Jealousy, Journals, and Justice: The Horwitz Family Murder

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They met in high school, got married, got divorced, got married again, got divorced again,

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and then years later moved back in together like none of that ever happened.

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Your classic love story.

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Right.

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But when you mix decades of resentment, a new girlfriend, and a journal that reads like

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a slow burn crime novel, it's not exactly a recipe for a quiet retirement.

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This is the story of Lanny Horowitz, and how one very long love story ended in gunfire,

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under pointing, and a trial that split a family in half.

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Before we dive in, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you're in the right

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place.

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Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is 10 Minute Murder.

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Let's get into it.

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[Music]

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Late 1940s, Buffalo, New York.

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Go Bills.

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Two high schoolers side by side, Donna Carnivale, was bright, sharp, and the kind of beautiful

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that stomps a crowded room cold.

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Lanny Horowitz, he was the guy that couldn't believe she even knew his name.

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But somehow she did.

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Nervous, maybe even sweating through his collar, Lanny asked if they could make it official.

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And when Donna said yes, it hit him like a grand slam to the chest.

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But there was one small catch.

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Donna wasn't just a pretty face.

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She was also the daughter of Dan Carnivale, a local legend who had played four, managed,

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and run the Buffalo Biscuits.

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The man was literally in the baseball hall of fame, and his wallet reflected it.

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Donna had grown up surrounded by money, comfort, and the kind of lifestyle that didn't come

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cheap.

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So while she liked Lanny, he was going to have to work for it a lot.

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And he did.

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By 16, Lanny was already helping his dad sell real estate.

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By their early 20s, he and Donna were married, and Lanny was on his way to building a small

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empire.

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They were traveling the world.

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As brother Barry said, he had sailboats, airplanes, anything life could offer was there for them.

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From the outside, things looked golden.

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They had a sun.

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They had the cars, the clothes, the gated community, and Boko Raton.

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Lanny even built the family's mansion himself.

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But inside the house, things weren't nearly as perfect.

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Donna had everything money could buy.

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One thing she didn't have was her husband.

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Somewhere along the way, Lanny and Donna stopped being starry eyed teenagers and became

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two people that couldn't stand to be in the same room together.

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The love story turned into shouting matches, and eventually turned into silence, the kind

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that fills every corner of the house.

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By 2001, the marriage was done.

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After nearly 40 years, they called it quits.

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For a minute, anyway, because five months later, they were back at it.

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Divorce, finalized in May, remarried in September.

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Love was love, apparently.

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Or maybe it was habit.

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Or muscle memory.

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Either way, it didn't last.

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By June 2002, they were divorced again.

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This time it was for good.

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Or so it seemed.

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Lines were drawn, assets divided, and everyone went their separate ways.

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And for the first time in his adult life, Lanny fell in love with someone who wasn't Donna.

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Her name was Francine Tyson, a woman he knew from work.

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It was new, but it was real.

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According to Lanny's brother, Barry, "They were holding hands, kid stuff."

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She said he hadn't seen Larry that happy in 40 years, which also happened to be the exact

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amount of time that Larry had been married to Donna.

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But Donna still held the position no other woman could.

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She wasn't just his ex.

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She was his high school sweetheart, his first wife, his second wife, and the mother of his

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only child, Radley.

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Radley had just hit a rough patch of his own.

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Now a single dad with a baby daughter, he needed support.

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So the family rallied.

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She and his daughter moved into the floor to home Lanny had built decades earlier.

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And Donna and Lanny moved back in too.

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The setup was meant to help their son.

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But it was about to bring everything full circle.

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Moving back in was supposed to be about supporting their son.

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That was the plan.

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But somewhere between cohabitating and co-parenting, Lanny and Donna started to drift back toward

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something more.

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Despite Lanny's feelings for Francine, despite their long messy history, Donna seemed to

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determine to pick up right where they'd left off.

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Again.

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Then came September 30th 2011.

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Radley was asleep when he heard the gunfire.

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He jumped out of bed and ran to the master bedroom.

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What he found was his mother screaming and repeating over and over.

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He was so awful.

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But he hadn't seen the body yet.

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Lanny was on the floor covered in blood, barely hanging on.

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He'd been shot nine times.

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He died seconds later.

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The community security guard was the first to arrive.

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He found Lanny with the gun in his hand.

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Donna told him it was suicide.

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But even the guard wasn't convinced and called the police.

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When officers showed up, Donna clamped up, wouldn't answer questions.

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And there were a lot of questions.

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Like if Lanny really shot himself, why was he holding the house phone like he was trying

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to call for help?

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The guard of someone managed to shoot themselves nine times, including once through the mouth,

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and still have time to hold up a gun.

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Why was the gunpowder on the outside of his towel if he supposedly fired from behind

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the shower curtain?

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None of it tracked.

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Police moved quickly from suicide to homicide, which left them with one pressing question.

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Who did it?

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There were no signs of forced entry.

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No alarms had gone off.

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The gated community had reported no strangers on the property.

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Whoever pulled the trigger had already been inside.

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And that left two options.

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Donna or her son Radley.

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Neither had a solid alibi.

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Both had reason to be angry with Lanny.

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And now the investigators had to figure out which one of them pulled the trigger.

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Or if both played a part.

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Inside the house, investigators found what can only be described as an arsenal.

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Twenty-six firearms and thousands of rounds of ammo.

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Among the collection were two revolvers used to kill Lanny.

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But it wasn't just the weapons they caught their attention.

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They also found Donna's journal.

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And it wasn't just personal reflections and the occasional ramble.

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Donna had been keeping tabs on Lanny down to the minute.

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Land went to France 520.

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Another day of lies and being Mr. Meeney.

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Turns out the relationship reboot hadn't erased Lanny's feelings for Francine.

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Not even close.

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According to Radley, Donna had figured out pretty quickly that her ex-husband was still

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very much in love with the other woman.

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He was still seeing Francine going to lunch, going to dinner.

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It looked like more than business.

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He said she found out he was paying for her phone bill.

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Paying her to decorate the North Carolina house he and my mom were supposedly building together.

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Sneaky?

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Sure.

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But it wasn't exactly a secret.

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Lanny had made it pretty clear where his heart was.

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He wanted to be with Francine.

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The only reason he wasn't is because she wasn't ready.

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At least not yet.

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Prosecutor Alitha McRoberts told the jury that Francine admitted Lanny had deeper feelings

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than she did.

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He'd even proposed.

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Phone records backed it up.

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The two had been in constant contact.

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They were texting the night before Lanny died, making plans for her to pick him up the

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next morning.

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She never got the chance.

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According to court testimony, Lanny had told Donna it was over for real this time.

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He expected her to be out of the house before he returned from his trip with Francine.

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Instead he was dead by sunrise.

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Donna was arrested for his murder just six days later.

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At trial her defense took a hard left and pointed the finger directly at Radley.

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Yes, her own son.

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They argued that Radley, a convicted felon with a prior charge for illegally selling

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a firearm, had the most to gain.

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He was financially unstable, struggling to support his baby daughter and would have benefited

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from Lanny's life insurance payout.

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The defense claim Radley let a hitman into the house that morning.

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That's why no alarms went off.

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That's why someone else's DNA was found under a smear of Lanny's blood on the gate outside.

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It was a bold strategy, but the question wasn't just who had motive.

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He was who wanted Lanny enough to kill him and who had the most to lose when he walked away.

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The prosecution pushed back hard.

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That unidentified DNA on the gate, it could have been left there days or even weeks before

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the murder.

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It wasn't proof of a hitman.

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But Donna's journal, that, was personal.

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That was detailed and it painted a picture of someone consumed by jealousy and resentment.

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Someone who knew exactly when to strike.

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The jury didn't need long.

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For just two hours, they found Donna guilty of first degree murder.

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She was sentenced to life without parole.

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But that wasn't the end.

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Her conviction was overturned when it came out that the prosecution had used statements

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Donna made before being read her Miranda rights.

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So she was retried.

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This time, the jury found her guilty of second degree murder.

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Her sentence was updated to 32 years.

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She'll be in her 90s before she's eligible for parole.

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Bradley hasn't spoken to her since.

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Quote, "Even though she tried to blame me, I was really sympathetic to her until I saw

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the photos of my dad.

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That's when the sympathy ended."

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, brief and bingeable true crime.

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Make sure you're subscribed wherever you're listening so new episodes show up without you

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even having to think about it.

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You can follow the podcast on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and everything else is at 10minuteMurder.com.

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Some stories are complicated.

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This one was exhausting.

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It had decades of history, more red flags than a parade, and somehow still managed to

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surprise people who thought they'd seen it all.

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Alright, go reset your brain.

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I'll be back next time with another story you didn't know that you needed to know.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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Nadios.