeah? You know what I'm

541
00:49:32,199 --> 00:49:37,199
saying. On the contrary, what
the detective was saying made a lot of

542
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:43,760
sense. There is no doubt that
Rashwan knew his work phone was missing because

543
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,960
he called the company to tell them
about it, and he made this call.

544
00:49:49,239 --> 00:49:54,840
Get this, He made this call
while sitting in the police interrogation room

545
00:49:55,719 --> 00:50:01,639
as he was waiting to be questioned
for the first time. You just can't

546
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:07,400
fix dumb. Hey, pat,
Hey, Hey, it's for Sean.

547
00:50:08,599 --> 00:50:13,519
Are you feeling you all right?
And I was telling you about is that

548
00:50:13,599 --> 00:50:15,719
I didn't have a work phone,
so if getting calls was coming through,

549
00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:20,800
I wouldn't be getting grabbing anything to
close. I think I might have left

550
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:22,280
it in the office. I'm not
sure I was. I was looking for

551
00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:27,880
it, but I couldn't see it. Yeah, I believe so might have

552
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:30,760
been. I could have fell out
of my pocket. I'm not sure.

553
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:37,519
For detectives, there was only one
reason why Rashawn would have changed his clothes

554
00:50:37,599 --> 00:50:43,159
and ditched his work phone, because
they were covered in Melinda's blood. The

555
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,480
key us just keep in your pocket, and the cell phone that you keeps

556
00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:47,320
in your pocket all missing because the
pants were bloody and you had to take

557
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:52,519
them off and get rid of them. You gotta get rid of him.

558
00:50:53,639 --> 00:50:57,719
He got blood on them. That's
why I hum depot with different pants on.

559
00:50:59,519 --> 00:51:02,320
That makes sense. You can say
it doesn't make sense, but that

560
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:07,960
makes sense. You struct you all
those contents in your pockets missing, still

561
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:14,559
missing to this day, with the
pants all because Milennu was so brutally murdered

562
00:51:15,079 --> 00:51:17,360
that there was blood everywhere and on
your pants, and you had to get

563
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:22,119
rid of them. You had to. That makes sense. What doesn't make

564
00:51:22,159 --> 00:51:27,519
sense is that attack on her,
that attack, and you decide your mind

565
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:32,639
to go with her with such force
and vengeance that that much blood is produced

566
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:37,519
that ends upon your pants. Regarding
the missing phone, the police were able

567
00:51:37,599 --> 00:51:44,920
to obtain two notable phone records that
occurred shortly after the murder. At ten

568
00:51:45,039 --> 00:51:50,280
twenty eight am, the phone received
a missed call, and at ten point

569
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:54,239
thirty two am, the phone used
a cell tower to download some kind of

570
00:51:54,880 --> 00:52:02,519
automatic software update. These two events
placed the phone and likely Rashan near a

571
00:52:02,639 --> 00:52:08,519
shopping plaza about ten miles north of
the Harvest View apartments, just a few

572
00:52:08,599 --> 00:52:15,079
minutes away from the home depot.
The detectives believed that Rashan dumped the phone

573
00:52:15,679 --> 00:52:22,000
and his bloody clothes into a dumpster
around this time and around this area.

574
00:52:23,199 --> 00:52:30,320
None of these items wherever recovered.
Again, the detectives had a decent case

575
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:36,559
against Rashaan, but all their evidence
was circumstantial. A lot of circumstantial cases

576
00:52:36,639 --> 00:52:43,000
up there in Baltimore doesn't mean the
murder didn't happen. Rashan had lied to

577
00:52:43,119 --> 00:52:47,639
the police several times. He had
the means and opportunity to commit the murder.

578
00:52:49,519 --> 00:52:53,159
But if a prosecutor was going to
convince twelve people in a jury box

579
00:52:53,280 --> 00:53:00,800
that Rashan was guilty, they were
going to need a motive. Pieces with

580
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:05,840
peace, What causes holding to have
in that catalyst? What made a snap?

581
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:09,320
What went off? Like I said, people either planet or having spur

582
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:16,519
of the moment. So you're not
even thinking we wouldn't gone, got a

583
00:53:16,559 --> 00:53:23,000
warrant that was the case, and
you got a bunch of bullshit. I

584
00:53:23,159 --> 00:53:34,000
take a bunch of shit, jump
put it together. I'm sorry, on

585
00:53:34,199 --> 00:53:40,679
a witch witch hunt, find the
person who did this. During this interview,

586
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:45,400
Rareshawn doesn't so much just deny the
accusations against him as much as he

587
00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:53,000
claims that the cops have nothing on
him, which in itself is interesting.

588
00:53:54,199 --> 00:53:58,679
I don't know about you, but
if I was charged with the murder I

589
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,719
didn't commit, I wouldn't be telling
the cops they don't have enough evidence.

590
00:54:02,679 --> 00:54:07,760
I'd clearly be telling them I didn't
do it. That's not what was happening

591
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:15,599
in this particular circumstance, though nonetheless, Rashawn was either confident that he would

592
00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:20,920
not be convicted of this crime,
or he was pretending to be confident and

593
00:54:21,039 --> 00:54:25,039
he wasn't about to share his motive. But that was okay because detectives had

594
00:54:25,119 --> 00:54:30,320
figured it out and they had evidence
to back it up. You know,

595
00:54:30,400 --> 00:54:35,440
if you talk to Fanessa, if
he talked about before, she gave us

596
00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:38,079
a little background on all deleation ship. Yeah, yeah, yeah, leading

597
00:54:38,159 --> 00:54:42,000
ship. That's one of the ones
we wouldn't talk to. And she told

598
00:54:42,079 --> 00:54:49,639
us about Melinda and her workouts,
and she's tough holding people accountable for stuff,

599
00:54:49,679 --> 00:54:53,880
and not the easiest thing, the
easiest to work for. Sometimes everybody's

600
00:54:53,920 --> 00:54:57,519
got their own styles, you know
what I mean, that's what supposed to

601
00:54:57,599 --> 00:55:00,639
you. Yeah, I mean that's
definitely some people. Yeah, some people

602
00:55:00,679 --> 00:55:02,039
look at it. That's what she's
supposed to do. That's her job as

603
00:55:02,039 --> 00:55:07,079
a boss, just to hold people
accountable. Vanessa seemed to think that it

604
00:55:07,199 --> 00:55:08,440
was made a little over the top
and she had a little bit of an

605
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:13,719
issue with her, so I guess
it's part of the recent love to her

606
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:19,239
being fired. Melinda Schaeffer was extremely
good at her job and she always went

607
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:23,679
above and beyond with the job asked
of her. She sincerely cared about her

608
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:30,559
tenants and making Harvest View a great
place to live. Naturally, any other

609
00:55:30,679 --> 00:55:35,119
employee at Harvest View that didn't share
that attitude and that goal was going to

610
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:40,360
clash with Melinda, and that's why
her former assistant, Vanessa Coates was fired.

611
00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:46,519
Unsurprisingly, it turned out that Rashawn
was having a similar issue. Poor

612
00:55:46,599 --> 00:55:52,480
were performance, at least in the
eyes of the supervisor. That's typically what

613
00:55:52,639 --> 00:55:57,400
leads up to a person being fired, right, right, And did we

614
00:55:57,519 --> 00:56:00,920
know that you had some issues to
some work issues. I guess there was

615
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:04,960
a time when I guess the work
was kind of slipping a little bit in

616
00:56:05,079 --> 00:56:12,039
somebody's eyes, maybe not your eyes. As detectives investigated this case and began

617
00:56:12,159 --> 00:56:16,760
looking into Melinda's work life, they
found an interesting text exchange on her cell

618
00:56:16,840 --> 00:56:24,079
phone between her and Rashaan. Rashawn
had asked Melinda, quote, are y'all

619
00:56:24,079 --> 00:56:30,239
getting rid of me over this?
End? Quote? This text related to

620
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:36,880
a repair issue on the property that
Rashaan was supposed to have resolved but never

621
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:42,280
did. As a result, Melinda
ended up needing to hire and pay a

622
00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:46,519
third party repairman, which kind of
you know, defeats the fucking point.

623
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:52,119
On top of that, Rashon was
already on thin ice because he'd recently gotten

624
00:56:52,159 --> 00:56:58,519
into trouble for lying and covering for
Vanessa Coates when she came into work late.

625
00:56:59,800 --> 00:57:05,079
This lie landed Rashaan on work probation
for thirty days, and he was

626
00:57:05,119 --> 00:57:08,840
told that if there were any more
infractions, he would be fired, no

627
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:15,760
matter how minor or major the infraction
was. Do you think you're in uh

628
00:57:16,239 --> 00:57:21,960
good graces with the Zoo the entire
time? HM, as far as your

629
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:25,079
work performance, you think so,
despite the fact that you were put on

630
00:57:25,079 --> 00:57:30,320
in probation in period I was with
fire, was helling he was leading up

631
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:37,559
to that point. She said,
Lyn's got a lot of documentation, Like

632
00:57:37,639 --> 00:57:43,320
I said, She's a healthy note
taker. The detectives knew that Melinda was

633
00:57:43,480 --> 00:57:49,119
either about to fire Rashaan or was
seriously considering it because she told her regional

634
00:57:49,239 --> 00:57:54,400
manager about Rashaan's crappy work performance on
more than a few occasions. There was

635
00:57:54,440 --> 00:58:00,639
also a ledger on her desk that
documented his screw ups. The detectives also

636
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:08,360
discovered that Melinda had edited a personnel
action form on her computer the night before

637
00:58:08,440 --> 00:58:14,000
she was killed. This forum is
basically a pack up your shit, you're

638
00:58:14,079 --> 00:58:19,800
fired notice that is given to an
employee when they are let go. Of

639
00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:23,280
course, for someone to commit murder
just because they are about to be fired

640
00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:30,320
is pretty extreme, but Rashon had
more to lose than just his job.

641
00:58:31,440 --> 00:58:37,559
Rashon wasn't the only maintenance supervisor at
Harvest View. He was also a tenant,

642
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:44,559
and because of his employment, his
rent was reduced considerably. Rashan lived

643
00:58:44,599 --> 00:58:47,039
with his wife, his eight year
old daughter, and his two year old

644
00:58:47,159 --> 00:58:52,400
son. The roof he was keeping
over their heads was dependent on his Harvest

645
00:58:52,519 --> 00:59:00,559
View employment, the employment he seemed
to take for granted. This whole thing.

646
00:59:00,760 --> 00:59:04,199
You've been suspended. I mean basically, if you get fired from there,

647
00:59:05,320 --> 00:59:08,480
you lose your job, possible to
lose your place of to live where

648
00:59:08,519 --> 00:59:13,519
your family can live. You and
your wife and get two kids. So

649
00:59:13,519 --> 00:59:15,280
if you just find out that Vanessa, if you just find out the Vanessa

650
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:20,800
guy laid off, now, next
thing you know, you think that it's

651
00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:22,559
coming at you. You're the next
one line. Because you know that they

652
00:59:22,559 --> 00:59:27,480
don't think that you're doing a good
job, they go stretching it again.

653
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:30,800
I'm not stretching anything. I know
Vanessa fired, and I know that you

654
00:59:30,880 --> 00:59:34,360
were under a microscope. If me, Linda comes to you with something about

655
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:38,159
needing to get your stuff together.
Now one little nagging piece of her causes

656
00:59:38,239 --> 00:59:44,320
you to snap. She's just trying
to do her job. She's just trying

657
00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:47,800
to hold you accountable for doing yours. I don't sunderstand. I had nothing

658
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:52,199
to do with it. Man,
you're not doing your job. You're on

659
00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:58,639
the verge of being fired, and
she's holding you accountable. So she comes

660
00:59:58,679 --> 01:00:02,679
at you and she tells you,
yeah, I get yourself together. Then

661
01:00:02,719 --> 01:00:10,679
you go after Freeze and somehow that
turns into his brutal attack. On the

662
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:15,440
morning of Melinda's murder, Rashan returned
to the leasing office after buying batteries at

663
01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:21,159
the nearby dollar store. We don't
know and we'll probably never know, what

664
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:27,719
conversation he and Melinda had when he
got back, but detectives believe that Melinda

665
01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:31,599
either warned Rashaan that he was going
to be fired, or Rashaan saw the

666
01:00:31,679 --> 01:00:38,880
personnel action form on Melinda's desk and
put two and two together. Either way,

667
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:49,079
this caused Rashon to snap and violently
attack Melinda like an animal. There

668
01:00:49,199 --> 01:00:55,280
was an intense struggle between them.
Melinda fought for her life, but Rashwan

669
01:00:55,480 --> 01:01:00,559
got the best of her and stabbed
her sixty nine times in the upper body

670
01:01:00,639 --> 01:01:07,000
and head with a knife. After
Melinda was dead, Rashan attempted to clean

671
01:01:07,119 --> 01:01:10,320
up the scene, but there was
too much blood and he had to know

672
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:15,440
that the cleaning lady would be returning
to the office at any minute. Rashan

673
01:01:15,559 --> 01:01:21,159
fled the office through the back door, taking his work phone and the murder

674
01:01:21,239 --> 01:01:25,559
weapon with him, but he later
threw away at a nearby shopping plaza dumpster,

675
01:01:27,280 --> 01:01:31,559
along with his bloody work jacket and
bloody work pants. Again, none

676
01:01:31,599 --> 01:01:37,280
of these items were ever recovered.
Detectives believed that after Rashaan disposed of the

677
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:42,480
evidence, he went to home depot
and the real reason why he didn't buy

678
01:01:42,519 --> 01:01:47,360
anything was because he was only there
to establish an alibi, only there to

679
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:52,920
get his mug on cam. You
asked me if we if I found the

680
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,880
person. Yeah, I found the
person. You killed her, Marshall that

681
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:01,039
she killed her. So you think, mm hmmm, I'm sorry that you

682
01:02:01,119 --> 01:02:07,400
think it's funny. It's funny.
I'm not comunicated. You think it's your

683
01:02:07,480 --> 01:02:13,440
whole situations it's funny. We don't
think any of its funny. I've been

684
01:02:13,599 --> 01:02:17,039
saying this situation is funny. I
mean it's not funny. It's not funny

685
01:02:17,079 --> 01:02:22,840
with would happen. I'm not saying
that's funny, but I'm saying what y'all

686
01:02:22,920 --> 01:02:27,400
present is like, come on,
man, be for real, like y'all

687
01:02:27,480 --> 01:02:32,239
really gonna lock me up that you
never said now one logical thing for none

688
01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:37,559
of this logical to you. I
don't enough to go up. Just charge

689
01:02:37,599 --> 01:02:43,639
somebody, like explained him. We
got we ain't got nothing, man,

690
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:49,719
We got some old ship about some
missing keys and missing phones. The fuck

691
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:52,880
fuck it. I can't believe you
even got a charge because of that.

692
01:02:53,119 --> 01:02:59,840
Rashawn may have been overconfident, but
he wasn't entirely wrong. The evidence against

693
01:02:59,880 --> 01:03:05,559
him strongly suggested that he was guilty, but it was also circumstantial. The

694
01:03:05,639 --> 01:03:09,079
detectives worked hard to solve the crime, but they didn't have anything rock solid,

695
01:03:09,480 --> 01:03:15,840
like DNA fingerprints or a murder weapon. A prosecutor was going to have

696
01:03:16,039 --> 01:03:23,880
to try to convince twelve American jurors
of Rashawn's guilt. While defense attorneys challenged

697
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:30,000
all of the circumstantial evidence, trying
to poke holes in anything they possibly could,

698
01:03:30,880 --> 01:03:37,360
as they do. In April twenty
fifteen, two years after Melinda was

699
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:44,000
killed, Rashawn's murder case went to
trial. The trial lasted for five days,

700
01:03:44,039 --> 01:03:47,800
and several members of Melinda's family were
in attendance, including her father.

701
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:53,199
She cared about everybody. This is
what burns me up. I don't want

702
01:03:53,199 --> 01:03:55,559
to see this guy on the face
of the sort anymore. If you want

703
01:03:55,559 --> 01:04:00,880
to know, donestly got true.
I wanted a guy to be prosecuted to

704
01:04:00,960 --> 01:04:03,159
the full extent of the law,
and I hope to guy and I pray

705
01:04:03,239 --> 01:04:09,079
that he goes away for the rest
of his life. For five agonizing days,

706
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:15,199
Melinda's family watched and listened as the
prosecution laid out their case against Rashawn

707
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:21,960
Williams, which included describing Melinda's final
horrific moments alive in the painful, brutal

708
01:04:23,079 --> 01:04:28,239
way that she was killed. My
daughter was stabbed sixty nine times, and

709
01:04:28,320 --> 01:04:31,760
when they talk about that, it
crushed us. The prosecution's theory was Williams

710
01:04:31,920 --> 01:04:38,239
snapped when it appeared Schaeffer was about
to fire him. Documents detailing Williams's poor

711
01:04:38,320 --> 01:04:42,440
work performance, and a termination form
were found on her desk in the leasing

712
01:04:42,519 --> 01:04:46,440
office. Felisa. Williams also couldn't
explain why surveillance video at two stores that

713
01:04:46,559 --> 01:04:51,719
morning showed him in two different outfits
right before and right after Schaeffer's death.

714
01:04:53,639 --> 01:04:59,840
In the end, the evidence wasn't
enough to convict Rashaan a first degree murder,

715
01:05:00,599 --> 01:05:06,000
and the jury returned a not guilty
verdict. However, they also returned

716
01:05:06,679 --> 01:05:14,239
another verdict, apparently after hearing all
of the evidence, the jury was convinced

717
01:05:14,719 --> 01:05:19,039
that Rashwan had committed the crime,
but they believed that it wasn't planned.

718
01:05:20,239 --> 01:05:26,840
As a result, Rashawn was found
guilty of second degree murder. For that,

719
01:05:27,599 --> 01:05:31,519
Melinda's family was grateful. I want
to thank first of all the jury

720
01:05:32,480 --> 01:05:39,719
for their verdict, and today in
Baltimore County Circuit Court, Williams was sentenced

721
01:05:39,760 --> 01:05:43,559
to thirty years in prison, ending
a tough case for Shaffer's family, who

722
01:05:43,679 --> 01:05:47,360
came from California to listen to in
court. He hasn't said yet exactly why.

723
01:05:48,119 --> 01:05:50,239
One day, maybe he will.
Maybe one day he'll reach out and

724
01:05:50,280 --> 01:06:08,039
say to me why. As of
March twenty twenty, three. Rashawn Williams

725
01:06:08,519 --> 01:06:14,840
has not explained why he did what
he did, but it's not difficult to

726
01:06:15,039 --> 01:06:20,199
make an educated guess. Melinda Schaeffer
was a young woman just doing her job,

727
01:06:21,039 --> 01:06:27,679
and it was a job that she
did so well. She excelled at

728
01:06:27,719 --> 01:06:32,519
that job. She expected people around
her to excel at their own jobs as

729
01:06:32,559 --> 01:06:42,280
well. Imagine that, Imagine expecting
people to do their fucking job. Imagine

730
01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:49,039
what a world it would be.
Rashaan's shitty work performance clashed with Melinda's exceptional

731
01:06:49,159 --> 01:06:56,800
work ethic, and Rashwan found himself
on the chopping block. His livelihood was

732
01:06:56,880 --> 01:07:00,480
threatened, and as an employee and
a resident of Harvest View, he had

733
01:07:00,519 --> 01:07:05,880
a lot to lose, and when
he saw it all slipping away, he

734
01:07:05,920 --> 01:07:11,000
didn't work harder to try to keep
it. He didn't do any self reflection

735
01:07:11,840 --> 01:07:15,320
and realize how it was kind of
his fault to begin with. Rashaan didn't

736
01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:20,559
consider that maybe he was the reason
for all the bad things that were happening

737
01:07:20,639 --> 01:07:28,840
to him, because couldn't be.
That couldn't be personal responsibility, that can't

738
01:07:28,840 --> 01:07:34,000
be it. Instead, he blamed
Melinda, the white girl at the leasing

739
01:07:34,039 --> 01:07:41,639
office, and in a fit of
blind rage, he brutally stabbed her to

740
01:07:41,800 --> 01:07:48,119
death. That's reality. You can
like it or not, doesn't change it

741
01:07:48,840 --> 01:07:56,880
from being reality. Sadly, this
is another one of those cases where evil

742
01:07:57,880 --> 01:08:04,000
is seemingly one. A young wife
and beloved daughter lost her life and what

743
01:08:04,239 --> 01:08:11,760
was truly a senseless murder. At
least thanks to some good police work,

744
01:08:12,519 --> 01:08:16,000
Melinda and her family got a little
bit of justice, a little bit of

745
01:08:16,079 --> 01:08:25,479
peace and maintenance man for Sean Williams
got thirty years to think about the lives

746
01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:49,239
that he destroyed. That's going to
do it. And as we look forward

747
01:08:49,239 --> 01:08:54,680
to Thanksgiving here, I am very
thankful for all of you. So have

748
01:08:54,800 --> 01:09:49,680
a wonderful Thanksgiving. Stay safe,
Hey, Mike. Last Thanksgiving, it

749
01:09:49,760 --> 01:09:57,159
was my first Thanksgiving by myself.
I just went through a divorce over I

750
01:09:57,239 --> 01:10:02,000
guess kind of a woke crap that's
going on. But you talked about how

751
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:05,920
we should all be safe and loved
as we should be, and we all

752
01:10:06,000 --> 01:10:12,960
want that. But then he said
that we're all a part of this big

753
01:10:13,079 --> 01:10:15,560
family, and that means a lot
to me at the time. It still

754
01:10:15,640 --> 01:10:18,399
means a lot to me now.
So I just want to say thank you

755
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:21,159
for all you do. I know
It takes a lot of hard work,

756
01:10:21,199 --> 01:10:25,319
and you've got a lot of pressure
and a lot of haters on you,

757
01:10:25,520 --> 01:10:26,479
but thank you b