Bloody Plot Twists - Minden, Nevada

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah, and two two. Oh yeah indeed, Jimmy. Yeah indeed. My name is James Petrigal, and I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us on this post Christmas spectacular here. Hope everybody enjoyed the holiday and had a good time and all that kind of stuff here. We're going to we're going to ruin your good time with some murder. But we won't we won't ruin it because it's a crazy story and it's so much fun and it's a wild time. So we're going to get into all of this and more. First of all, head over to shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your merchandise. Get your tickets for live shows. They're all for sale for 2026. Getting right now at shut up and give me murder dot com. Kicking off with February 21st in Nashville. Get those tickets because Nashville is a fast sell in cities. I'll pull those. Then I'll go from there. Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix. 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We're going to give you a choice. We're going to do a poll on Patreon. Either the there's a mall collapse that killed a bunch of people. Yeah. Or old timey crimes, which is always requested so much for more of those. Everybody likes those. So you take your choice that is patreon dot com slash crime in sports. P-A-T-R-E-O-N is Patreon by the way. That said, I think it's time. Oh, wait, you also get everything at free. How do you get a shout out at the end of the show as well? So Patreon's what you want there. That said, I think it's time everybody to sit back. What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs here and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Let's go on a trip, shall we? All right. We are going to head west this week. We've been doing a lot of East Coast stuff lately. Not on purpose. It's just kind of the way it worked out. But we're going to go west and go to Nevada this week. Oh, it's been a long time since we've been in Nevada, honestly. Nevada is a difficult state for murders because most of the murders take place in the two cities. Either Reno or things. So it's very hard to find the middle of nowhere because like 97% of the population lives in those two cities. So it's difficult. And then across the bridge, I've heard. And yeah, I consider that the Reno area though. That's all that area. So this is Minden, Nevada, M-I-N-D-E-N, Minden, Nevada. It's in far Western Nevada near the California border over there. It's about 30 minutes to Lake Tahoe just outside of there, about 50 minutes to Reno. So it's in that area of the mountainy area. About 45 minutes to incline village Nevada, our last Nevada episode, episode 562. So about 100 episodes of Bagoa was January when we did it last January. That was murder on slide mountain. Remember the car went off the hill and the guy was like hanging by the branches and all that stuff. That was a crazy case. Nevada is always nuts to this is in Douglas County area code 775 population here 3335. Very small. Very small. A median household income a bit above the national average, $78,375. It's 69,000 in the rest of the country. median home cost here is $649,700. median home cost median home cost here. Why? Because it's outside the Tahoe area. It's that. 30 minutes outside. Yeah. It's that nice area. So did this. Wow. 649. That is expensive. It was founded in 1906 by Heinrich Fredrick Dangberg, Jr. Who named it after his town of Minden in Germany. Of course. Shocker. That's a Heinrich is German. Dang. So that's fucking funny. A large share of the first people here were Germans as well in this area. It was founded on land of the Dangberg home ranch and they the Dangberg commission. Most of the towns early buildings, they got a post office in 1906. This is the craziest shit. They used to have a sundown siren at 6 p.m. Every night from 1917 until until 2021. Yeah. And I don't know what this signaled in the modern times, but back in the day apparently it signaled that that was the time when the the members of the washaw Indian tribe were required to leave town or face jail time. Oh, wow. So you got to go back to where you're from. That's what they did. So they finally they repealed its sundown ordinance in the mid 1970s. And then in 2021 the state of Nevada passed a law that prohibits communities from sounding signals associated with a past law which required persons of a particular race ethnicity, ancestry, or national origin to leave the town by a certain time. Hurry up and get out of here. 2021 that take place. Wow. Reviews in this town. Here we go. Five stars. Here we are. It's the best place to live if you want to have a good look at what it's like to farm. Okay. A good look. Or you want to have a good look up a cow's ass. That's where you get it. Butchers ass. Yeah. Yeah. I just asked the butcher. People here are very country and really care about how our children are raised. I have moved to other places and they never seem to feel like how Mindon does for me. So that's your hometown. There you go. Five stars. I love Mindon. I love it. Wow. It's a safe place to live and just have fun. There are many fun activities around and I love how little but not too little it is. There's 3,300 people. It's little. And then finally two stars. I would like to see more diversity in the culture here in the restaurants. Just in the restaurant. And activity. Yes. Can we have a Chinese food place here please? It's all right. Just one Chinese place. Maybe some Mexican food, something. Diversity of restaurants. Things to do here. Carson Valley days. Oh. It says a summer tradition over a century in the making. Wow. This year's parade theme is Jurassic Valley. Yeah. Okay. Your best dinosaur costumes and come on out there. There were dinosaurs here, right? I think so. Yeah. I think it sounds dinosaur shit. Yeah. Yeah. And also like North Dakota and Idaho, all that western out there. Join us for the event activities and attractions. We'll include free live music at the park on Friday and Saturday night. No mention of bands. Okay. Free live music. The famous parade that will run from downtown Minden to Gardnerville on Saturday morning at 9 p.m. And a raffle drawing at 3 p.m. at Lambkey Park on Saturday. Lamby Park. There will be carnival rides for all ages. Craft fair vendors, food vendors, face painting, children's games, a horseshoe tournament, a basketball tournament, a cornhole tournament. The crowning, the event of it is, it's the rubber duck derby everybody. Oh, yeah. We all know that. Yeah. It's the rubber duck derby is happening right now. So this is like a little like for kids kind of a theme, you know, have a weekend. It's dumb. Parades. Yeah. I bring the kids out, walk up and down the street, eat some fried dough and go home. That's all. That said, let's talk about some murder. Let's do it. I think we're ready for this. Okay. Let's start out with talking about a man here. Talk about a dude. This is Benjamin Robert Oxley, O-X-L-E-Y Oxley. Goes by Ben. Pretty calls him Ben. He's born January 20th, 1972 here. So he is born in West Covena, California. But he ends up growing up in Hawaii. Oh, what a nice place to write. He has a shitload of siblings. He's like eight siblings, like so many siblings, including a twin named Bill. Oh. So he's a twin. What is up with all the twins lately on this goddamn show? No, it's a fuckers. What's the percentage of people that are twins? Like it's very low, right? It's gonna be under one percent. And then what's the percentage of like people involved in any way in murders, victim perpetrator? That's gotta be super low too. So the two of them together has to be astronomical and it happens constantly on the show. Oh, the time. Yeah. Ben moved to the big island of Hawaii at age 10. Okay. So he went from West Covena, California, which not bad either. And then he owes to Hawaii. And he fucking loves Hawaii. Can't imagine. Yeah. He loves the beach that's what he's all about. I mean, he loves water, stuff, surfing, jets, and all that kind of shit. He loves it. He played Pop Warner football also and played high school soccer and football. In football, he was a kicker. He was a soccer player and he kicked barefoot. Oh, really? Yeah, like old school like Rich Carless from the Broncos. Right. Barefoot. I used to trip me out, not even because kick in the ball. I would always think now they're running with a bunch of guys with cleats on and they have no shoe on. That's crazy. What if you have to make a tackle? Well, have you kicked a ball barefoot before, right? That's sting so fucking bad. You never tried it? No. Why would I try that? Get the fucking threads on the bridge of your foot. And so if you ever want to do that shit again. I imagine you had it. It hurts. It's like in the sun of a lot. Yeah. Yeah, no. I generally put shoes on when I go outside. So I never tried it before. But it looks like it hurts. I always saw, especially when it was like in Denver and the cold. Yeah. Oh god. That ball is cold, man. You're kicking in a fucking thing. Yeah. With an ice cube. Lord, that's got to hurt. So anyway, that's what he's into. He plays. He does a barefoot kicker. He graduated from, oh, wow. Hanaka Hanoka. Yeah. H-O-N-O-K-A. Oh, I named Hanoka High School in 1990. Worked for the pinnilio country in. I mean, oh my god. Can you look at some Hawaiian places? The Hawaiian names are the worst thing. I can't save them. I don't know why. Native is tough in the first place, but Island Native is so much harder. Yeah. Like I can do the East Coast ones by me. I mean, like Northeast all app with the Hawaii. That's, I can't do it. And I can do this out of the West stuff with New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona. Anything west of the Mississippi, I got them. I got it. If I, if they say them, I get it. And I can stick with these. Even if you pronounce them for me, I'll never understand it. You'll never say it. Hanoka, you're like, huh? Do I have to say that? I'm saying that wrong. Oh, we're not saying it, right? It's all wrong. Yeah. So he finally, after a few years of working for the inn and doing all this, he decided to move to the mainland, all right, to experience life. He wanted just to see what was out there. Back in the States, huh? I could see that. That's not an island that's kind of in the middle of nowhere. You might go, well, there's a lot happening in that big place. Oh, yeah. I might want to go there. So he, he's married, I guess, and divorced at some point in here. And then he ends up finding in 1997 a woman named Dawn Leanne Mitchell. Right. Dawn is born in October, 1972. So the same age. And they, they get together. And after two years in 1999, they get married. Yeah. This is a pretty rocky relationship kind of from the start with Dawn. Yeah, her and Dawn, him and Dawn are like oil and water. It seems like they don't mix very well. They have a daughter named Alyssa. Hmm. They mixed well for a little while, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, they're, they're juices mixed, but the rest of them doesn't. It's a strong one. In 2004, they get divorced. And it is not an amicable divorce. They are fighting and pissed off with each other. And it's kind of an ugly divorce. So that's not good. Now Ben ends up moving on and finding another woman here. And he, she finds other guys too, as we'll talk about. But he finds a, a woman named Melissa. Now Melissa, I guess they really liked each other. They hit it off very instantly, hey, Melissa did. They, I guess they started talking online. Yeah. Because they didn't meet in person until after they had talked a bunch. So they finally planned to meet in person. And part of this is the fact that he is going to bring his daughter Alyssa on this date. She's like five years old at this point. All right. It's almost six years old or whatever. And so there, his whole thing is, look, if you're, if you're going to be with me, you got to be with Mike, you got a daughter, too. So you're basically dating us both here, which I don't think is a great decision. I don't think you should introduce someone to someone until you're very serious with them. And you know, they're not going to go away. Right. When you bring people into kids lives and they disappear and another one comes in, that's instability. It's hard for a kid. I know this because that was done with me. It just introduced me to everybody. Stop introducing me to people. Stop. I mean, you're not going to be with this person in six months. Stop fucking introducing me. Don't use me as some weird little prop. I don't want to do that. It's strange. And I knew that was happening at five, you know what I'm saying? So this one, apparently on the first date, Alyssa did not like Melissa. No? Daughter did not like date. Fair. More about jealousy. You're having, you're talking to my dad and he could be talking to me type of thing. She actually said, don't talk to my dad. She said, don't talk to him. Um, so, um, that's fucking funny. She said, I remember meeting, this is Alyssa later said, I remember meeting her. I didn't really like her. Oh, I didn't really like Melissa at first. Though she was taken aback by this, she didn't get upset and she's like, I'll win her over. I get it. She said, yeah, she said, you know, I get it. It was a kind of a, she said she kind of found it to be like adorable. This child is jealousy. She's a kid who wants to hang out with her dad. It's kind of cute. Okay, you're taking time, my time from my dad for yes. That's kind of cute. This is the reason why, you know, she doesn't hate me because I don't, she doesn't like the college I went to or something. She's like Michigan State. Fuck you. Michigan bitch like none of that doesn't like her at all. No. So they decide to get married. Melissa and Ben. Oh, despite Alyssa's, uh, Jack, she comes around. This is the first date she didn't want her around. But after that, she wins her over. And by the time they get married here, um, Melissa, who's like five years old at this point, they had a special little ceremony with her being the flower girl. And during the wedding, Melissa bends down to have the little girl put, um, um, a bracelet on her that was engraved with the promise that they'll always love each other and be family. All right. So she basically marries both of them. Both of them. Yeah. That's kind of how, which is cute. They did a nice little thing. Trying to make it look, yeah, you're not on the outside looking in. You're in your part of us. You're three here. You know what I mean? That seems to be what the, uh, what they're trying to get across here. Mm hmm. So shortly after the wedding, Ben and Melissa end up being granted full custody of Alyssa. Oh, before this, it was joint custody with Dawn. We'll find out about Dawn. Dawn has some fucking problems. Dawn gets arrested a whole bunch. She's kind of not real stable all the time. She's got a bunch of different boyfriends coming and going and he's like married in a home. It's more stability. So it makes sense here and especially with Dawn's legal problems that we'll get into. Um, now in addition to this, so they have the three of them living there. It's Melissa, Ben and Alyssa. There is also Melissa's teenage brother Craig also lives with the couple. Oh my God. They took him in too. And how was it? Melissa at this point. Yeah. You know, she's five, six, something like that. Five is six. I should make when they get the custody. So that makes sense. Now Ben, Ben and Dawn, even though they've been divorced for years, still have problems and fight. Oh no. Divorced for three years in June of 2007, according to police reports here, Ben has no criminal record, by the way. Okay. So one has quite a lengthy criminal record, but I guess the police were contacted in June of 2007 about a domestic battery investigation involving Ben and Dawn. Oh boy. So this must have been during a kid exchange or some shit because they don't even do anything. They don't even live together. But the incident was classified as quote mutual domestic battery. So no charges were filed. Couple of swings of peace and we call it good. I can't assume that law hasn't changed since then, right? You get your licks in. He got his in. I mean, we go. Yeah, you got a black guy, but I looked at him. He's got a fat lip. So what are we talking about? I mean, fat son. Neither of you won the fight. So I'm going to call it even. We're going to call it a draw. Use go you separate ways and we'll be done. Wow. And that's what they did. No charges were filed as long as both parties agreed to quote, leave each other alone, which I guess is easier for to do if they don't live together. Yeah. If you leave, you can't leave them in the house together. But if he says, OK, I'll go home and won't come back and she'll say, I'll go to my house and won't go out. Then I guess that's a little bit better than if they were like in the same house together. But still that, I can't imagine that loss the same now. That's a fascinating loss. As long as everybody gets their shots and it's fine. That's wild. So February 21st, 2008. Everything's going great for Melissa and Ben and Melissa and Craig that household is thriving and everybody's doing fine. That morning, Melissa calls 911 and said, one of the quotes is, it's really, really bad. What is? OK, she said, there's blood everywhere. Mm-hmm. That's what she said. Blood everywhere, blood all over the place. Can't wake Ben up. No. It's really, really bad come over here. OK. Now, her story is when the cops get there is that I remember hearing a noise is what she said. This is in their home. She said, my ears were ringing. I thought I was dreaming. She said, I smelled gun, gun smoke. I tried to wake Ben. I nudged him and said, honey, there's something to check on. And he didn't respond. So she's like, this fucking guy won't wake up. So Melissa said she got up, walked down the hallway and saw the front door to the home was open. Why'd open? Why'd open? So she said she ran back to wake Ben up. But when she tried to wake him up this time being a little more awake, she said she realized that he'd been shot in the head and there was blood everywhere and he was certainly not waking up. So she then raised, she said, to the six year old to a list's room, closed the door and called 911. This is about 3 30 AM. So yeah, she didn't realize she said that the sound that woke her up was a shotgun blast. Gunshot. Yeah. Not just a gunshot, a fucking shotgun blast. Yeah. Fucking loud. Shotgun blast is way louder than a regular gunshot. That is just so loud. So Ben is dead on the bed. And her story is I didn't hear, I didn't wake up from a gunshot. I woke up and went and the door was open and then here he is. Oh boy. And I came back to the bed and then I realized he was dead. That's her story. So the cops get there and they're like, that doesn't sound quite right. Something's wrong here. So when they get there, the cops, they've been called 911 and they've just been told it's really bad and also the front door is open. So they don't have any idea what they're walking into. There could be, there could be someone with a shotgun sitting in the living room. This could be an ambush. This could be anything. So they said they walked into the empty foyer area and it was pitch black. All the lights are off and they don't hear shit. So the one cop said, I was thinking, am I going to see a deceased person or am I going to encounter someone pointing a gun at me? Yeah. What's going to happen here? So they make their way through the house quietly, the cops and they head to the first bedroom. Because they peek inside, they see a dark figure because it's dark, a figure lying in bed covered by blankets and not moving. Okay. You know, sleeping with normally people doing fucking four o'clock in the morning. He said, and we're yelling sheriff's office. Show us your hands multiple times and we're getting no response from the subject that's in the bed under the covers. Then all of a sudden, at a nowhere like popping up like what the fuck, you know, and you wake up terrified. A young man, it's Craig, the teenage brother. Oh, he pops up from under the blanket. It's like you came out of a deep sleep. Like what? What's going on? What do you want? And he raises his hair and in the air and he tells the police that they said, who are you? He's my name's Craig. 17 years old. I live for a younger brother. I live here. Bubba, Bubba, blah. So yeah. So then the cop said from that point, my attention got drawn back out to the hall. I saw Melissa. She said, okay, that kid, he's not injured and he doesn't seem to be a threat at the moment. So moving to Melissa, he said she's standing there. She's got blood on her clothing and just in shock was her face. They said, Melissa, standing in the in the hallway, holding a phone in one hand and Alyssa in the other hand, just like what the fuck? So police go and clear the house. Number one, to see if see if anybody else is in here and there's nobody in here. They do find Ben's body in the master bedroom in bed with a shotgun wound to the back of his skull. Yikes. The cop said, I could tell that there was a shotgun wound to the back of the skull. It appeared when I did my initial investigation. It appeared that he was asleep when he was killed. There was also no signs of a break in no shattered windows, no forced indoors. So what's up with that? Yeah. He said, it was one of the most horrific crime scenes I've ever seen. So horrible, horrible shit. That's the Douglas County Sheriff John Stork. He said that. So as police are searching the home now, they're going through everything as they have to. When they get to Craig's bedroom, they find shotgun ammo in there. They find fucking shells in his dresser and his nightstand. And they're like, not good. Not like that. Yeah. That he's got fucking shotgun shells in his bedroom. And then they went in the garage and found guns, including a shotgun. And they're like, okay. Looks like he got shot with a shotgun. Shotguns in the garage, shotgun shells in his fucking drawer. We got to talk to Craig. Yeah. We got to fucking talk to Craig. And we got to talk to Melissa, whose Craig's brother or Craig's sister about. How did you not hear any of this shit? Yeah. Everything seems mad shady. So they were like, listen, this is a lot of questions. They said, how could Melissa claim to have not heard a thing considering she was inches away from a shotgun blast? Right there. Inches. Didn't hear a fucking thing. Never said I never heard a shotgun blast. She said, never heard it. And then whoever did this, ran to the front door and got out of the house before you woke up. That's amazing. That's wild. So they're like, you're coming down for an interrogation. You bring your fucking brother with you by the way. So when questioned by police, they are suspicious of her heart. She explains that she was, I'm a very sound sleeper. Ah, that's so. And they ran just fuck, man. Yeah. They were like, listen, sweetheart. I'm a sound sleeper too. But if you blasted a shot, gonna foot from my fucking head, I'd probably wake up. I'm thinking, maybe, you know, that's amazing. Yeah, you, you know, you've been around children like you know to wake up. That's crazy. They were like, they thought it was real strange and a man has killed while she's unharmed too. So they came and killed him right next to you and said, I don't want to kill her though. Only him and then leave. That would be mean. That seems odd. They said, and you didn't see him. You didn't even see the guy running away. You can't even give me a description of the back of somebody. So nothing, nothing. Um, they said, okay, they said, well, they figured out whoever pulled the trigger was standing right next to the bed right there. And they said, well, why didn't this person kill you too? Yeah. And she said, I don't know. No, I do. No, I do. As this is going on, she just breaks down and cries and tears and, I didn't do anything and I wouldn't hurt him in a minute. So she's saying she's innocent. She's breaking down in tears and they're like, hmm, they're right. Yeah. Okay, sure, lady. They're right. They're not sure they buy it from her yet. So Craig is in another interrogation room because he's the one who had shotgun shells too. Right. Listen, Craig, and he's 17. So maybe we can crack him. Yeah. So they're grilling him and they're like, dude, you had two shotgun shells, shells not even in on your nightstand. Yeah. Within arms reach if you're fucking bad, you could have grabbed those. Ammo is his and you're the only person in your family that gives a fuck about guns. The guns are yours. We found that out. There's Melissa to all of them. The guns are all Craig's. He's the one who likes to go duck hunting. Oh, okay. So he's like, you have all the weaponry here. It's all you, buddy. And you know, he said you're a hunter. You know firearms. You know all this shit. He was shot with a shotgun, which you know doesn't leave any ballistic, any ballistic for us to train, which a gun person would know that shit. So you're looking pretty, pretty bad right now. It's not good. Yeah. But despite the two shotgun shells and all this stuff, he says, I was sleeping until you woke me up. I didn't wake up at all. Didn't wake up from a shotgun. Didn't wake up from you guys yelling at me. You had to yell at me for 30 seconds before I woke up and said, what's going on? Wow. That's what he said. So they said, we're going to figure this out right fucking now. Gunshot residue tests. The both of you. Let's stick your hands out. Yeah. Stick hands out. So they said there's too much evidence. They couldn't let they said there's too much evidence to release them. They had to do. They had to get something definitive, not enough to charge them, but not enough to release them either. So they were given residue tests that would show the tests came up negative for both of them. Oh, wow. So now they're like, I mean, someone could have wore gloves. Yeah. There's ways to get around that, obviously. So they're like, but this is not good. This is, you know, our main suspects are clean from gunshot residue. But they're still not convinced by Craig's story, but they said he's got no gunpowder residue on his hands. There's no evidence he fired the weapon. We got to let them go for now and figure it out. Now Melissa, who for some reason, she is like keeping an eye on Alyssa for now, even though she's got a mother, she allows the police to question her. Really? Alyssa. Now, Alyssa said that she heard a door creak and saw a figure in her house, but didn't know if it was a man or a woman. Okay. But it saw like a dark outline of a figure of somebody, but just couldn't tell what it was because it was dark. So she couldn't tell. She said she didn't think it was Craig or Melissa or her dad or somebody and she heard a door creak. Now Melissa says, I have an idea on suspects. If that'll help, it's like, well, sure, I bet you do, lady. She said, okay, his ex-wife, Dawn, has a former boy. A boyfriend. Not still together, but that former boyfriend hates Ben. So his ex-wife's ex-boyfriend is going to come kill him. Is her- Before Ben? Yeah. No, no, no. His ex-wife's boyfriend after Ben. It's been like six years. Okay. But she's broken up with him since then. Since then. Yeah, her ex-wife's ex-boyfriend is going to kill Ben. Dawn's ex had a record, criminal record, and was said to be very upset with Ben about the way he was treating Dawn. Pist off about it, yeah. Which would make sense if they were together, but if they're not together, what the fuck do you care? You care. Yeah. You care if you argue with your ex-husband, that's your problem. Good for you. Hope you get some rest. So, yeah. Dawn told the newspaper in an interview the day that Ben's body was found that she hadn't seen him in weeks. Dawn said that their only contact had been to a range of visitation with their daughter, and that's it. They had no relationship. Otherwise, she said, quote, I try to avoid him. He's my ex-husband, and we didn't have a wonderful life together. Yeah. Herde the plague. So they determined that the ex-boyfriend of the ex-wife was out of town at the time of the murder. Terrible. Back to square one. Great alibi. He's gone. And, but Dawn does have a new boyfriend. Let's check him out. Yeah. This is James Kenneth Metlein, Matlein, MAT LEAN. So Matlein born December 1986, almost 15 years younger than her. Yeah. Yeah, that's her new boyfriend. That's what she's hanging with. Now he has had several law enforcement, we'll call them contacts up to this point, including three felony convictions by age 19. Nice work, sir. So this kid is a jerk off of the highest order. 379 by 19. By 19. Wow. Jerk off of the highest order. Yeah. In 2004, he was kicked out of a regimental discipline program for young offenders and sentenced to 12 to 36 months in Nevada State Prison for Grand Larceny of a motor vehicle. God damn. So they gave him a deferment program and he fucked up in that so they sent him to prison. Right. He's an idiot. I guess he stole a car and he still doesn't know how to fix his life and fucked up after that. All right. Fucked up after that. So police go to Dawn's house to talk with her about the murder and see where he was that night. And she said we were sitting here drinking and watching movies all night together. Yeah. That's all we're drinking watching movies and they had movies that they were watching that corresponded with shit that was on. Sure. So as alabies look pretty good. All right. Let's go back to Melissa because that's a dead end. So they go back to now they go watching Melissa. At this point, Alyssa is back with Dawn. The kid Melissa is kept under constant observation. Yeah. Three months after this murder, Ben's in the ground for three months. No arrests made. They still have nothing. The investigators now learn that she was the beneficiary of a $400,000 life insurance that policy that Ben had. Melissa was. So now they're like, okay, now we got to vote because we had no motive before really. Now we have a motive. Now we have a motive. Melissa claimed to not know the policy existed. Oh, there's a policy. She's like, I get full. She's like, I get full. I just went out to the mailbox one day and there's 400 grand in there. That's pretty great. So but the cops are like, you're fucking ass. You don't know about the policy. Ben's family were like, oh hell no. She knows. She knows and she fucking did it. They're really pressuring the cops to arrest fucking Melissa already just arrest her and figure it out. They don't even care. The whole town rumors are swirl. This is a 3,300 person town and they're like, this fucking lady killed this nice guy took his insurance money and that's now she's going to go scot free. This is fucked up, man. And she's the, I mean, those spouses are always the prime suspect. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. And they figure out just three months later, not only does she get her 400 grand, she's already dating. What? And they're like, this doesn't look like she's morning. Yeah. And then also they ended up talking to the insurance company and they said that Melissa never inquired about the insurance money. She never called and asked about it. She never filled it. She had, she acted like she didn't know it existed. Never tried to get it, huh? She never tried to get it. She never called the insurance company and even even said does my husband have a policy? Nothing at all. So that's interesting. So they didn't know what to do. After that, they're like, okay, she's dating, but I mean, she didn't even know about the insurance and they asked her about seeing other men. And she said that she saw a man shortly after Ben's death because despite everything she wanted a normal life, she said. Okay. She said that if she felt like if she didn't try to pick up the pieces right then that she probably never would have. And she would have turned into a hermit. She was trying to get force herself to go back out there. And that might be, I mean, a therapist might have told her to do that, you know what I mean? Otherwise, I'm just going to sit at home and never, and then I'm going to be in need of a man when I'm in my 80s. And then I'm not going to, yeah, it's going to be harder to find one because they're all dead by that. Yeah. So it's at this point that they go, we don't think she did this. No? They said, no, they said she, I mean, they said, I mean, she's dating, but she never inquired about the life insurance. The whole motive is the life insurance in every other murder case. They inquire pretty quick about life insurance. It's usually the day after. This three months went by. She didn't say she didn't know. So they came to her and said, we got to pay you out for this. And she was like, there's life insurance. So they're like, I don't know what to do. Let's take another look at dawn, I guess. Five months after the murder of this is they turn their attention back to dawn. Obviously, because they found out that after the divorce, when she lost custody of Alyssa, she was also forced to pay him child support. Oh, he's the primary caregiver. So they were, she was paying $250 a month in child support. Wow. For medical insurance and shit like that. Yeah. So they're like, that might have pissed her off. Mm-hmm. So they looked deeper at dawn and James Matlene and they discover that dawn is not a great mother, first of all. In fact, she has a history of neglect and of not providing for her daughter. They said she would meet a guy and just stay the night at his house and leave her kids alone, shit like that. She also has two kids from a previous marriage. Okay. They're older than Alyssa, including a teenage son named Devon. He'll be involved in this whole thing as well. So they said, she said, they said, when her kids are calling up saying, we don't have any food in the house. Can you come bring us food? There's a problem. Yeah. Because they found out for relatives that happened sometimes. And the kids would say, we don't know where mom is and there's no food. Can you bring us food? That looks bad. So they started to uncover her history in and out of jail for drug addiction. Yeah. Which appears to be based on the ruling in court, the reason why she lost custody of Alyssa with drugs. She was getting arrested for drugs and had a drug problem and wouldn't take help, I guess they were saying, I think anyway. So they're croutons. They're trying to figure out, trying to break this alibi because James, he's got multiple felonies. This broads got felonies, but they're like, they said they're home all night watching movies. Oh, how do you break that? Right. Unless you have proof otherwise, there's no way to break that. Then just that, just on a random whim, they started going around to the stores around them and asking for surveillance footage from that day if they still had it. I think you never know. Maybe they stopped somewhere. There's a 7-11 nearby and surveillance footage from the 7-11 shows James in the store making purchases at the time where they said they were home drinking and never left the house. James. So they're like, we don't like that at all. Yeah. I mean, could have just gotten drunk and went for some day, Jerky, but still, you never know. So now they follow Dawn and James around the cops now. They trail them for six months and they're not hiding. No. They're in plain sight, wave an atom. Has it gone? Oh, and trying to crack them basically, trying to make them crazy. So James continues to get arrested for things too. No, because he's a dipshit. He's a dipshit. He's 23. He's a dummy. He gets arrested for stealing cigarettes at one point. Is that right? Yes. And they try to, every time he gets arrested for something else, they, they don't even ask him about that. And they're like, the night of Ben's murder now, blah, blah, blah. Now that we can talk to you because you're in here. So but he never craved. I always said, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I'm home drinking, watching movies. Leave me alone. I stole cigarettes, but I didn't do that. But then Dawn one night shit faced hammer drunk. It's fucked up. Fucked up drunk. She called the police and said, I'm coming to talk to you. Uh oh. I'm on. I'm on. This is Dawn. I give them. You even following me? Come on. So, um, I'm gonna come there. It's okay. Wait for, bring, forget snacks. So this is Dawn. You guys want to hang out? So she's, she came to talk. Yeah. And she admitted that she had anger about her relationship with her ex husband, but she out of nowhere, she says, I never asked James to kill him. Oh. Okay. Okay. I didn't. And they said the fact that she's shit faced means none of this is usable or they can't do anything with it. I mean, if they have a murder suspect and they go pick them up to talk to him, they ask them a million, a million times that they look like they've smoked. You under the end. I told you. They don't, they will not talk to you because it won't hold up. It's they'll get thrown right out of court. So they, uh, they said, fuck, she's shit faced and she's probably unreliable and who knows what she's talking about. So they had to let her go. Mm hmm. November 2009 comes around. Wow. Been years now. Yeah. Dawn gets a doy. Oh. Okay. Dawn gets arrested for D.O. She's a doy. Yeah. And she's been in jail for two weeks. No booze. No drugs. No cigarettes. No nothing. Now at the same time, this is going on her son from a previous marriage, Devon, who's 17 at this point or 16 when he comes forward, he comes forward and tells investigators he needs to talk to them. Oh, he said he heard his mother tell James that she wanted Ben dead. He said, yeah. So he's telling all of this and, um, wow, they said basically if not for him coming in, they have nothing and he comes in. He said he heard his mother and James drunkenly discussing killing him on February 20th the day before 2008. They said that, yeah, um, Devon said that the night before the shooting, they were shit faced and talking about killing Ben so she could regain custody of their daughter and stop paying child support. What? 250 bucks a month is worth murder. What? What the fuck? Wow. So Devon said that they wanted him dead. She wanted James Matlene to go out and kill him. They were talking about the custody. When they get drunk, they went way overboard and they were both under the influence. Oh my God. He also said that his mother had tells James, quote, uh, just that he wants Ben to, quote, just die in a random spontaneous burst or flame of flames or for James to just go out and kill him. You know, one of the other. Wow. Just a fireball or my boyfriend goes over and shoots him all he sleeps. Yeah, you know, something less than that. Just hit by a meteor or we just planned to shoot him. What the fuck? Mitchell also said, this is the kid, Devon Mitchell. He said he went to bed between 11 PM in midnight and when he got up the next morning, quote, the cops ran our door and said Ben was dead and had been murdered. So Devon said, it left me speechless. The next morning, he turns out to actually be dead. It was not expect how I was expecting my day to go. Right. So he hears we should kill him. We should kill him. We should kill him next morning. He wakes up to he's dead. It's hard to refute that, right? What do you, yeah. So the prosecutors, they think if it's them, James is the one who did it. So they said to Dawn, if you tell us everything against James, you get immunity, which is crazy. Wow. Because he definitely doesn't kill that guy unless she encourages it. So you do not get hurt. I would think Ben's brother said it was like making a deal with the devil. Now Dawn claims that she was not referring to Ben when she said my ex, she was referring to an ex boyfriend named Rick, a totally different guy. There's just so many exes. It's, you know, I, I date a lot, but this was Rick, not James or not Ben. And she said that she and James were irritated about that. And that's the discussion turned to Ben about Ben because that's another person that irritates her. And then he said, I didn't say I wanted Ben dead. I said, I wanted him to fall off the face of the earth. Well that's the, is he alive? If he's out in the atmosphere, probably not. I didn't want him to die. I just wanted him to completely disappear and cease to exist. Is that something? Right. He's really not making a case for her. Holy shit. When informed of, because they get all this out of her and then they go, okay, because your son came in and told us A B and C. And she said, she said that she didn't want to believe that her son would think of her like that. And then they said you had no active involvement in Ben's death. And she said, no, absolutely not. She said she became intimate with Matt Leane in January 2008, about six weeks before the death and continued their relationship until August 2009. They were living together immediately. So they said, for 17 months after you learned, quote, it had been done, you maintained a romantic relationship. Why would you make love with the man that killed your husband? Great question. Her answer, because I did. Oh, let me hold on. Let me write that down. Hold on, wait a second. So did you, did you said because I did? Okay. I want to get that all down. I might know. Very important for posterities, purposes, you know. So shortly after the relationship, she admitted that she called the sheriff's investigator and said, quote, if I confess to the murder of my ex-husband, would you put me in prison? I don't care how drunk you are. I think you probably know the answer to that question. Probably. She said that wasn't an admission of guilt though. No, no, she said, I told him I wanted it over with. I was drinking myself to death, meaning she told James that. I was drinking myself to death. I couldn't take it anymore and the knowing and not telling. They said, don't you think you should go to prison for your involvement in your husband's death? Right. And she said, no, I do not. Why not? She said, James never admitted directly that he even shot Ben. So she never knew for sure. I couldn't be. I was there. He said, it's been done. Yeah. And then the cop showed up and said he was dead, but I can't make those two things hungry together. So again, do that. She said, I asked him if he set foot in that house and I got three different stories. I do not know if James pulled that trigger or not. She said though shortly before midnight, February 20th, she and James started talking about Ben. She said, then James was on the phone with somebody and he asked me if I really wanted Ben killed. I told him, no, no, we'd been drinking a lot that night. In my mind, it was definitely not real. I knew my daughter was over there. Basically I said, whatever, it wasn't really happening. We were drunk. It wasn't real. Okay. I told him no more than once. I sat down on the couch. The TV was on or the lights. He was on the phone standing at the edge of the kitchen counter. I passed out on the couch. The next thing I know, James is waking me up and saying, quote, it was done. It's done. It was done. He said he led, she said he led me to believe Ben was dead. She said she then took James's truck to his mother's house and then returned home. I don't know why that. I asked him if he's serious. Is it real? Is this really happening? And he said, yes. She said they agreed to tell the cops they'd been home all night watching movies. That'll be the best course of action here. We were drunk. Let's pretend it didn't happen. So she said, I asked him what happened. He explained to me, he whispered in Ben's ear. He said, this is for lying about dawn. And then he was killed. So she also said that James told her he used her bank of America card at the Riverview 7-11 ATM machine to withdraw $40, which he spent at Walmart and North, North Douglas County for quote, duct tape shoes, shotgun shells, gloves and towels. It's a good bargain if you can get all that for 40 bucks. Yeah, not bad. Talk about low prices, Jesus. So they go to arrest James. The fun part is it's easy because he's already in jail. Is he for something else? He's serving an eight month sentence for stealing four cartons of cigarettes from a convenience store in April 2009. You are trash. Hurtons. You are trash. That is dexamallly. That is, that is trash. Are you joking? So the police said the investigation has been going on for some time. A lot of people may have thought we weren't diligently working on it. There was a lack of evidence, but the investigation never went away. A minimum of two investigators were assigned to the case at all times while working on other cases. So in other words, the back of their mind, but they moved on. Yeah. At one point, there was a secret witness reward of up to $33,000 for the arrest of the killer. As time passed, the amount dwindled to $2,500. They said, we made sure we were doing anything we could to solve the case. It's been a major agenda in this department. The investigators put their heart and soul into it. And then he created the detectives and said, it's been hard on them. We liked to have a resolution faster, but we never gave up and it paid off. Now, what does James have to say about Don throwing them under the bus? What's he got to say? He said, let me tell you what Don did. You're so much she did. Oh, really? Let me throw it back on her. He said that we drank and took mushrooms on February 28th. He said we were eating mushrooms and drinking Southern comfort, which is a what a weird combination that is. Southern comfort and stealing cigarettes. You are the trashiest trash that's ever trashed. That is so such trash. He said Don came home early from work. She was very angry and she kept drinking. She kept saying she wanted bed and dead. I told her I would do it. Oh, he claimed that Don talked about wanting dead and been dead because she wasn't happy with the child support that she had to pay. And he said I told her I would do it. So Don said, kill Ben and Melissa. Kill them both. Yeah. You know, and like her either. She drew a diagram of the house and showed me where to go. Oh boy. I shot Ben and got so afraid I ran out the front door. I couldn't shoot Melissa. He said he stood there. He turned the gun to her for a second, but he's like, I don't even know this fucking lady. I can't do it. I can't shoot a shh. It's even if it's 1% of a moral to shoot a sleeping woman. It's crazy. You have to hear your grandfather going, you pussy. You're going to shoot a sleep. And what you have to hear something like that? You're ahead. What are you doing? Like I can't do that. So he said that in addition to that, they said, well, where was Don during all this? He said, fucking with me at the house. Wow. She was there. They were like, what? And she goes, yeah, he said I had to convince her not to take a lissa from the house. Oh my. She wanted a grab a lissa on the way out. And I said, they're going to fucking know it's us. If we have the kid, Jesus Christ. Are you out of your stupid fucking mind? He said that, yeah, Don said, did you kill Melissa? But he said he just couldn't pull the trigger again, Andrea, to the first time. He says Don accompanied him to Walmart where he purchased the shells for the 12 gauge that he owned. When they arrived at the residence, he said they tried to enter through the front door, but it was locked. So they went through a sliding glass door and Don showed him where the bedroom was located. They were asleep. He said, quote, I shot the gun at the back of Ben's head. Don went to a lissa's bedroom and wanted to take her. I told her no. I told her to wait in the truck. She came back in the house and we both ran out of the house, got in the truck and left. And he said he hid the shotgun for two days and then destroyed it. Wow. Through it, you know, wherever the fucking different dumpsters. So that's gone. So Don has immunity though. None of this matters. Yeah. She's got full immunity to this. Literally cannot be charged in this murder at all. So she served six months in Douglas County jail in October 2009 after her probation was revoked for a second conviction of driving under the influence. She told the judge that she'd been using alcohol as an escape since her ex-husband's murder. She's real broken up about it. Wow. So James goes to court. He appears, you know, by himself there and everything. And so he's waving his preliminary right. They said you're hearing rights. They said you're waving your rights to a preliminary hearing within 15 days. Is that what you want to do? He says, yes, sir. They said without seeking the advice of counsel. And he said, yes, sir, all right. So they go, okay, we acknowledge your waiver. And the prosecutor says it forces both parties to keep on track and not have delays. And James said, okay, we'll have a hearing Wednesday. He also said, James says, I want to say I'm challenging the jurisdiction in this case. Why? Yeah. It's where he got killed. What are you talking about? And they said, well, you should get a lawyer and tell him about that because you can't do that. You're not pro pro say at this point. Sure. You can't do it. So Melissa, poor Melissa, she got followed around for months. Her Ben's whole, I'm not as, I don't know if it's the whole family, but a good portion of his family thought she was a fucking murderer. The whole town thought she was a scumbag and a money hungry murderer. And she's just sad. This poor woman, she attended the hearing with a dozen family members and she said, I'm glad this is going somewhere. I want to give a very big thank you to the detectives who worked on this constantly and to the community and Western Nevada supply for their constant support, both emotional and financial. I think that's where he worked. So James says he's James's dad says he's innocent. Even though he completely admitted to doing this. He says he didn't fucking do this. You kidding me? This is dad David. He said he did not attend the hearing. He said his son is being prosecuted because of a multi million dollar lawsuit that him, David, the father filed against the county. Oh, my last solution forced them to say my son's a murderer. He said in February 2009, I filed a multi million dollar lawsuit against Douglas County, justice of the peace, Jim and Earl, who is the judge in this case, by the way, district attorney Mark Jackson and Sheriff Ronald Peerine for violations of constitutional law. He said the county and public officials were required to file bonds with the county clerk's office before executing their official duties and had not. Oh, so they don't have their bond. There's a bond thing that you didn't get. That's a thing. So he said nothing they did matter. The county contests the liability bonds are in place as required by Nevada statutes. So David says what, so what happens when you back the officials in a corner, they go after your family. They do. Yeah. They know they don't have any bonds. So they go after my family. My son James did not murder anyone. Oh, counties just coming after my family because of the lawsuit I filed against them. All right. This whole family sounds fucking wacky. So March 2011, Dawn is immune to murder charges. Is she's not immune to drug charges? No. Especially when she is caught here with her, this better not be a Lisa. No, too young, too old to be a Lisa. She's arrested for involving her 15 year old daughter, previous of Ben. Yeah. In multiple drug transactions. Oh, for heaven's sake. Scum. They alleged that they can, investigators conducted three separate controlled purchases of prescription meds from the subjects, totaling more than 70 pills and tablets. They said that she needs to stay in jail until she has arranged a visit with her daughter. The judge said there's many results from the crime that you committed that just don't harm you or the community, but members of your family. I can't allow myself to forget the actual facts of the case. You used your daughter as the instrumentality to commit felonies. As long as you shake your head and deny the truth, you will remain where you are. You're a scumbag. And he said, you need to meet with your daughter to tell her it's not her fucking fault. Make sure she knows that. I want you to sit there and tell her this is all mom's fault. You did nothing wrong. I did. It's not her fault. Yeah. She's only 15. So at sentencing for her, she had little to say until they made the judge made a reference to a pre-sentence investigation report. And he said, in case you haven't noticed, this is exactly what your father did to you. Now we're getting a, this is how Dawn was raised. That's why Dawn is like this. Yeah. If the judge said, this is what your father did to you. You used, hey, you for drug transactions. You never had a fucking chance. You never had a chance. For sure. I don't even blame her anymore. So I blame her for the murder, but not for the rest of her life. So she said, please do not bring my father into this. Nothing is the same. You're yelling at me for my father. Yeah, kind of. Which is, I don't think that you don't argue with a judge like you argue with your boyfriend. You know what I mean? Don't bring my father in. Don't you dare bring that up. You don't even know my father. I want a gavill, ma'am. You don't shit. She said, it's the judge said, I'm yelling at you for not breaking the cycle. I don't want to see your daughter standing before me in belly chains like you are. Right. So Dawn asked if her daughters would be able to visit her in prison. And he said that he would make that determination in custody cases involving the girls. He said, I think it's appropriate. You retain relationships with both your daughters. He denied a motion that Dawn be allowed to participate, to participate in a drug rehab program before going to prison. He said he would recommend that she be released to the program when she earns parole. Okay. On the back end. Yeah. He said, it will fit with Miss Oxley's stated intention of changing her life. I don't want to give her, I don't want to give short shrift to her desire to recover. I think this is the appropriate order of business. Her lawyer pointed out that the offense was Oxley's first felony conviction and she deserves the minimum sentence. The lawyer said I think she realizes what a huge mistake she's made in her life. Handler. She said she faces termination of her parental rights in a hearing in December and she's got to be a witness in an upcoming murder trial. She's got a lot going on in your honor. As a judge says, unless she's going to be doing it from prison for a while, you, ma'am, may fuck off 90 months in prison. Oh my. Yeah, because she's violating probation and everything else. And you got to make an example when someone involves her, her kids and drugs. Talk about that. Don't involve your kids in a legal shit. That's awful. No. So you have the balls to do it on your own if you have to do it, but you don't involve them. So she 90 months, she's already got some time served. We'll talk about that. Now for James, the district attorney's office decided they will not seek the death penalty against James. Oh, the prosecutor said he filed a notice with the district court and said the district attorney's office has determined that the statutory requirements for the death penalty are not met by the facts of the case. He didn't steal anything. He didn't do anything like that. This critical decision was reached after careful consideration was given to the constitutional and legal requirements that were sworn to uphold. They said that the statute requires the existence of aggravators that outweigh the evidence and mitigation. He said there are 15 statutory aggravators that include such things as torture, multiple deaths, a prior conviction for murder, murder committed after the commission of a sexual assault, murders committed on police officers. He said, well, all murder cases are aggravated in the general sense of the word. Not all murders have facts that meet the definition of the statutory aggravators. In addition, the statutory requirements are that there are constitutional concerns that also need to be adhered to. So penalties for murder in the first degree also include life without parole, life with possibility of parole after 20 years or a definite term of 50 years with a possibility of parole after 20 has been served. So that's all on the table. Now Matt Leane has pled not guilty to first degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. His attorney said, I talked to James and his mother and they're relieved. It's a difficult decision to file that notice, but Tom Gregory, the prosecutor, has always been a stand up guy. I'm very happy. Yeah. Good guy. That's what's up is how we deal with the case and defend it. Nothing about the decision today. Mutes are angered against Dawn Oxley. March 16, 2012. James pleads guilty. He has to. He's fucked. They're going to have Dawn go up there and I mean, he's in a lot of trouble. He admitted it to he confessed. I mean, he's shit out of luck. He doesn't really. His defense is, well, she was there too, which is like, that's great. Well, deal with her, but you is the problem. Is it about you, man? So he pleads guilty to first degree murder. That's the only one they would take. Following his conviction, Alyssa, who is 10 at this point, what a fucking, this kid is awesome. She asked to speak to him. Oh, really? At 10. What a fucking, that's a ployons on this fucking kid. I'm impressed with this girl. She said, I told him that I decided to forgive him and that I wanted him to have hope. Now, if I am a murderer and I murdered this guy and this cute, adorable, ten-year-old girl comes up in her ten-year-old girl voice and says this to me, I'm going to go hang myself. I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry and then try every day to kill myself because I suck. I would just be so miserable with myself that I did that. I'd be like, oh my god, that little girl forgives me, fuck my life. Fucking wow. God, that's so, man, she's going to be in her 20s now too. I bet she's successful. I just bet. Really? Yeah. Anyway, sentencing, she said, I'm taking full responsibility for what I did. Dawn needs to take full responsibility for what she did. Oh. The judge says, well, she has immunity unfortunately for you. So instead, you, sir, may fuck off life without parole. Jesus. So he pled to that. He's like, I think he's like 26 at this point, but happened when he was in his 20s. Now May 2012, there's a date line episode. And Melissa by 2012, Melissa has custody of Alyssa. She's raising her. She's raising her. Alyssa, that's liquor mom to her now. That's it. They're a little pair and they go about the world together. She said she was going to watch the date line with Alyssa, who was 10 at that point. She said, I'm nervous. I don't get a chance to see it before anyone else. I hope it portrays the story accurately. She said it was Alyssa's decision to be a part of the program too. She said they wanted them to be a part. She said, I left it up to her. She said Alyssa chose to do the interview. She's been very grown up about the whole situation. I guess so. She went to work. Fascinating. Fucking talk to him. A 10 year old would be so scared of a murder. And she said, I want to talk to that guy. Let me tell him what to want. Wow. That is just like a very impressive. A very impressive. A very calmness to a kid that I haven't heard about before. She added that she hoped that the chapter of their lives would end with James' sentencing, but the killer's appeal would keep the story in the forefront. His appeals are bullshit anyway. So she said just because I have a heart, I hope James finds some hope, but that doesn't mean I want him to get out of prison. There's a consequence to what James did. I think he belongs in there. I wouldn't change my opinion about that. His second chance was that he gets to live. He denied that to my husband. That's fair. That's fair. On the today's show also, she agreed that Dawn Rebearer's responsibility. Yes. She said, I'm hoping that the truth just comes out of all out in the end of it all. And when it's all said and done, I believe that she should have a punishment for her part and it own up to that. She's a her dickhead. Yeah. Yeah. She could own up to it. She's got a immunity. It doesn't matter. So she said that she hopes Dawn will claim responsibility not only for the sake of her and Melissa, but for the fuck's sake, tell your daughter the truth. Jesus Christ. Melissa calls a Lissa a strong little girl. And you know, she brought up that she asked to speak to the guy in court like that is Balzy. Melissa said that from the first, she told Melissa that they would approach her father's murder with compassion no matter who it turned out to be. She said, I always told her pretty much from day one, whenever we found out who did this, we'd have to be able to forgive them at some point in order to go on. We got to look them in the face too. What balanced people? Just sane, so 2014 Dawn is released from prison. Is that right? Absolutely. So by also since then, they say with with the guy with Melissa's guidance, their mother and daughter now, Melissa and Melissa and the crazy shit is they have another member of the family that they've taken in. Brandy, who is a Lissa's half sister, the girl that Dawn got busted making with the drug stuff. With the drug stuff. Yeah. That girl. About her in the house now. She, she brought her in too. Oh, every time Dawn fucks up and loses a kid, they end up with Melissa, scoops them up and and and say put some sanity on them. Wow. So this angel of a woman, this fucking angel is the one that's going to be the one that is. Wow. Raising a Lissa and this kid's not even her husband's. Right. Has nothing to do with her. She's just a fucking beautiful person who wants to help people. This is a, this Melissa hats off to you, Melissa. If you hear this, you're amazing. You're fucking incredible. And honestly, you and that's incredible. And you're fixing Dawn's life. One child had a dime. Yeah. You're fixing, you're fixing her fuck ups. Yeah. Fixing every mistake she makes. Wow. She's sugar in the gas tank of her life and you're going through it with a fucking strainer trying to get it all out. But in the new motor and God damn it. She said that she had no connections to Brandy, but she's committed to paving a new way forward for herself and Alyssa. And that's the list of sister and Alyssa's worried about her. So she's not going to let her go in a foster care. So she'll take her. She said welcoming Brandy as she had Alyssa became her mother and give them the safe family that they needed. And so yeah. And once the investigation was over, she got to list a back full time. James is at the Eli, Eli, Eli, stay prison. Ellie Eli. He's in there. His offender booking ID is 71222. And he is never getting out. Never. He is shit out of lock Dawn. Who knows what she's doing from what I understand. People said that she like got her shit together. Yeah. And kind of cleaned up her life a little bit and is going by an assumed name and kind of just looking quiet. So who knows? We don't know. But either way, feel bad for Ben. He didn't know that she had Alyssa. You get like the murder story participant of the year was. She's amazing from our show. You get it. What an understanding, outgoing, caring, the heart on this woman is not just the fact that she wanted to be that nice to the child. Yeah. And then the fact that she even after the husband's gone. So it's not just all I'm trying to get in good with him. This is just your genuine who she is. That's insane. For nothing. For nothing. Wow. How do you do? That's wild. So if you like this story, let everybody know. Get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. It really, really helps drive the show up the charts. Head over to shutupandgivemeertor.com. Get your merchandise. Get your tickets for live shows starting off in February 21st in Nashville, Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix Salt Lake City Denver Buffalo Royal Oak Millwalkie Minneapolis Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Terry Town and Boston. They're all for sale and a lot of them are selling very fast. 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