Oct. 15, 2025
178: The Ricin Physician - Part 01
Listener, what happens when your home is destroyed in an accident and you lose everything? You have no home to go to, and are adrift without the people you love who you rely on to make difficult times easier to bear. You feel abandoned and alone. What happens if that ‘accident’ that destroyed your home and killed your loved ones wasn’t actually determined to be an accident at all, but something far more sinister, caused by the last person on earth you’d suspect?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Let's get on with it Welcome listener.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad you're here.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Take a seat next to the fire Welcome to Obscura where we shine a light on the dark
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah Jones was born on February 28, 1951, to her parents, Bob and Joanne, in Havana, in the state of Illinois.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah was born 19 months after older sister Pamela.
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[SPEAKER_01]: From a young age, who was cleared of both Deborah's teachers and her family, that her level of academic aptitude far exceeded that of her classmates.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Our talent's extended to the piano and violin.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She loved to read novels and was an natural when it came to athletic pursuits like tennis and soccer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Following the family relocating due to Bob's work, Deborah started attending Menomora Township High School in Illinois.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Endeavor's junior year of high school, the family relocated again.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This time to a farming community in near Piora, where Deborah attended Piora Central High School.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Far from being a typical awkward teen who had trouble making friends as a new student.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah had no trouble fitting in at her new high school environment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She developed a reputation as someone with quick wit.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Becoming a cheerleader, serving on the student council, and joining the choir and the French club, Deborah's IQ of 165 and her perfect GPA, made it clear to her peers and teachers that she was someone who was going places, so came as no surprise that when Deborah graduated high school, she was named as both a National Merit Scholar, Incovella Dictorian of her class.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In 1969, 18-year-old Deborah started attending the University of Illinois, where she majored in chemistry.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She eventually broke up with her high-school sweetheart, but it wasn't long until she met and started dating an engineering student named Dwayne Green, in terms of her future career aspirations.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah's first passion was chemical engineering, but when she graduated college in 1972, she found herself reconsidering her chosen career path,
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[SPEAKER_01]: The competition for jobs within the chemical engineering sector at the time was tough, so Deborah re-evaluated her options.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah and Dwayne married in 1974, and Deborah decided to enroll in medical school.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1975,
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[SPEAKER_01]: always the go-getter.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah chose the high-pressure fast-paced specialty of emergency medicine.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By the time she was undertaking a residency, Deborah and Dwayne had moved to the city of Independence in the nearby state of Missouri, newlywed bliss one last long though, and by 1978, the couple had divorced.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In the book, bitter harvest by late author Anne Rull, it was reported that Deborah and Twain's split was believed to be amicable, but a year before the divorce was finalized, Deborah had already met somebody else.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 23-year-old Michael Ferrar was a talented medical student with a bright future.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Even though he was four years Deborah's junior, Michael was attracted to her drive and intelligence.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In Deborah, a fell secure and her new relationship with someone she fell was a reliable partner.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The Pairmarried in May 1979, a Michael later stated that the relationship wasn't one of typical newlyweds, and that neither he nor devour have expressed their love for each other verbally.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Much to Michael's disappointment, Tever showed no interest in getting to know Michael's family, more spending quality time with her new in-laws.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael also harbored concerns about his brights' temper, which at times could be volatile and unpredictable, but her ambition and passion to succeed was energizing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Following Michael's graduation from medical school at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, in Deborah, moved to Ohio, or Michael commenced a three-year residency in internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah continued to work as an emergency physician, but she soon tired of the specialty, decided to join Michael and his internal medicine residency.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was following the couple's moved to Ohio that Deborah's health started to suffer.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She required surgery on an infected wrist, and also experienced crippling migraines as well as insomnia.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Despite these medical issues, Debra and Michael welcomed their first child Tim into the world on January 20th, 1982.
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[SPEAKER_01]: 31-year-old Debra, wasted no time getting back to work following the birth.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And bullied an Annie to help look after Tim after taking six weeks maternity leave.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By this stage of her career, Deborah was undertaking a fellowship in hematology and oncology, but again, took maternity leave two years later for the birth of the couple second child K-1984.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah completed her fellowship and opened her own practice in 1985.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael II was in the final stage of his fellowship in cardiology, which he completed in 1986.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was that same year that the for our family moved back to Missouri, putting down roots in Kansas City, the Solina Journal newspaper reported that from 1986 to 1994, the couple worked at Trinity Lutheran Hospital with Michael Hussle working at North Kansas City Hospital.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Feeling established, Deborah opened a private practice during this period.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A much-tour disappointment, the hospital or practice was attached to suddenly closed.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And she found herself pregnant for a third time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The pregnancy was an unexpected surprise.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A Michael was thrilled about the impending arrival of another child.
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[SPEAKER_01]: However, for Deborah, this was not part of the plan.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And she resented her dreams of pursuing a private practice being put on hold long-term.
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[SPEAKER_01]: On December 13, 1988, the couple second daughter and third child Kelly was born.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The 37-year-old Deborah struggled in the postpartum period.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The founder levels of self-esteem pulmining as she struggled to lose the baby wave following her pregnancy with Kelly.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Despite this challenge and no longer working in a private practice, Debra came to find a new identity in Motherhood and went that extra mile to ensure that every birthday and the holidays were memorable for children.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael later remembered his wife as nothing less than a dedicated mother to their young family.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Debra and Michael's professional and financial success meant they were able to afford not only the best education for their children, but also managed to help the household
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[SPEAKER_01]: The kids attended a private school in Kansas City, world-manor of extracurricular activities and opportunities were available.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Tim was passionate about sports, especially soccer and ice hockey.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He also loved to cook and add a strong social conscience, sticking up for other kids at school, were targeted by bullies.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Kay was a talented ballet dancer, and by the time she was ten years old, was performing with the state ballet of Missouri.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Kelly had inherited her mother's love of reading, and all three children took swimming in tennis lessons.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah had been an animal lover all her life.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Much storage children's delight.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The family adopted a black lab or a named boomer, who subbed in the children's bedrooms.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They were mixed reports from other parents that the children's school bought Deborah's involvement in her kids' lives.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Some said she was nothing less than encouraging, but to others, she appeared overbearing and critical of her children's performance.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And any who worked for the family later recalled that on one occasion, Deborah told her,
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[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't want kids.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I never had.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just doing it for Mike.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But despite being in a position to afford private schooling and activities for children, Devour's work suffered when her health issues returned.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Up until 1989, she continued to work at Trinity Lutheran Hospital.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Till she eventually made the difficult decision to stop full-time work.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, she would work part-time from the family home, which would also allow her to be more involved in her children's education and after school activities.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Ever and my child, a new nanny, who would stay with the family for the next four years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But it was a big change for Deborah academically.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She was no longer in the thick of work she found challenging and engaging.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, working on medical peer reviews and processing Medicaid claims.
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[SPEAKER_01]: For Debra, the work was dull and uninspiring, and it didn't go unnoticed amongst the former colleagues.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We'd always describe Debra as having a terrible bedside manner when it came to our interactions with patients.
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[SPEAKER_01]: which were unempathetic to save the least.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was also around this time that Deborah's behavior towards Michael appeared to shift.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Gone was the supportive wife who had once found her husband dependable.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Interpolice was woman who had instead become suspicious and obsessive about her husband.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Who started working longer hours and had attempt to escape the tension at home.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In an effort to dull the chronic physical pain she was experiencing, 38-year-old Deborah started self-medicating with an array of sedatives and narcotics.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Some of which were prescribed illegally.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This continued for the next several years and effected her moods, coping skills, inability to contribute equally to household tests, such as cooking and cleaning, to such a degree that Michael confronted his wife on several occasions.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah would eventually agree that it wasn't a healthy way to manage her pain long-term.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The shorter husband that she would stop being over-reline on prescription medication, but Deborah's temper was still proving unpredictable.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The look better of his details how.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Irrespective of whether she was in the family home, a professional setting with patients and colleagues, or crowded shopping mall, Deborah's angry outbursts started to see her destroy things and even arm herself.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By the early 90s, Deborah was also involving the children in our arguments with Michael, vending her frustrations with her father in the process, manipulating the kids in such a way that they turned against him.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Their eldest child, Tim, was so angry with his father that their relationship became fraught, with the usual parent-teacher disagreements escalating to physical confrontations.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and Mercury newspaper later reported that on one occasion, Michael knocked him to the ground during an argument, and on another, pushed him into a wall.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By early 1994, 38-year-old Michael had had enough.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In January, he told Deborah he wanted to divorce, and to say that she didn't take it well, isn't understatement.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Never lashed out a Michael, becoming physically violent, causing him to move out of the family home and into an apartment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The children would stay with Deborah, and even though things were bad between her and Michael, they agreed at the time to share custody of the kids.
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[SPEAKER_01]: With Michael on in the house, this provided a respite from the constant strain between a husband and wife, and the temporary abatement of tension provided some hope that cooler heads would prevail.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael and Deborah maintain contact and an effort to rectify things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Both agreed to a fresh start as a family unit by moving into a bigger house.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In May 1994, a couple set their sights on purchasing a six-bedroom home, located in the affluent suburb of Prairie Village, across the state line in Kansas.
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[SPEAKER_01]: However, Michael started to have second thoughts, and the sale fell through when he realized a such a financial commitment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: would mean in the face of trying to save a marriage which was hanging by a thread.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The prospect of the couple getting into even more dead wasn't something that's uncomfortable with Michael and went against his better judgment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Wasn't long after Tebran Michaels plans to move or canceled that the family suffered another blow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A May 21st 1994, while the family was out, they're existing home callfire.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The cause was identified as accidental, thanks to an electrical fall from a power cord.
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[SPEAKER_01]: the House sustained significant damage.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But thankfully, the financial impact of repairing the home, and replacing the family's damaged belongings was absorbed by the insurance payout.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This prompted Deborah and Michael to reconsider the aborted purchase of the home in Prairie Village.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And in the interim, Deborah and the children moved into Michael's apartment that he'd been running during the separation.
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[SPEAKER_01]: With the purchase of the $400,000 Prairie Home finalized in June, 1994,
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[SPEAKER_01]: The family moved in.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In addition to 18 rooms, a pool, four-car garage, and a jacuzzi, the three-level 5,000 square foot shooter style home, also boasted an intercom system.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The master bedroom was situated on ground level, while the children's bedroom and bathroom occupied the second story.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Prairie Village was home to high flyers and people who had succeeded in their fields, and the police shall size of the homes in the area
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[SPEAKER_01]: Never felt like she was finally home, amongst people as successful as she was.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This was somewhere that she and Michael could finally get their marriage back on track.
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[SPEAKER_01]: For a brief period, 43-year-old Deborah seemed to do a complete 180 when it came to home-making responsibilities.
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[SPEAKER_01]: putting increased effort into cooking meals and being house-proud.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael also took the opportunity as a wake-up call when it came to maintaining a better work-life balance.
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[SPEAKER_01]: He cut back on his hours and worked to allow him to focus on his marriage and family.
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[SPEAKER_01]: but despite the lifestyle changes, the couple made an attempt to patch up their failing marriage.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Their new found happiness was short-lived.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By the end of 1994, the couple were back to square one and arguing just as much.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If not more.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The one remaining chance of salvaging the marriage was their family vacation to Peru.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Scheduled for June 1995 in conjunction with a school trip for Tim.
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[SPEAKER_01]: For Michael, this will be the Maker Break gluttonous test for the relationship.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was well on vacation and Peru, the Michael Mette and other parents who's child attended the same school as the for our children.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They would come on the school trip to Shaperone.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Like Michael and Deborah, Margaret Hacker and her husband also worked in the medical sector.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And a couple had two children.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Margaret worked as registered nurse while her husband was an anesthesiologist.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And more Michael got to know Margaret over the course of the trip.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was revealed that she, too, was in an unhappy marriage.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And the attraction between Michael and Margaret was undeniable.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Upon returning from Peru, Michael and Margaret continue to spend time together.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a long, before the pair were having an affair.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael knew there was no future for him and Deborah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And in late July, 1995, he asked her for a divorce.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to take such an announcement, lying down.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Debra was distraught and told the children their father was abandoning them.
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[SPEAKER_01]: During this time, Deborah continued to drink heavily, and following Michael's decision, Deborah's level of alcohol consumption increased dramatically, and she often drank until she passed out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Given that Deborah continued to drive their kids to and from school and their extracurricular activities, Michael was so concerned about his wife's level of alcohol intake that he decided to continue to live in the family home to ensure his children were safe and appropriately supervised.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Devers' failure to maintain housework in meal preparation tests meant that 13-year-old Tim was doing the majority of the cooking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Devers ongoing heavy drinking saw continued to spiral out of control.
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[SPEAKER_01]: On August 4, she called Michael a work, telling him she was walking along the busy city roads in the hope that she'd be hidden killed by a car.
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[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael raised around to the house, he searched every corner.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah eventually called Michael and told him she'd been hiding in the basement the whole time and that she wanted to make him worry about her.
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[SPEAKER_01]: On August 11, 1995, Michael suddenly fell ill with gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Given the family had just returned from Peru, Michael wrote off his symptoms as that of a lingering stomach bug that most of the group on the school trip had contracted.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Just when it seemed Michael was about to make a full recovery, a week after the onset of a symptoms his condition deteriorated.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And August 18th, Michael was admitted to a hospital, suffering from severe dehydration, weight loss, hand fever, and doctors considered his condition life threatening.
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[SPEAKER_01]: During his admission, Michael developed sepsis, which arose from bacteria leaking through his preferated gastrointestinal tract.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Despite confirming the origin of the infection, doctors failed to identify the actual cause, which was unable to be attributed to a parasite or any specific tropical disease.
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[SPEAKER_01]: A week later, Michael was discharged from the hospital, having made a significant recovery.
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[SPEAKER_01]: With that same night, the symptoms returned, and he was re-admitted.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing Michael had consumed was the evening meal, which was served by Deborah.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It could have been fixed by Tim, who's also doing most of the household cooking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael couldn't work out why he couldn't seem to shake the illness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps he was aggravated by trying to return to his usual diet too soon.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Michael was discharged from his second hospital admission on August 30th.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But on September 4th, he again fell ill for third time.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In return to the hospital where he would stay for another week.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Doctors were now convinced that the cause of Michael's reoccurring symptoms was contracted in Peru.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The problem was that none of Michael's debilitating symptoms seemed to fit precisely with any one diagnosis.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In the absence of any drastic dietary changes, Michael looked to psychosomatic factors in an effort to identify the cause of his illness.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Given that it symptoms returned almost immediately upon being discharged and ended Everest care on each occasion, he assumed it must have been due to stress and anxiety he was experiencing as his marriage crumbled.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But then another theory was given to Michael Witchblind sighted him.
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[SPEAKER_01]: His new partner Margaret, whom he had met on the Peru school trip, suggested that Deborah was poisoning her husband.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The whole idea was to preposterous to be true, but as outrageous as the proposition was, the seeds of Dow had been planted into Michael's mind.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The common precursor to all of Michael's hospitalizations was a he-e-food that he'd been served by Deborah.
20:08.463 --> 20:15.047
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael continued to turn over in his mind the possibility that Deborah wanted to seriously harm or even kill him.
20:15.907 --> 20:25.812
[SPEAKER_01]: By late September 1995, Michael decided to search the house to see if there was any truth the Margaret suggestion, a devil, was trying to poison her husband.
20:26.532 --> 20:35.316
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael went through Deborah's purse, he found a copy of a letter that he'd previously received from an anonymous author, asking him to reconsider the divorce.
20:36.156 --> 20:43.480
[SPEAKER_01]: He also found empty vials of potassium chloride, multiple packets of seeds which the packaging indicated as caster beans.
20:44.598 --> 20:52.082
[SPEAKER_01]: empty syringes, and a receipt from an early-made garden center in Olaitha dated August 7th that same year.
20:52.803 --> 20:57.706
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael decided to take the unusual items from Deber's purse and hide them for safekeeping.
20:58.366 --> 21:02.469
[SPEAKER_01]: On September 25th, he approached Deber up our plans for the Castro beans.
21:03.309 --> 21:10.312
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael knew that Debra didn't have a green thumb, so when she told him she was intending to plant the seeds, he didn't believe her.
21:10.932 --> 21:15.394
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra eventually admitted that she was planning to use the seeds to take her own life.
21:15.414 --> 21:23.477
[SPEAKER_01]: Immediately following the conversation with Michael about the Castro beans, Debra started drinking heavily and continued throughout the day.
21:24.018 --> 21:29.280
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael became so concerned about her behavior and his kids welfare, they called the police.
21:30.120 --> 21:34.121
[SPEAKER_01]: When law enforcement arrived at the home, officers found Deborah a drunken bed.
21:34.901 --> 21:37.902
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael told the officers he feared his wife a suicide.
21:38.662 --> 21:42.863
[SPEAKER_01]: But upon hearing this, Deborah began verbally abusing and cursing in Michael.
21:43.384 --> 21:50.585
[SPEAKER_01]: When she showed police the items he'd found in Deborah's purse, they decided it was best to take her to the nearest hospital for assessment.
21:51.246 --> 21:55.707
[SPEAKER_01]: When Deborah was examined, it was noted that she smelled a valkal and appeared to shovel.
21:57.015 --> 22:07.941
[SPEAKER_01]: After speaking with Debra, the emergency room doctor documented that despite her appearance, she was coping the best she could, giving her marriage as falling apart in acrimonious fashion.
22:08.581 --> 22:12.803
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra told the doctor she had no intention to self-harm hard anyone else.
22:13.904 --> 22:17.766
[SPEAKER_01]: And the assessment was progressing well until Michael arrived at the hospital.
22:18.506 --> 22:23.449
[SPEAKER_01]: When Debra spotted him, she washed out, spat at him, and called him a fuck hole.
22:24.447 --> 22:27.851
[SPEAKER_01]: Screaming, you're gonna get these kids over our dead bodies.
22:28.872 --> 22:36.300
[SPEAKER_01]: After staff managed to subdue Deborah, she agreed that being voluntarily committed would be beneficial in terms of monitoring her mental health.
22:36.781 --> 22:40.725
[SPEAKER_01]: But soon after, Deborah couldn't be found anywhere on the hospital grounds.
22:41.686 --> 22:45.849
[SPEAKER_01]: When she was finally located, she decided to walk home from the hospital.
22:46.589 --> 22:51.853
[SPEAKER_01]: She was still in agreement of our voluntary admission and was taken to a hospital and to beca.
22:52.753 --> 23:01.199
[SPEAKER_01]: It was here that Deborah was diagnosed with major bipolar depression with suicidal impulses and prescribed various medications.
23:02.436 --> 23:06.318
[SPEAKER_01]: After only a short stay of four days, Debra was discharged.
23:07.159 --> 23:13.703
[SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, Michael had used the brief rest but at home as an opportunity to research information about castor beans.
23:14.684 --> 23:18.406
[SPEAKER_01]: What he found out not only chilled him to the bone, but turned his stomach.
23:19.545 --> 23:26.591
[SPEAKER_01]: Caster Beans, which grow on the caster plant, are the source of a naturally occurring, but deadly chemical called rice in.
23:27.431 --> 23:32.095
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to Volapular culture, rice in is most commonly known as a bio-warfare region.
23:32.656 --> 23:46.266
[SPEAKER_01]: When the pulp of the caster Beans is ingested, even in miniscule quantities, rice and attacks the cells that wind the gastrointestinal tract, including the suffogist, stomach, and small and large intestine, causing all serration.
23:47.067 --> 23:54.529
[SPEAKER_01]: Symptoms include rapid dehydration, severe abdominal pain, low blood pressure, and an increased arm rate.
23:55.249 --> 23:58.190
[SPEAKER_01]: It was no wonder Michael symptoms returned with inventions.
23:58.570 --> 24:07.932
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time he returned home from the hospital in the Debra's care, as much as he can never have imagined it, Michael knew that Debra was using the beans to poisonous food.
24:09.232 --> 24:14.954
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite making the horror-wrenching decision to leave his children, Michael now held grave fears for a safety.
24:16.043 --> 24:18.827
[SPEAKER_01]: Things didn't improve for Deborah following her return home.
24:19.508 --> 24:22.552
[SPEAKER_01]: She continued to act in a bizarre manner, and drank heavily.
24:23.053 --> 24:26.658
[SPEAKER_01]: Prompting Michael to move out of the family home for good, on October 5th.
24:27.338 --> 24:32.846
[SPEAKER_01]: And what was Shirley in attempt to console the kids, who are perhaps herself, in the wake of Michael's departure?
24:33.707 --> 24:42.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah adopted a Greyhound named Russell, but the acquisition of a new pad didn't seem to play cake the fragile situation and the family home.
24:42.815 --> 24:56.307
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah was still angry with Michael, and in fifths of rage and drunkenness, ledger only lectured the children about their father and abandoned them all to be with Margaret, claiming he cared more about his new girlfriend, having his own kids.
24:57.433 --> 25:03.478
[SPEAKER_01]: October 23rd, 1995, was the first day of a brief home-based vacation for Michael Ferrar.
25:04.418 --> 25:15.466
[SPEAKER_01]: Only a month earlier, he'd been discharged from a third hospital admission for acute gastrointestinal symptoms, and he was easing back into work due to the physically debilitating nature of his illness.
25:16.593 --> 25:18.395
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael spent the afternoon with Margaret.
25:19.016 --> 25:22.982
[SPEAKER_01]: Then later picked up Tim and Kelly to go to a hockey game, Tim was playing.
25:23.803 --> 25:29.390
[SPEAKER_01]: Following the game, Michael dropped Tim and Kelly off at home at approximately 85 p.m.
25:30.171 --> 25:32.614
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael then had dinner with his girlfriend Margaret.
25:33.583 --> 25:36.366
[SPEAKER_01]: during which time he received two calls on his pager.
25:37.107 --> 25:42.592
[SPEAKER_01]: Just before he drove back to his apartment, had around 1130 p.m., he received a third call.
25:43.393 --> 25:46.596
[SPEAKER_01]: The calls were from Debra, whom he spoke to when he arrived home.
25:47.437 --> 25:49.339
[SPEAKER_01]: But soon, gone to an argument.
25:50.360 --> 25:58.225
[SPEAKER_01]: My call had had enough of Delver's heavy drinking and irresponsible behavior, especially considering she was the children's primary caregiver.
25:59.026 --> 26:04.049
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael accused Delver of poisoning him, and he threatened to contact social services to intervene.
26:04.789 --> 26:11.434
[SPEAKER_01]: When the phone call ended abruptly, Michael continued to watch television to try and unwind from the heated confrontation.
26:12.134 --> 26:15.796
[SPEAKER_01]: At 20 minutes after midnight, on October 24th, 1995, and I don't want one call was made
26:20.299 --> 26:25.202
[SPEAKER_01]: The nature of the emergency wasn't clear, as the caller hung up the phone without speaking.
26:26.843 --> 26:31.386
[SPEAKER_01]: Police were dispatched to the address, and when they arrived, they found the home ablaze.
26:33.027 --> 26:38.270
[SPEAKER_01]: When firefighters arrived, minutes later, they found Deborah and 10-year-old Kate outside the house.
26:39.497 --> 26:43.261
[SPEAKER_01]: But 13-year-old Tim, in six-year-old Kelly, were still inside.
26:44.121 --> 26:49.487
[SPEAKER_01]: A distraught Kay had no idea why her siblings had a managed to escape, and was inconsolable.
26:50.548 --> 26:56.073
[SPEAKER_01]: She begged firefighters to save her siblings, who were still trapped inside the house and unaccounted for.
26:57.014 --> 27:02.459
[SPEAKER_01]: In contrast, firefighters and officers on the scene noted that Deborah appeared to be very calm and cool.
27:03.472 --> 27:13.734
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, it was entirely possible that Deborah was in shock, having narrowly escaped her life and was watching on helplessly, not knowing the fate of her other children.
27:14.534 --> 27:26.937
[SPEAKER_01]: At 1230 a.m., the phone rang in Michael's apartment, where he was still watching TV, a neighbor who lived next door to Deborah and the kids was on the line, and for an ugly relay that there was a fire at the house.
27:27.897 --> 27:31.898
[SPEAKER_01]: A panicked and confused Michael jumped in the car in a medially drove over.
27:32.498 --> 27:42.682
[SPEAKER_01]: By the time he arrived, firefighters had made their way inside the home, but were prevented from conducting a thorough search due to the ferocity of the flames or rapidly consuming the dwelling.
27:43.842 --> 27:54.153
[SPEAKER_01]: With the home risk of collapse due to the intense heat and high winds that were hampering their efforts due to the fire spreading, firefighters were forced to obtain in their effort to search for Tim and Kelly.
27:54.794 --> 27:58.878
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael arrived at the scene, he initially thought that all the children had escaped.
27:59.739 --> 28:05.365
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't until some time later that a new and horrifying reality would dawn on the unsuspecting father.
28:06.709 --> 28:14.190
[SPEAKER_01]: As fire crews fought to bring the roaring flames under control, the level of destruction to why had once been the family's dream home was clear.
28:14.770 --> 28:19.251
[SPEAKER_01]: The house was gutted, with irreparable structural damage to the wooden frame.
28:20.111 --> 28:22.612
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just from the flames, but smoke and water.
28:23.632 --> 28:26.052
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing left standing was the garage.
28:26.893 --> 28:30.873
[SPEAKER_01]: The stonework around the front entry way of the house had created a gaping facade.
00:00.251 --> 00:05.894
[SPEAKER_01]: Listener, obscure I supported by listeners like yourself, my Patreon is only $3.
00:05.954 --> 00:21.162
[SPEAKER_01]: That's less than the cup of coffee, and if 10% of listeners join the Patreon, that would be a life-changing amount of money, I'm an indie creator, and I rely on listeners like you, but sometimes I'm not so good at creating calls to action.
00:21.643 --> 00:23.684
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00:24.164 --> 00:29.569
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, while you get on the Patreon is hundreds of hours worth of bonus content.
00:29.949 --> 00:35.834
[SPEAKER_01]: From black label episodes, obscure episodes, and fireside chats, you can't find on the main feed.
00:36.294 --> 00:41.799
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to access to that, head to patreon.com slash obscure a crime podcast.
00:42.139 --> 00:45.822
[SPEAKER_01]: That's patreon.com slash obscure a crime podcast.
00:46.082 --> 00:48.524
[SPEAKER_01]: And hey, if you can't afford it, I understand.
00:53.128 --> 00:57.311
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's get on with it Welcome listener.
00:58.191 --> 00:59.132
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad you're here.
01:00.153 --> 01:09.739
[SPEAKER_00]: Take a seat next to the fire Welcome to Obscura where we shine a light on the dark
01:33.609 --> 01:42.034
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah Jones was born on February 28, 1951, to her parents, Bob and Joanne, in Havana, in the state of Illinois.
01:42.734 --> 01:45.716
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah was born 19 months after older sister Pamela.
01:46.136 --> 01:53.321
[SPEAKER_01]: From a young age, who was cleared of both Deborah's teachers and her family, that her level of academic aptitude far exceeded that of her classmates.
01:53.861 --> 01:56.463
[SPEAKER_01]: Our talent's extended to the piano and violin.
01:56.964 --> 02:02.028
[SPEAKER_01]: She loved to read novels and was an natural when it came to athletic pursuits like tennis and soccer.
02:02.589 --> 02:09.715
[SPEAKER_01]: Following the family relocating due to Bob's work, Deborah started attending Menomora Township High School in Illinois.
02:10.415 --> 02:14.079
[SPEAKER_01]: Endeavor's junior year of high school, the family relocated again.
02:14.639 --> 02:20.205
[SPEAKER_01]: This time to a farming community in near Piora, where Deborah attended Piora Central High School.
02:20.865 --> 02:24.950
[SPEAKER_01]: Far from being a typical awkward teen who had trouble making friends as a new student.
02:25.470 --> 02:28.713
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah had no trouble fitting in at her new high school environment.
02:29.414 --> 02:31.896
[SPEAKER_01]: She developed a reputation as someone with quick wit.
02:32.577 --> 02:55.071
[SPEAKER_01]: Becoming a cheerleader, serving on the student council, and joining the choir and the French club, Deborah's IQ of 165 and her perfect GPA, made it clear to her peers and teachers that she was someone who was going places, so came as no surprise that when Deborah graduated high school, she was named as both a National Merit Scholar, Incovella Dictorian of her class.
02:56.152 --> 03:03.273
[SPEAKER_01]: In 1969, 18-year-old Deborah started attending the University of Illinois, where she majored in chemistry.
03:03.773 --> 03:13.715
[SPEAKER_01]: She eventually broke up with her high-school sweetheart, but it wasn't long until she met and started dating an engineering student named Dwayne Green, in terms of her future career aspirations.
03:14.335 --> 03:23.157
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah's first passion was chemical engineering, but when she graduated college in 1972, she found herself reconsidering her chosen career path,
03:23.717 --> 03:30.941
[SPEAKER_01]: The competition for jobs within the chemical engineering sector at the time was tough, so Deborah re-evaluated her options.
03:31.561 --> 03:36.684
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah and Dwayne married in 1974, and Deborah decided to enroll in medical school.
03:37.264 --> 03:40.526
[SPEAKER_01]: She graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1975,
03:43.647 --> 03:44.748
[SPEAKER_01]: always the go-getter.
03:45.248 --> 03:49.192
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah chose the high-pressure fast-paced specialty of emergency medicine.
03:49.752 --> 04:00.741
[SPEAKER_01]: By the time she was undertaking a residency, Deborah and Dwayne had moved to the city of Independence in the nearby state of Missouri, newlywed bliss one last long though, and by 1978, the couple had divorced.
04:02.763 --> 04:15.607
[SPEAKER_01]: In the book, bitter harvest by late author Anne Rull, it was reported that Deborah and Twain's split was believed to be amicable, but a year before the divorce was finalized, Deborah had already met somebody else.
04:15.627 --> 04:20.328
[SPEAKER_01]: 23-year-old Michael Ferrar was a talented medical student with a bright future.
04:21.329 --> 04:26.210
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though he was four years Deborah's junior, Michael was attracted to her drive and intelligence.
04:27.010 --> 04:31.792
[SPEAKER_01]: In Deborah, a fell secure and her new relationship with someone she fell was a reliable partner.
04:32.788 --> 04:44.147
[SPEAKER_01]: The Pairmarried in May 1979, a Michael later stated that the relationship wasn't one of typical newlyweds, and that neither he nor devour have expressed their love for each other verbally.
04:45.143 --> 04:52.830
[SPEAKER_01]: Much to Michael's disappointment, Tever showed no interest in getting to know Michael's family, more spending quality time with her new in-laws.
04:53.631 --> 05:03.559
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael also harbored concerns about his brights' temper, which at times could be volatile and unpredictable, but her ambition and passion to succeed was energizing.
05:04.360 --> 05:16.031
[SPEAKER_01]: Following Michael's graduation from medical school at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, in Deborah, moved to Ohio, or Michael commenced a three-year residency in internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
05:16.572 --> 05:24.579
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah continued to work as an emergency physician, but she soon tired of the specialty, decided to join Michael and his internal medicine residency.
05:24.599 --> 05:29.043
[SPEAKER_01]: It was following the couple's moved to Ohio that Deborah's health started to suffer.
05:29.824 --> 05:35.646
[SPEAKER_01]: She required surgery on an infected wrist, and also experienced crippling migraines as well as insomnia.
05:36.106 --> 05:43.049
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite these medical issues, Debra and Michael welcomed their first child Tim into the world on January 20th, 1982.
05:43.089 --> 05:48.071
[SPEAKER_01]: 31-year-old Debra, wasted no time getting back to work following the birth.
05:48.731 --> 05:52.893
[SPEAKER_01]: And bullied an Annie to help look after Tim after taking six weeks maternity leave.
05:53.493 --> 06:03.901
[SPEAKER_01]: By this stage of her career, Deborah was undertaking a fellowship in hematology and oncology, but again, took maternity leave two years later for the birth of the couple second child K-1984.
06:03.941 --> 06:09.125
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah completed her fellowship and opened her own practice in 1985.
06:10.706 --> 06:15.890
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael II was in the final stage of his fellowship in cardiology, which he completed in 1986.
06:17.976 --> 06:34.765
[SPEAKER_01]: It was that same year that the for our family moved back to Missouri, putting down roots in Kansas City, the Solina Journal newspaper reported that from 1986 to 1994, the couple worked at Trinity Lutheran Hospital with Michael Hussle working at North Kansas City Hospital.
06:35.938 --> 06:39.821
[SPEAKER_01]: Feeling established, Deborah opened a private practice during this period.
06:39.841 --> 06:45.286
[SPEAKER_01]: A much-tour disappointment, the hospital or practice was attached to suddenly closed.
06:45.806 --> 06:48.188
[SPEAKER_01]: And she found herself pregnant for a third time.
06:48.909 --> 06:51.071
[SPEAKER_01]: The pregnancy was an unexpected surprise.
06:51.091 --> 06:54.854
[SPEAKER_01]: A Michael was thrilled about the impending arrival of another child.
06:55.655 --> 06:58.897
[SPEAKER_01]: However, for Deborah, this was not part of the plan.
06:59.598 --> 07:04.122
[SPEAKER_01]: And she resented her dreams of pursuing a private practice being put on hold long-term.
07:05.324 --> 07:11.132
[SPEAKER_01]: On December 13, 1988, the couple second daughter and third child Kelly was born.
07:12.033 --> 07:15.217
[SPEAKER_01]: The 37-year-old Deborah struggled in the postpartum period.
07:15.778 --> 07:21.786
[SPEAKER_01]: The founder levels of self-esteem pulmining as she struggled to lose the baby wave following her pregnancy with Kelly.
07:22.587 --> 07:35.597
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite this challenge and no longer working in a private practice, Debra came to find a new identity in Motherhood and went that extra mile to ensure that every birthday and the holidays were memorable for children.
07:36.178 --> 07:40.841
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael later remembered his wife as nothing less than a dedicated mother to their young family.
07:41.522 --> 07:50.329
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra and Michael's professional and financial success meant they were able to afford not only the best education for their children, but also managed to help the household
07:52.098 --> 07:58.824
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids attended a private school in Kansas City, world-manor of extracurricular activities and opportunities were available.
07:59.305 --> 08:03.208
[SPEAKER_01]: Tim was passionate about sports, especially soccer and ice hockey.
08:03.849 --> 08:10.435
[SPEAKER_01]: He also loved to cook and add a strong social conscience, sticking up for other kids at school, were targeted by bullies.
08:11.456 --> 08:17.960
[SPEAKER_01]: Kay was a talented ballet dancer, and by the time she was ten years old, was performing with the state ballet of Missouri.
08:18.720 --> 08:24.064
[SPEAKER_01]: Kelly had inherited her mother's love of reading, and all three children took swimming in tennis lessons.
08:24.954 --> 08:27.156
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah had been an animal lover all her life.
08:27.736 --> 08:29.117
[SPEAKER_01]: Much storage children's delight.
08:29.438 --> 08:34.141
[SPEAKER_01]: The family adopted a black lab or a named boomer, who subbed in the children's bedrooms.
08:35.062 --> 08:40.206
[SPEAKER_01]: They were mixed reports from other parents that the children's school bought Deborah's involvement in her kids' lives.
08:41.087 --> 08:48.372
[SPEAKER_01]: Some said she was nothing less than encouraging, but to others, she appeared overbearing and critical of her children's performance.
08:49.253 --> 08:53.836
[SPEAKER_01]: And any who worked for the family later recalled that on one occasion, Deborah told her,
08:54.832 --> 08:55.773
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't want kids.
08:56.493 --> 08:57.174
[SPEAKER_01]: I never had.
08:57.194 --> 08:58.935
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just doing it for Mike.
08:59.715 --> 09:07.300
[SPEAKER_01]: But despite being in a position to afford private schooling and activities for children, Devour's work suffered when her health issues returned.
09:08.060 --> 09:11.943
[SPEAKER_01]: Up until 1989, she continued to work at Trinity Lutheran Hospital.
09:12.483 --> 09:15.964
[SPEAKER_01]: Till she eventually made the difficult decision to stop full-time work.
09:16.524 --> 09:25.186
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, she would work part-time from the family home, which would also allow her to be more involved in her children's education and after school activities.
09:26.186 --> 09:30.347
[SPEAKER_01]: Ever and my child, a new nanny, who would stay with the family for the next four years.
09:30.927 --> 09:33.227
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was a big change for Deborah academically.
09:33.727 --> 09:37.208
[SPEAKER_01]: She was no longer in the thick of work she found challenging and engaging.
09:37.988 --> 09:42.372
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, working on medical peer reviews and processing Medicaid claims.
09:43.152 --> 09:49.017
[SPEAKER_01]: For Debra, the work was dull and uninspiring, and it didn't go unnoticed amongst the former colleagues.
09:49.538 --> 09:55.122
[SPEAKER_01]: We'd always describe Debra as having a terrible bedside manner when it came to our interactions with patients.
09:55.883 --> 09:57.863
[SPEAKER_01]: which were unempathetic to save the least.
09:58.604 --> 10:02.565
[SPEAKER_01]: It was also around this time that Deborah's behavior towards Michael appeared to shift.
10:03.245 --> 10:06.686
[SPEAKER_01]: Gone was the supportive wife who had once found her husband dependable.
10:07.286 --> 10:11.827
[SPEAKER_01]: Interpolice was woman who had instead become suspicious and obsessive about her husband.
10:12.487 --> 10:16.268
[SPEAKER_01]: Who started working longer hours and had attempt to escape the tension at home.
10:17.208 --> 10:25.090
[SPEAKER_01]: In an effort to dull the chronic physical pain she was experiencing, 38-year-old Deborah started self-medicating with an array of sedatives and narcotics.
10:25.790 --> 10:27.711
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of which were prescribed illegally.
10:28.531 --> 10:41.394
[SPEAKER_01]: This continued for the next several years and effected her moods, coping skills, inability to contribute equally to household tests, such as cooking and cleaning, to such a degree that Michael confronted his wife on several occasions.
10:42.094 --> 10:46.215
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah would eventually agree that it wasn't a healthy way to manage her pain long-term.
10:47.022 --> 10:54.329
[SPEAKER_01]: The shorter husband that she would stop being over-reline on prescription medication, but Deborah's temper was still proving unpredictable.
10:55.030 --> 10:56.932
[SPEAKER_01]: The look better of his details how.
10:57.453 --> 11:10.125
[SPEAKER_01]: Irrespective of whether she was in the family home, a professional setting with patients and colleagues, or crowded shopping mall, Deborah's angry outbursts started to see her destroy things and even arm herself.
11:10.946 --> 11:23.290
[SPEAKER_01]: By the early 90s, Deborah was also involving the children in our arguments with Michael, vending her frustrations with her father in the process, manipulating the kids in such a way that they turned against him.
11:23.750 --> 11:33.353
[SPEAKER_01]: Their eldest child, Tim, was so angry with his father that their relationship became fraught, with the usual parent-teacher disagreements escalating to physical confrontations.
11:34.253 --> 11:43.620
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and Mercury newspaper later reported that on one occasion, Michael knocked him to the ground during an argument, and on another, pushed him into a wall.
11:44.821 --> 11:48.684
[SPEAKER_01]: By early 1994, 38-year-old Michael had had enough.
11:49.524 --> 11:55.789
[SPEAKER_01]: In January, he told Deborah he wanted to divorce, and to say that she didn't take it well, isn't understatement.
11:56.614 --> 12:03.561
[SPEAKER_01]: Never lashed out a Michael, becoming physically violent, causing him to move out of the family home and into an apartment.
12:04.222 --> 12:11.389
[SPEAKER_01]: The children would stay with Deborah, and even though things were bad between her and Michael, they agreed at the time to share custody of the kids.
12:12.250 --> 12:22.474
[SPEAKER_01]: With Michael on in the house, this provided a respite from the constant strain between a husband and wife, and the temporary abatement of tension provided some hope that cooler heads would prevail.
12:23.114 --> 12:27.096
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael and Deborah maintain contact and an effort to rectify things.
12:27.836 --> 12:32.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Both agreed to a fresh start as a family unit by moving into a bigger house.
12:33.278 --> 12:43.548
[SPEAKER_01]: In May 1994, a couple set their sights on purchasing a six-bedroom home, located in the affluent suburb of Prairie Village, across the state line in Kansas.
12:44.349 --> 12:51.196
[SPEAKER_01]: However, Michael started to have second thoughts, and the sale fell through when he realized a such a financial commitment.
12:51.716 --> 12:55.321
[SPEAKER_01]: would mean in the face of trying to save a marriage which was hanging by a thread.
12:56.202 --> 13:03.371
[SPEAKER_01]: The prospect of the couple getting into even more dead wasn't something that's uncomfortable with Michael and went against his better judgment.
13:04.602 --> 13:09.625
[SPEAKER_01]: Wasn't long after Tebran Michaels plans to move or canceled that the family suffered another blow.
13:09.645 --> 13:16.309
[SPEAKER_01]: A May 21st 1994, while the family was out, they're existing home callfire.
13:17.210 --> 13:22.533
[SPEAKER_01]: The cause was identified as accidental, thanks to an electrical fall from a power cord.
13:23.602 --> 13:25.503
[SPEAKER_01]: the House sustained significant damage.
13:26.263 --> 13:34.668
[SPEAKER_01]: But thankfully, the financial impact of repairing the home, and replacing the family's damaged belongings was absorbed by the insurance payout.
13:35.448 --> 13:40.010
[SPEAKER_01]: This prompted Deborah and Michael to reconsider the aborted purchase of the home in Prairie Village.
13:40.711 --> 13:46.374
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the interim, Deborah and the children moved into Michael's apartment that he'd been running during the separation.
13:47.174 --> 13:48.995
[SPEAKER_01]: With the purchase of the $400,000 Prairie Home finalized in June, 1994,
13:53.102 --> 13:54.163
[SPEAKER_01]: The family moved in.
13:54.883 --> 14:05.829
[SPEAKER_01]: In addition to 18 rooms, a pool, four-car garage, and a jacuzzi, the three-level 5,000 square foot shooter style home, also boasted an intercom system.
14:06.609 --> 14:12.913
[SPEAKER_01]: The master bedroom was situated on ground level, while the children's bedroom and bathroom occupied the second story.
14:13.853 --> 14:21.097
[SPEAKER_01]: Prairie Village was home to high flyers and people who had succeeded in their fields, and the police shall size of the homes in the area
14:23.025 --> 14:27.631
[SPEAKER_01]: Never felt like she was finally home, amongst people as successful as she was.
14:28.613 --> 14:32.618
[SPEAKER_01]: This was somewhere that she and Michael could finally get their marriage back on track.
14:33.499 --> 14:40.128
[SPEAKER_01]: For a brief period, 43-year-old Deborah seemed to do a complete 180 when it came to home-making responsibilities.
14:41.148 --> 14:44.449
[SPEAKER_01]: putting increased effort into cooking meals and being house-proud.
14:45.249 --> 14:50.671
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael also took the opportunity as a wake-up call when it came to maintaining a better work-life balance.
14:51.251 --> 14:55.533
[SPEAKER_01]: He cut back on his hours and worked to allow him to focus on his marriage and family.
14:56.434 --> 15:01.560
[SPEAKER_01]: but despite the lifestyle changes, the couple made an attempt to patch up their failing marriage.
15:02.341 --> 15:04.443
[SPEAKER_01]: Their new found happiness was short-lived.
15:05.324 --> 15:10.850
[SPEAKER_01]: By the end of 1994, the couple were back to square one and arguing just as much.
15:11.591 --> 15:12.251
[SPEAKER_01]: If not more.
15:13.528 --> 15:18.131
[SPEAKER_01]: The one remaining chance of salvaging the marriage was their family vacation to Peru.
15:18.772 --> 15:23.295
[SPEAKER_01]: Scheduled for June 1995 in conjunction with a school trip for Tim.
15:23.895 --> 15:27.778
[SPEAKER_01]: For Michael, this will be the Maker Break gluttonous test for the relationship.
15:29.225 --> 15:35.792
[SPEAKER_01]: It was well on vacation and Peru, the Michael Mette and other parents who's child attended the same school as the for our children.
15:35.812 --> 15:38.435
[SPEAKER_01]: They would come on the school trip to Shaperone.
15:39.375 --> 15:43.940
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Michael and Deborah, Margaret Hacker and her husband also worked in the medical sector.
15:43.960 --> 15:45.842
[SPEAKER_01]: And a couple had two children.
15:46.543 --> 15:50.867
[SPEAKER_01]: Margaret worked as registered nurse while her husband was an anesthesiologist.
15:51.787 --> 15:54.468
[SPEAKER_01]: And more Michael got to know Margaret over the course of the trip.
15:55.108 --> 15:58.169
[SPEAKER_01]: It was revealed that she, too, was in an unhappy marriage.
15:58.829 --> 16:02.070
[SPEAKER_01]: And the attraction between Michael and Margaret was undeniable.
16:02.730 --> 16:07.072
[SPEAKER_01]: Upon returning from Peru, Michael and Margaret continue to spend time together.
16:07.092 --> 16:10.453
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a long, before the pair were having an affair.
16:11.073 --> 16:13.293
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael knew there was no future for him and Deborah.
16:13.954 --> 16:15.594
[SPEAKER_01]: And in late July, 1995, he asked her for a divorce.
16:19.025 --> 16:21.389
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to take such an announcement, lying down.
16:22.050 --> 16:26.237
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra was distraught and told the children their father was abandoning them.
16:27.123 --> 16:38.651
[SPEAKER_01]: During this time, Deborah continued to drink heavily, and following Michael's decision, Deborah's level of alcohol consumption increased dramatically, and she often drank until she passed out.
16:39.391 --> 16:55.482
[SPEAKER_01]: Given that Deborah continued to drive their kids to and from school and their extracurricular activities, Michael was so concerned about his wife's level of alcohol intake that he decided to continue to live in the family home to ensure his children were safe and appropriately supervised.
16:56.242 --> 17:03.085
[SPEAKER_01]: Devers' failure to maintain housework in meal preparation tests meant that 13-year-old Tim was doing the majority of the cooking.
17:03.566 --> 17:07.448
[SPEAKER_01]: Devers ongoing heavy drinking saw continued to spiral out of control.
17:08.208 --> 17:15.912
[SPEAKER_01]: On August 4, she called Michael a work, telling him she was walking along the busy city roads in the hope that she'd be hidden killed by a car.
17:16.612 --> 17:19.934
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael raised around to the house, he searched every corner.
17:20.694 --> 17:27.338
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah eventually called Michael and told him she'd been hiding in the basement the whole time and that she wanted to make him worry about her.
17:28.078 --> 17:36.843
[SPEAKER_01]: On August 11, 1995, Michael suddenly fell ill with gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
17:37.564 --> 17:46.409
[SPEAKER_01]: Given the family had just returned from Peru, Michael wrote off his symptoms as that of a lingering stomach bug that most of the group on the school trip had contracted.
17:47.289 --> 17:54.453
[SPEAKER_01]: Just when it seemed Michael was about to make a full recovery, a week after the onset of a symptoms his condition deteriorated.
17:54.473 --> 18:05.699
[SPEAKER_01]: And August 18th, Michael was admitted to a hospital, suffering from severe dehydration, weight loss, hand fever, and doctors considered his condition life threatening.
18:06.419 --> 18:13.684
[SPEAKER_01]: During his admission, Michael developed sepsis, which arose from bacteria leaking through his preferated gastrointestinal tract.
18:14.404 --> 18:24.251
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite confirming the origin of the infection, doctors failed to identify the actual cause, which was unable to be attributed to a parasite or any specific tropical disease.
18:25.331 --> 18:30.455
[SPEAKER_01]: A week later, Michael was discharged from the hospital, having made a significant recovery.
18:30.475 --> 18:34.918
[SPEAKER_01]: With that same night, the symptoms returned, and he was re-admitted.
18:36.048 --> 18:40.255
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing Michael had consumed was the evening meal, which was served by Deborah.
18:40.916 --> 18:44.842
[SPEAKER_01]: It could have been fixed by Tim, who's also doing most of the household cooking.
18:45.768 --> 18:48.932
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael couldn't work out why he couldn't seem to shake the illness.
18:49.753 --> 18:53.797
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps he was aggravated by trying to return to his usual diet too soon.
18:54.578 --> 18:58.583
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael was discharged from his second hospital admission on August 30th.
18:59.163 --> 19:02.667
[SPEAKER_01]: But on September 4th, he again fell ill for third time.
19:02.687 --> 19:06.091
[SPEAKER_01]: In return to the hospital where he would stay for another week.
19:06.852 --> 19:11.593
[SPEAKER_01]: Doctors were now convinced that the cause of Michael's reoccurring symptoms was contracted in Peru.
19:12.213 --> 19:17.815
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem was that none of Michael's debilitating symptoms seemed to fit precisely with any one diagnosis.
19:18.655 --> 19:26.517
[SPEAKER_01]: In the absence of any drastic dietary changes, Michael looked to psychosomatic factors in an effort to identify the cause of his illness.
19:27.237 --> 19:39.024
[SPEAKER_01]: Given that it symptoms returned almost immediately upon being discharged and ended Everest care on each occasion, he assumed it must have been due to stress and anxiety he was experiencing as his marriage crumbled.
19:40.025 --> 19:43.647
[SPEAKER_01]: But then another theory was given to Michael Witchblind sighted him.
19:44.568 --> 19:50.912
[SPEAKER_01]: His new partner Margaret, whom he had met on the Peru school trip, suggested that Deborah was poisoning her husband.
19:52.115 --> 20:01.080
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole idea was to preposterous to be true, but as outrageous as the proposition was, the seeds of Dow had been planted into Michael's mind.
20:01.820 --> 20:07.703
[SPEAKER_01]: The common precursor to all of Michael's hospitalizations was a he-e-food that he'd been served by Deborah.
20:08.463 --> 20:15.047
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael continued to turn over in his mind the possibility that Deborah wanted to seriously harm or even kill him.
20:15.907 --> 20:25.812
[SPEAKER_01]: By late September 1995, Michael decided to search the house to see if there was any truth the Margaret suggestion, a devil, was trying to poison her husband.
20:26.532 --> 20:35.316
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael went through Deborah's purse, he found a copy of a letter that he'd previously received from an anonymous author, asking him to reconsider the divorce.
20:36.156 --> 20:43.480
[SPEAKER_01]: He also found empty vials of potassium chloride, multiple packets of seeds which the packaging indicated as caster beans.
20:44.598 --> 20:52.082
[SPEAKER_01]: empty syringes, and a receipt from an early-made garden center in Olaitha dated August 7th that same year.
20:52.803 --> 20:57.706
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael decided to take the unusual items from Deber's purse and hide them for safekeeping.
20:58.366 --> 21:02.469
[SPEAKER_01]: On September 25th, he approached Deber up our plans for the Castro beans.
21:03.309 --> 21:10.312
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael knew that Debra didn't have a green thumb, so when she told him she was intending to plant the seeds, he didn't believe her.
21:10.932 --> 21:15.394
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra eventually admitted that she was planning to use the seeds to take her own life.
21:15.414 --> 21:23.477
[SPEAKER_01]: Immediately following the conversation with Michael about the Castro beans, Debra started drinking heavily and continued throughout the day.
21:24.018 --> 21:29.280
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael became so concerned about her behavior and his kids welfare, they called the police.
21:30.120 --> 21:34.121
[SPEAKER_01]: When law enforcement arrived at the home, officers found Deborah a drunken bed.
21:34.901 --> 21:37.902
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael told the officers he feared his wife a suicide.
21:38.662 --> 21:42.863
[SPEAKER_01]: But upon hearing this, Deborah began verbally abusing and cursing in Michael.
21:43.384 --> 21:50.585
[SPEAKER_01]: When she showed police the items he'd found in Deborah's purse, they decided it was best to take her to the nearest hospital for assessment.
21:51.246 --> 21:55.707
[SPEAKER_01]: When Deborah was examined, it was noted that she smelled a valkal and appeared to shovel.
21:57.015 --> 22:07.941
[SPEAKER_01]: After speaking with Debra, the emergency room doctor documented that despite her appearance, she was coping the best she could, giving her marriage as falling apart in acrimonious fashion.
22:08.581 --> 22:12.803
[SPEAKER_01]: Debra told the doctor she had no intention to self-harm hard anyone else.
22:13.904 --> 22:17.766
[SPEAKER_01]: And the assessment was progressing well until Michael arrived at the hospital.
22:18.506 --> 22:23.449
[SPEAKER_01]: When Debra spotted him, she washed out, spat at him, and called him a fuck hole.
22:24.447 --> 22:27.851
[SPEAKER_01]: Screaming, you're gonna get these kids over our dead bodies.
22:28.872 --> 22:36.300
[SPEAKER_01]: After staff managed to subdue Deborah, she agreed that being voluntarily committed would be beneficial in terms of monitoring her mental health.
22:36.781 --> 22:40.725
[SPEAKER_01]: But soon after, Deborah couldn't be found anywhere on the hospital grounds.
22:41.686 --> 22:45.849
[SPEAKER_01]: When she was finally located, she decided to walk home from the hospital.
22:46.589 --> 22:51.853
[SPEAKER_01]: She was still in agreement of our voluntary admission and was taken to a hospital and to beca.
22:52.753 --> 23:01.199
[SPEAKER_01]: It was here that Deborah was diagnosed with major bipolar depression with suicidal impulses and prescribed various medications.
23:02.436 --> 23:06.318
[SPEAKER_01]: After only a short stay of four days, Debra was discharged.
23:07.159 --> 23:13.703
[SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile, Michael had used the brief rest but at home as an opportunity to research information about castor beans.
23:14.684 --> 23:18.406
[SPEAKER_01]: What he found out not only chilled him to the bone, but turned his stomach.
23:19.545 --> 23:26.591
[SPEAKER_01]: Caster Beans, which grow on the caster plant, are the source of a naturally occurring, but deadly chemical called rice in.
23:27.431 --> 23:32.095
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to Volapular culture, rice in is most commonly known as a bio-warfare region.
23:32.656 --> 23:46.266
[SPEAKER_01]: When the pulp of the caster Beans is ingested, even in miniscule quantities, rice and attacks the cells that wind the gastrointestinal tract, including the suffogist, stomach, and small and large intestine, causing all serration.
23:47.067 --> 23:54.529
[SPEAKER_01]: Symptoms include rapid dehydration, severe abdominal pain, low blood pressure, and an increased arm rate.
23:55.249 --> 23:58.190
[SPEAKER_01]: It was no wonder Michael symptoms returned with inventions.
23:58.570 --> 24:07.932
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time he returned home from the hospital in the Debra's care, as much as he can never have imagined it, Michael knew that Debra was using the beans to poisonous food.
24:09.232 --> 24:14.954
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite making the horror-wrenching decision to leave his children, Michael now held grave fears for a safety.
24:16.043 --> 24:18.827
[SPEAKER_01]: Things didn't improve for Deborah following her return home.
24:19.508 --> 24:22.552
[SPEAKER_01]: She continued to act in a bizarre manner, and drank heavily.
24:23.053 --> 24:26.658
[SPEAKER_01]: Prompting Michael to move out of the family home for good, on October 5th.
24:27.338 --> 24:32.846
[SPEAKER_01]: And what was Shirley in attempt to console the kids, who are perhaps herself, in the wake of Michael's departure?
24:33.707 --> 24:42.074
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah adopted a Greyhound named Russell, but the acquisition of a new pad didn't seem to play cake the fragile situation and the family home.
24:42.815 --> 24:56.307
[SPEAKER_01]: Deborah was still angry with Michael, and in fifths of rage and drunkenness, ledger only lectured the children about their father and abandoned them all to be with Margaret, claiming he cared more about his new girlfriend, having his own kids.
24:57.433 --> 25:03.478
[SPEAKER_01]: October 23rd, 1995, was the first day of a brief home-based vacation for Michael Ferrar.
25:04.418 --> 25:15.466
[SPEAKER_01]: Only a month earlier, he'd been discharged from a third hospital admission for acute gastrointestinal symptoms, and he was easing back into work due to the physically debilitating nature of his illness.
25:16.593 --> 25:18.395
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael spent the afternoon with Margaret.
25:19.016 --> 25:22.982
[SPEAKER_01]: Then later picked up Tim and Kelly to go to a hockey game, Tim was playing.
25:23.803 --> 25:29.390
[SPEAKER_01]: Following the game, Michael dropped Tim and Kelly off at home at approximately 85 p.m.
25:30.171 --> 25:32.614
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael then had dinner with his girlfriend Margaret.
25:33.583 --> 25:36.366
[SPEAKER_01]: during which time he received two calls on his pager.
25:37.107 --> 25:42.592
[SPEAKER_01]: Just before he drove back to his apartment, had around 1130 p.m., he received a third call.
25:43.393 --> 25:46.596
[SPEAKER_01]: The calls were from Debra, whom he spoke to when he arrived home.
25:47.437 --> 25:49.339
[SPEAKER_01]: But soon, gone to an argument.
25:50.360 --> 25:58.225
[SPEAKER_01]: My call had had enough of Delver's heavy drinking and irresponsible behavior, especially considering she was the children's primary caregiver.
25:59.026 --> 26:04.049
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael accused Delver of poisoning him, and he threatened to contact social services to intervene.
26:04.789 --> 26:11.434
[SPEAKER_01]: When the phone call ended abruptly, Michael continued to watch television to try and unwind from the heated confrontation.
26:12.134 --> 26:15.796
[SPEAKER_01]: At 20 minutes after midnight, on October 24th, 1995, and I don't want one call was made
26:20.299 --> 26:25.202
[SPEAKER_01]: The nature of the emergency wasn't clear, as the caller hung up the phone without speaking.
26:26.843 --> 26:31.386
[SPEAKER_01]: Police were dispatched to the address, and when they arrived, they found the home ablaze.
26:33.027 --> 26:38.270
[SPEAKER_01]: When firefighters arrived, minutes later, they found Deborah and 10-year-old Kate outside the house.
26:39.497 --> 26:43.261
[SPEAKER_01]: But 13-year-old Tim, in six-year-old Kelly, were still inside.
26:44.121 --> 26:49.487
[SPEAKER_01]: A distraught Kay had no idea why her siblings had a managed to escape, and was inconsolable.
26:50.548 --> 26:56.073
[SPEAKER_01]: She begged firefighters to save her siblings, who were still trapped inside the house and unaccounted for.
26:57.014 --> 27:02.459
[SPEAKER_01]: In contrast, firefighters and officers on the scene noted that Deborah appeared to be very calm and cool.
27:03.472 --> 27:13.734
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, it was entirely possible that Deborah was in shock, having narrowly escaped her life and was watching on helplessly, not knowing the fate of her other children.
27:14.534 --> 27:26.937
[SPEAKER_01]: At 1230 a.m., the phone rang in Michael's apartment, where he was still watching TV, a neighbor who lived next door to Deborah and the kids was on the line, and for an ugly relay that there was a fire at the house.
27:27.897 --> 27:31.898
[SPEAKER_01]: A panicked and confused Michael jumped in the car in a medially drove over.
27:32.498 --> 27:42.682
[SPEAKER_01]: By the time he arrived, firefighters had made their way inside the home, but were prevented from conducting a thorough search due to the ferocity of the flames or rapidly consuming the dwelling.
27:43.842 --> 27:54.153
[SPEAKER_01]: With the home risk of collapse due to the intense heat and high winds that were hampering their efforts due to the fire spreading, firefighters were forced to obtain in their effort to search for Tim and Kelly.
27:54.794 --> 27:58.878
[SPEAKER_01]: When Michael arrived at the scene, he initially thought that all the children had escaped.
27:59.739 --> 28:05.365
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't until some time later that a new and horrifying reality would dawn on the unsuspecting father.
28:06.709 --> 28:14.190
[SPEAKER_01]: As fire crews fought to bring the roaring flames under control, the level of destruction to why had once been the family's dream home was clear.
28:14.770 --> 28:19.251
[SPEAKER_01]: The house was gutted, with irreparable structural damage to the wooden frame.
28:20.111 --> 28:22.612
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just from the flames, but smoke and water.
28:23.632 --> 28:26.052
[SPEAKER_01]: The only thing left standing was the garage.
28:26.893 --> 28:30.873
[SPEAKER_01]: The stonework around the front entry way of the house had created a gaping facade.
