Executed by Mistake?

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Alright, we were live. Check it out.

I changed the time here. Okay. Well, welcome back. Hello.

We are on the precipice of Christmas. We are. Have you gotten all your gifts? Absolutely not.

Have you gotten anything? No. Oh my lord. So here's the thing.

I think this year for like family, I'm getting everybody something to read because as you can tell I have a plethora of books. You just give them a book from your library. No, I'm going to go and like get them, you know, probably from one of the use bookstores around. That's what I did last year and got them like, we hear Callie.

She's barking. She is. If you didn't know we're in the podcast. We are at Hailey's home.

Yeah. So she's barking because my boyfriend has, assuming, returned with pizza for us, which is great. Because I did put him on pizza duty today. Yes.

Yes. By sentinel. He's a guy getting us pizza. Yeah.

Absolutely. And free breadsticks. Yeah. From his points.

It's either that or she's barking at the people walking down the street. Well, I did hear the doorbell. But that could have been the people walking across the street. It could have been because my doorbell does that too.

Yeah. Oh, no, she's really going at it. Well, there's another person walking down the street too. You know, she's really just having a time.

Let's check the doorbell camera and see what's going on. No, I don't think he's arrived back yet. Oh, good. Well, I don't mean good.

I mean, we can continue. We can. So there's the interlude of the dog. Yes.

Hopefully. Shut up. This is reminiscent of the early episodes of the dog and the cats and the heat. The heat.

All the things. So if you are OG fans. Oh, you'll remember. OG fans.

First of all, give us a shout out either on Facebook or Instagram or email us. We would love to hear from the ones who have been there from the beginning or close to the beginning. We've been on for over four years. We have 200 plus episodes.

So if you've been with us that long, God bless you. God bless you. Yeah. I may have to go yell at the dog.

Maybe. If she won't shut up. What is she still upset about us? My question?

I can't say that we know. Oh, you know, I'll report back momentarily. We'll let you know. Please hold on.

Please hold on. Oh, I'm wrapped in so many cords. I didn't tie her up. She tied herself up.

Here I go. Sing him a song, Holly. Jingle bells, Batman smells. No, I'm just robbing later today.

Batmobile losses wheel. Now that she's gone, I think it's an important time to talk about the Holly podcast. That's right. The podcast without Haley.

Just kidding. She's back. Our piece is here apparently. And that's what the dog was barking about.

I was just singing to them while you were gone. Yeah. Okay. Remurged.

Good. Yeah. We were barking at the. I'm not quite sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, good times. All right.

So you don't have Christmas presents. I don't. I have one left to get. Wow.

And I have to take a day off work to wrap my son's gifts because, you know, I have to have the time and availability to do it. So I've got to be a quick little elf. You know, something that I do for my son for Christmas is or Santa does. I send an email to Santa and I tell Santa to please wrap our doorway in wrapping paper every year.

And so it's the doorway that goes into where all the presents are. And so my son wakes up, you know, every Christmas morning and he's like, Mom, Mom, you know, Santa came and I was like, how do you know? And he said, because there's doorways wrapped. And so we go and, you know, I say on your mark and sego and he busts through the paper and then he gets to see all the presents.

It's so much fun. So if you have kiddos, try doing this. I'm telling you or tell Santa you have to email him special because not all families know about it. And so I thought I was here, but it's really fun.

And it's a tradition. We've done it actually since he was about a year old. Yeah, I usually get a video or see a video of it every year and it's so cute. It is so sweet and he looked so forward to it.

But this year I have had to say, when you see the doorway wrapped, do not bust through it. You must wake Mommy up first. And then we'll take a video and then you can bust through it. So let's hope he follows directions.

I always tell him, I was like, because then they're, he said, well, what if I bust through it and I don't wake you up first? I said, oh, well then the magic of Christmas will be lost and Santa will take note and not get you Christmas presents next year. There we go. We love a gentle threat.

Or a harsh threat. Or a harsh threat. You might get shit. You get nothing.

You must through that paper. So, yeah, nothing like a hearty threat at the holidays. Perfect. All right.

Let's talk about an execution. Ooh, fun. We are going today to one of our true crime states that gives us a plethora of material, Tennessee. Yeah.

It is the night of July 11th, 1985 in Millington, Tennessee. Millington is where the Naval and Military Support Base is located for the Mid-South region. I have no idea. Did not know.

For reference, Millington is about 25 minutes north of Memphis. Okay. So, as I mentioned, there was a Naval Base in this area that evening, a 19-year-old Lance Corporal by the name of Suzanne Collins was out for her daily run. You know, just like us.

Oh, right. Our daily walk to the kitchen. I was going to say bathroom. Oh, not too.

Yeah. I did walk to the bathroom today. Me too. I walked to the bathroom multiple times.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, to be expected. So, this was an exciting night for Suzanne.

So, she was filled with anticipation because the next day she was graduating from aviation school. Very nice. Yeah. I would never make an ice puke.

Same. That'd be really hard. Wouldn't be for me. Nope.

So, Suzanne jogged towards Edmund Park, Edmund Orgill Park. She was swiftly grabbed by an unknown assailant. Oh, like that. Suzanne began screaming and fighting.

Two Marines heard the screams and followed the sounds. Only to see a car quickly drive off. The two Marines ran back to base and alerted the security and their supervisors. A search of the base ensues.

Now, keep in mind, they really don't know who they're looking for. Right. They assumed by the pitch of the screams that it was a woman, but they didn't have a lot to go on other than that. So, they also searched for what the car, what the Marines said that they saw.

The Marines actually took part in the search. Oh, wow. Which, I understand wanting to help, but also I feel like that would be, I don't know, that conflict of interest. Yeah.

Well, the way the military handles any kind of trial or anything like that, it's very strange. Yeah. So, like, military court is totally separate from, like, your regular jury of your peers kind of thing. It's very true.

Like, it's a totally separate process. And you actually had an episode recently where we discovered that you can be tried in, like, a civilian court and be found innocent. And through double jeopardy, you can't be retried for the same time. However, you can be tried in military court.

You can, because they're two separate entities. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a whole different process and, like, for better for worse, you know, it's just kind of, I feel like nine times out of ten, it's not as, like, it feels shady.

Like, it feels shady to me. Like, I just don't, I didn't say it. I don't love it. Like, there's some issues with that.

I think in any court system, there's going to be issues. There is, but I think more with, like, the closed systems. Yeah. Like, they're secretive.

It's very closed. Like, those records aren't available, like, for public consumption. Right. So, I just, yeah, when there's not a lot of transparency and something, it kind of gives me the PBGBs.

That makes sense. A little bit. I agree. Yeah.

Well, after searching and coming up empty, the two Marines returned back to their barracks. A short time later, they were called to the security station. Apparently, officers on the base had pulled a car over that matched the description of the car that the two Marines said they saw driving off. Okay.

And I apologize, I don't have the actual description of what the car looked like. Yeah. It was a car. It was a car.

In the car was a husband and wife. Okay. The wife was in the military. While the husband, his name was Sedley Allen, was a civilian.

Okay. The two lived on base and the car was registered to Sedley. When asked about their recent whereabouts, the couple had an alibi. They were brought to the security office for additional questioning, but everything appeared rational and normal.

There was nothing that they said that seemed unusual. Okay. So they let the couple go back home but held on to the car. Okay.

They called the two Marines back to the security office. I bet those Marines are like, I just want to sleep, dammit. I'm like, I'm getting like yanked in here. They're like, I just want to sleep.

Things are so much more peaceful at sea. Yeah. So the Marines confirmed that it was the same vehicle that they saw drive off. Okay.

So they even mentioned that the car muffler was extremely loud and that they had heard it seconds before the screaming. Yes. The car pulls out kind of, you know, picks up the girl. Picks up the girl, puts her in the car and then they hear drive off.

I heard. So the base police told the Marines that without a missing person to look for, there really wasn't anything they could do. Like maybe it was a prank. Right.

You know, like, I don't know. Frustrated as they would be. The two Marines once again went back to their barracks. So here they're like, we're trying to help.

We're trying to do everything that we've got here. Yeah. It's like we know something happens, but with anything, like how do you know something happened? Right.

I mean, like nobody's been reported missing. Yeah. Like as far as I know everybody's accounted for. Right.

So I mean, there really isn't anything to do. Exactly. And they're either tight. Yeah.

I get it. Several hours later, Suzanne's roommate awoke and discovered that Suzanne wasn't there. Her running shoes and her clothes were not in the house and it appeared that she never came back from her jog. And remember, she was having a graduation that day.

So of course she would be home. Yeah. So none of this makes sense. So the roommate immediately knew something was off.

She calls the police and she reports Suzanne missing. The Sheriff's office went out to search the route that Suzanne usually took when jogging. As investigators reach Edmund O'Grill Park, they discovered the mutilated dog. They discovered the mutilated body of Suzanne.

No. Yeah. As police combed the crime scene, they discovered men's clothing along with a pair of red men's underwear near Suzanne's body. They believe these items must have belonged to the killer.

Now, keep in mind, this is 1985. Right. So we don't have any evidence here. And autopsy would later reveal that Suzanne was hit over the head and had died from blood force trauma which caused a fracture in her skull.

Here's another horrible piece of this. She also had a large tree limb sticking out of her vagina. Oh my god. The limb had penetrated her body with such extreme force that it went through her abdomen and punctured one of her lungs.

Oh my god. Yes. Well, do we know it was just like pre or post-mortem? Not really sure.

But her cause of death was also noted as, well I guess it was pre-mortem because her cause of death was also noted as being internal hemorrhaging from the tree limb. Oh my god. So she's alive. Oh my god.

She's a 19 year old. She had her whole life in the military. Right. Like in the military.

Who would do this? Oh. Anyway, so police kept the details of Suzanne's death specifically the blowster head in the tree branch rape close to the vest because they didn't want to release any information to the public as to mess up the investigation. So they held on to that.

Word quickly spread around the base about Suzanne's abduction and murder. People started talking and the focus suddenly shifted back to the man in the car. Sadly, the owner of the car that the two men had said, yep, that's it. We saw that car.

That's it. So, sadly, who before they had no evidence on and to be honest, they still don't. The only thing that they have is this could have been the same car. They arrested him.

Oh wow. The military police took him into custody. Wow. And they started an interrogation.

And after hours, sadly stated that he did kill Suzanne. He claimed that he and his wife, Lynn, got into an argument because Lynn was going to a Tupperware party where she was supposed to be spending time with him. But she was like, no, no, I'm just going to go to this Tupperware party. So we got pissed off, basically.

Why don't we do Tupperware parties anymore? We should. I loved Tupperware. Fun fact from the Goodwill years ago, I got this huge Tupperware like caddy with different sections in it and then a little dip in the middle section.

I love it. I use it nonstop and I did a Google search of it. You know where you take a picture and it comes up. So it's from the 70s.

Wow. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. I got two dollars.

Nice. Which I mean, when I looked it up, now you could get it for like $50, $60 or something. Nice. So, yeah.

So it's worth some money. Yeah, that's crazy. That's a treat. Anyway, but yes.

Back to this awful. Yeah, that we're talking about. So he said that night he was pretty pissed that his wife would choose a Tupperware party over him. But I mean, I'm with her.

Yeah. I mean, my boyfriend's currently in this house and if there was a Tupperware party for me to attend. Bye. Yeah.

Well, same. Same. So he drowned his anger in 12 beers in an entire bottle of wine. Whoa.

Yeah. Feeling that he needed more alcohol. Oh. As one would.

That much. Had that much. Yeah. Two, six packs in a bottle of wine.

Having nothing left at home, he decided to go to the liquor store. Oh, who wouldn't? I mean, that is a bad. That is a bad stomach.

That's a bad night waiting to happen. Oh, it's a bad morning. Yeah. It's a bad next like 48 hours.

Oh, yeah. So, Selly claims that on the way to the liquor store in his drunken stupor, he hit Suzanne with his car. Yeah. He said that he got out of his car and he tried to help her up when a screwdriver fell out of his pocket.

And as he was trying to help her up, she collapsed and fell in the screwdriver piercing her skull. Oh, wow. What a clever story. Yeah.

You know, as someone who's fallen many a times. And as someone who often keeps screwdrivers in her pocket. On the many an object. Quite figure out the mechanics of screwdriver falling like to the skull.

Because a screwdriver would have to be standing upright and we all know a screwdriver can't stand upright necessarily. No. Maybe if it has a flat body. Yeah, but you have you fallen.

Like that's going to be probably. And if it falls out of your pocket, it is highly likely that it's going to fall sideways. Yeah. Okay.

I don't know. None of this makes sense people. None of this makes sense. No.

There's the problem. There's a lot of unanswered questions here. So first of all, this is clearly not the cause of death. Right.

So either set least lying to save himself from the death penalty because that's what was being threatened during this investigation. Or maybe he's trying to get a plea bargain. But also maybe he's innocent. So think about some interrogations at this time.

Maybe they were using force. Maybe it was coerced. A lot of his. Of course.

Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course.

Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course.

Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course.

Of course. Yeah. So. You know.

Yeah. It's very different time. Yeah. Seddley doesn't go on trial until March 1987.

Okay. Nearly two years later. Wow. At his trial, Seddley claims that he has multiple personality disorder now known as dissociative identity disorder or DID.

Interesting. His defense claims that he has gaps in his memory and that he would black out and his other personalities would take over. How many did this say how many he had? They didn't specify.

Because that's what people who use that defense don't typically realize is like most people who have that disorder. They have multiple different systems. Yep. It's not just like oh my alter personality.

Like there's several. Exactly. Alters for different points of trauma in your life. Exactly.

And just for context here, most people with dissociative identity has significant childhood trauma whether it be sexual or other kinds of abuse or abandonment. Something that would cause you to create or have these different identities to take over. You usually have the protector that has a different voice. I mean they have different mannerisms.

It is very rare I will say. It's not something that I've ever encountered one time in the power of many years. I've been a mental health professional. I've encountered it once.

Yes. It is incredibly rare. But it is not rare for people to attempt to use this in a defense. Oh for sure.

And especially in the 80s it was becoming almost trendy. Right. Everybody has it. Oh guess what?

I just heard somebody. But it was okay because it wasn't like me. It was my alternate personality. Yeah it was the evil personality in my body.

Yeah. I mean heck nowadays I would just blame Haley. Right. Probably have a better chance.

I mean actually that seems probably not work. Yeah. It's not work. It probably.

So he said that this other personality was the one who took over in his drunken state and killed Suzanne. Yeah I don't think so. No I'm not by an end. So the jury also was not impressed by these claims of mental illness.

He was found guilty of rape and murder though he had never said he raped or you know he said that she died. Right but not it was unintentional. Right and he never stated the way she actually was killed. Right.

So there's a lot of things that don't make sense here. Mm hmm. Alright so two months later in May of 1987, Sadley was once again in front of the group. He was in court for sentencing.

For the kidnapping and rape he was given a 40 year sentence to be served consecutively. For the murder he was sentenced to death by electrocution. Ooh. What a way to go.

Yeah. While in prison, Sadley proclaimed that he was innocent and that he was coerced into confessing. But few people paid any attention to him. I mean that's what most people in prison say.

Right. Like I'm innocent. Yeah. You know.

He tried appealing his conviction but his date for execution was set for May 2nd 1990. As the date approached however he was given an infinite reprieve by the court of appeals. Oh wow. No.

Infinite. Sadley worked with his lawyer and family to prove his innocence. He tried to petition the court to test his DNA against DNA found in the men's clothing. Right.

And the red underwear at the scene of the crime. Yeah. Because they never figured out who that was. Right.

Well now we have this new technology like. And there was DNA evidence. So a circuit judge denied the testing as it would have to be paid for by the state. And the judge also felt that Sadley had not shown quote reasonable probability that he would not have been convicted even if the DNA wasn't a match.

This doesn't make sense. Okay. All they have was a matching car. Confession that may or may not have been coerced.

Correct. That's missing a lot of detail. Correct. None of this makes sense.

No. So Sadley and his lawyers went back to the drawing board once again and continue to try and appeal the convention. Okay. Meanwhile, Sadley's family which included his wife Lynn and his two children David and April continue to support him.

They believe Sadley was innocent and they fought for him to be released constantly. They were you know. And they stayed with him. They supported him through this whole period which is amazing because a lot of families would be like, see ya.

So Sadley, this release never came to be. Sadley was executed by lethal injection in the We Morning Hours of June 28th, 2006. Before he was given the dosage of medication that would stop his heart, he had the opportunity to address his family. He blew kisses to his son and daughter and his last words included telling them that he loved them.

He specifically told them to quote, be good, stay strong and stay together. Sadley's daughter April was convinced the state had just executed an innocent man. April made it her duty to defend her father's reputation and prove that he hadn't committed this horrible crime. I went to.

In 2019, April petitioned the Shelby County Criminal Court in order to test her DNA against the DNA found at the crime scene to see if it was a match. The test would determine the truth she had been searching for for 30 plus years. Yeah, it was a genetic match. Exactly.

Then you would know. But have your answer. And I feel like that can give you peace. You can't bring him back.

Right. But like if, you know, it turns out, you know, he was guilty, then that's a sense of closure. Right. And then if he wasn't like, you know, now you have a new thing to fight for.

Exactly. You know. Exactly. So what are you willing to test this DNA?

Right. What's the harm in it cost? I mean, if she said I will pay for it, why not do it? Why would you not understand?

Like it doesn't make any sense why you wouldn't do it. Her request was denied. Yeah. Yeah.

So in 2021, the Innocence Project got wind of the case and decided to team up with a conservative lawyer, his name was Paul Clement, to appeal this to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. So according to the Innocence Project, there was some weak physical evidence in this crime. No kidding. Clearly.

All you had was an eye to eye witnesses who claimed they saw a car that matched his right. There were tire tracks found at the crime scene that did not match his tires. They recovered shoe prints that did not match his size or brand of shoe. There were other witnesses who saw things and described a five foot to five eight inch man.

Tall man. Tall man. With short brown hair and a dark complexion. Sadly, was six four with red hair and light complexion.

That might be your brother. It could be. It could be your brother. Yeah.

Yeah. So he had been saying for years to his legal team that he was coerced into confessing during the interrogation. They had kept him up. They wouldn't give him food and water like all these things that you hear about.

Right. So in addition to this, another student in this case, his name was Thomas Bruce, later on was proven to be a killer 20 years later. So I guess. So like there's another guy that's there's another guy who had shown up, I guess, during this time, but police didn't really investigate him.

Right. And now it's coming out. But he had a similar car and police are it's now coming out that like, oh, he actually did kill somebody. He killed a guy named John Burrup.

John Burrup was Susan Collins boyfriend at the time. Whoa. Yep. And match the description of the guy that had been seen in that area.

So on May 7th, 2021, the Tennessee court of criminal appeals denied. Yeah, that figured testing the DNA. Right. It's like, okay, if you're not confident enough to test the DNA, you probably shouldn't be confident enough to execute somebody.

Exactly. Like, so April has continued to say you have executed an innocent man and somehow some way we're going to prove it. Yeah. And I hope she does.

I hope she does too because that's like, that's crazy because now that's like part of your family history. Yeah. Like my dad was convicted and executed of this horrific rape and murder. It may not be true.

And then there could be like a real, the real killer still out there. Yep. And don't you think it's convenient that the boyfriend is dead? Yeah.

Don't you think it's convenient that the same guy who was like in the air, you know, like matches everything? I don't know. It's just weird. It's weird.

And it's like, you don't want to test it. What are you covering up? Like, what are you hiding? Exactly.

Yeah. Oh, crazy. That's why I wanted to share this case because I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah.

I think, yeah, we should all be petitioning the Tennessee court system. I know. Test the DNA. Why would you not?

And I really hope that the Innocence Project continues to support April in set these case. Yeah, because I, for her. And I recognize like, you know, he's, he's passed away. But I mean, this would give so many people peace, including Susanne's own family.

Right. I mean, there's got to be some sort of doubt there. There would have to be. I mean, there would have to be.

No way. We're almost, almost here at 40 years. Yeah. Like, I don't know.

Like, come on now. Yeah. You have this evidence you might as well test it. Find the real monster who did this to this poor girl.

Yeah. Or if it was him, there's your solid answer. And think about the crime. Okay.

This was like a crime of passion. Yeah. There was no way to prove in any way that he even knew who she was. Right.

So a lot of this doesn't make sense. The whole rape, essentially, that's pretty violent. Yeah. And that seems like more of a crime of passion versus someone who just randomly found you, you know, right?

It just makes sense. No, it doesn't at all. So I'm team April. How's that DNA?

Even if it comes back that it's, you know, that he is guilty. Like, at least they know. At least they know for sure. You know, like, and for, you know, the victims' family.

That's well, like, to know beyond a shadow of it out. I agree. The right person was executed for this crime. I agree.

So. They need that piece. Yeah. Everybody needs that piece.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's all I got this time. I know. That's why I'll say so much.

Right. Anyway. Well, yeah. So if you want to give us an email, feel free.

Feel free. How do you do that, Haley? You can do that by emailing us at MountMysteries.applelatchin at gmail.com. Find us on our Facebook at MountMysteries.hillsremybelatchin.com.

Find us on Instagram, MountMysteries.appleatchin.com. Check out our Patreon.com.com. We do have a lot of fun on Patreon. We do.

We do have fun there. But technically, we have fun everywhere. We do. You just have to join us for the fun.

Yeah. There's just even a little bit of bonus fun over on Patreon. Bonus fun. That kind of sounds weird.

A little bit. A little bit. It is kind of Holly and Haley after dark. A little bit, yeah.

It's great. It's a great time. Yeah, it really is. Okay.

Now, let me give you a shout out. Sorry. I've become Haley. I'm going to do it.

All that is crazy. Yeah. All right. So let's give a big old shout out to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Oh, yeah. Cool. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks.

All right. Until next week. Bye. Bye.