The Suspicious Illness

Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Hi.

Hi. Welcome back. Welcome back. Hailey, I feel like I've been struggling a little bit lately.

Yeah. A little bit like, you know, and some of you women and men can probably relate just feeling with like the weather changing to like summery kind of things, just being really body self-conscious. Oh yeah. I've been definitely feeling happy with you.

I'm there. So today my child was with León. Well, the only other parental figure. And I went to the altar.

Nice. I feel like I need to do something and retail therapy is always very cool. As long as it's not dangerous to do it's been a lot of money, which is not an issue for me. But I just went in there and I was like, I'm going to just like look at all the things that they've done.

Well, I made the mistake of going through all the perfumes and I was like, oh, this smells good. And I got one that like got me a little bit and I could not get rid of that. I just kept smelling that smell. And like I still smell it, which it's Jimmy Choo and it just, yeah, it does not smell good.

So sorry if that's your favorite perfume, but it's not. I tried some Laura Mercier foundation. It was delightful. I tried a sample.

It was a really quick match for me, which is very hard to find a foundation. But I really enjoyed it. And then I looked at the price and it was $52 worth of the foundation. And I was like, that's cool.

That was so fun. That was so fun. But then I noticed that they had things like elf that they sold and I mean, it's an elf foundation. Yeah.

And I also found some other things like what in wild was there and crazy stuff. And I was like, this is amazing. This is right up my alley. So I spent $15 and I got some really good mascara, which I'm noticing now is kind of starting to, you know, wear a little bit.

But it's really nice. And I got some, let's see some highlight and some powder. So all in all, not too shabby, didn't spend a fortune, but it was just nice to get some retail therapy. But yeah, I've been in a funk.

I've been in a funk in a lot of ways. Yeah, I found the foundation. I guess what is it? It's the elf halo-glow liquid filter.

You mean haly glue for $14. Wow. And it's excellent. I love it.

I want to find like, what is the dupe for Laura Mercier? Yeah. If I can figure that out, that would be great. I feel like the elf one that I use as a dupe for something.

I don't know what, but I love it. I use it. That's my new foundation. For years, I have used Tarte T-A-R-T-E.

And I've loved it, but Tarte is so freaking expensive. But they used to, an old colleague of ours, actually turned me on to, you know, every so often they would have these sales and it would be like, you get seven like full items for like 60 bucks or something. And it was a steal. And they used to do it all the time.

I don't think they'd run them as much or I miss them or something anyway. But it was really cool. I am a big, I love makeup. I don't wear a whole whole lot of it.

Just like with my day to day, I'd have like a very simple routine that I do in the morning that takes me all of like five minutes. You're war paint. Yeah. But I do like to like, when I go, you know, go out or have an event or something like that, I like to wear makeup.

So I've been doing the Ipsy boxes again. I had stopped getting them. But now I get, I get them every month and it's like 30 bucks a month, which is fine. And I get five full size products.

Nice. So it's like a fun little surprise every month. Like your period. Like my period, which I just wrapped up.

Hey, you know, thanks so much. Good job. Yep. Cleaning out that uterus.

It was a journey. What did you get though? What? In your box.

I'll take it for my period. I was like, I got a couple of, you know, loads of laundry that I didn't want to do. I got some crayons. I got a few tampons.

It was great. I love it. No, the last time, the first one I got it. So I had done it for a while and I canceled it because I was like, I don't know what's been 30 bucks a month and I had to go through some stuff.

But I was like, been running out. I'm like, oh, this is a fun little like treat. Well, if there's anything that you were like, oh, this is for mature skin, send it my way. Or anything that you don't want.

Like, let me know. I got many brushes a lot when I don't need them. Please send those to me. I'll bring you some.

Okay, I love brushes. I'll just want me to get a little back. Oh, thank you. I love that.

But yeah, they give me, to the last, the first time I got a skincare thing that I love and I've been using it. What is it? It's like a crayons, I'm not a cree. I used it at night.

Do you know who makes it? I have no idea. I was like, oh, this is cute. Let me know who makes it.

Oh. I love that. So I used that and then I sent me brushes twice, which is fine, but I don't need more brushes. I got an eyeliner and a mascara.

Is the mascara good because I'm super picky. Okay. Yeah, it's a good one. What else do I get?

Oh, an eye cream, which I was very excited about. And, oh, a blush, like palette. But it has colors that you could use it for like other things. Right.

So not just blush. And I think a highlighter and a contour thing, like a powdery. I love it. Little things.

So yeah, it's just like really fun. It's fun to open them, like, and I typically, like I use those and I'm not gonna go buy makeup. But for 30 bucks a month, buy full products, it's not too shabby. It's not sponsored, but hey, Ipsy, if you wanna.

Both of us. I mean, we're here. Headless up. Tarte, Laura Mercier.

We're here. Available. Elf. Wet and wild.

Wet and wild. I used to figure it out for a time. I know. I know.

So I mean, we're available. Haven't used a Wet and Wild in a while. Wet and Wild. Yeah.

Well, I'm a slacker. Actually, I'm not a slacker. I'm a really good person. Excellent story prepared for this week.

Like, it was like fully researched. I've been to eight different sites on the Google. I had pulled it together. It was beautiful.

It's on my work computer. So I sent myself two stories because I got a hit. And I was trying and I sent myself two and I just went to open the emails so I could find the one that I wanted to do for this week. It's the same story twice.

Aw. I got to tell myself the same story twice. So I'm actually really concerned now that it's been deleted off of my work computer. Because I don't know.

I think I saved it. I gotta hope I saved it. I'm a bit really upset if I didn't. But anyway, so that's where I'm at.

Do you want to go to Altah? Uh huh. Let's do it. Okay.

We'll see you next week. Okay. We'll get together. We'll have in there.

And the booker will go well. That would be all the lipstick and everything just falls down. Yeah, sure. A lot of time we'd have to spend there.

Yeah. Well, I mean, let us continue to browse. Yeah. Maybe try all the samples.

Maybe. There were ladies and they're getting their makeup done. I was like, I had two thoughts go for my head. Right?

The first thought was like, they think you look so good that they're not even going to approach you. And the second thought was, I look so bad that they don't feel like they could do anything for you. But that just breeds more of those negative feelings. So I tried to get the ladder out of my mind and just focus on the stinky Jimmy Chu perfume.

Nice. That helped. Yeah. Good.

So I'm going to do a story. So in in lieu of your story, I have one. So I'm ready to step up. Thank you.

You're welcome. You're welcome. I got you. I got you.

All right. So today our story begins in September of 1981. And like always, to provide some context for the time period, I will tell you what was going on in the world and in pop culture. So the number one song was Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.

I know that one. Good. Yeah. I'm very proud.

The number one movie at the box office was Body Heat. I've never seen it. And no, it wasn't a Jane Fonda exercise video, but rather an erotic thriller. Whoa.

I'm just going to lots of nudity. Oh, yeah. Well, what I'm doing this weekend going to also in watching Body Heat. Guess what?

You're on your phone. Sure. Creepy. They're like, what's with the lady in the back corner.

She's watching Smut. Oh, and the Ulta. Gross. You're going to be in episode.

We do. Yeah. That's it. I got to keep my job, so that's true.

It's a really not a good idea. Maybe that was something in our past life. Maybe. Tabern drugs, tater sack races.

Smut me Ulta. For sure. Yeah. That's like, probably would have been more like magazines or something.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, no. For sure. Read letters.

Ooh. Yeah. XOXO. Gossip girl.

What is it? Playgirl? Playgirl. Yep.

Not going to go. Pass. Hey, what's that thing under your chair over there? That's a random thought.

Sure. I've been looking at it for like the past hour. The green thing? No, the white thing.

It's under the chair. I think it's one of my sons' toys. It looks like a vape. Sorry, I'm a front teenager, soul day.

He's war. He does not fake. Okay. Leo works in healthcare so I highly doubt that anybody's vaping.

I don't think he vapes at school. Back in the corner who's vaping again. They have to check his backpack for the Vapes. To dinosaur backpack.

You have to wander children's attacks. No they don't want at the preschool. I can't say that they do but never know. They might.

They'll be starting to do. My friend is a school bus driver for elementary school kids and she said that they draw penises on her bus. Wow. Yeah.

You know I learned my first curse word from the bathroom stall in elementary school. Are you allowed to say it here? I can't. Okay.

Start with F. Got you. Friend. Friend.

Yeah. He was written on the bathroom stall and I had to be like what's that? It's luck with an F. Yeah.

Yeah. So I knew it was a bad word. I didn't know what it meant. Oh did.

Well I hadn't heard that word until middle school. Oh because I'm a little older but I read it on the auditorium door. Wow. This was as we were touring it in middle school and I said to my mom oh look mom.

Look at the word on here and she's like instantly you know she's like where am I sending my children? I was like best you not send us here and she did anyway. I made it through. Yeah.

I had the teacher. Yeah. I survived. Yeah.

Alright. Well yeah. Let's do this. Alright.

So Ronald Reagan was in office having been elected to the presidency about 10 months earlier. His wife first lady Nancy Reagan was receiving criticism for redoing the White House particularly her focus on expensive China. It's important to note that during the early 80s the United States was an economic recession so Mrs. Reagan's purchases were frustrating to Americans.

I could see that. Sure. Yeah. I don't really care what they're doing.

They're like decoration wise though. The president. Right. Yeah.

I think it was spending tax dollars on I think that's where Americans were a little frustrated. I'm sure but the way the budgets work and it's not already a pre-allocated. Here's the thing I hate when people say this. It came from another pot.

Oh yeah. I hear that all the time. Oh well it came out of another pot. Oh it was from another pot.

It was from another. It was allocated from another source. Yeah. Don't give me that because you put those damn dishes back and start giving me money.

I mean. Realicated. Realicated. Let's do that.

And I think now with like inflation and our economy you know sometimes like that would be really hard. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh. Anyway.

Okay. So we're gonna pick up with today's story in Lewisburg West Virginia. Ooh. This is where we meet wife, mother and nurse Mary Beth Davis.

Okay. Mary Beth has two children which includes her two-year-old daughter Tegan and her infant son Seth. Tegan. Isn't that a cool name?

It's a friend who's growing up and we danced together actually. Her and Steegan. That's a cool name. I think it's a really cool name.

Mary Beth and her husband met in high school and married in 1977. Mary Beth worked as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit of Green Breyer Hospital. Mary Beth and Gary had their first child Tegan Tegan Marie in 1979. All went well with the pregnancy.

Tegan appeared to be happy, healthy, no issues. When Seth was born two and a half years later Mary Beth noticed that he always appeared lethargic, stiff. He grunted a lot and really wasn't able to catch on to nursing. Yeah.

Mary Beth sensed that something was wrong with her son so she was worried she took him to the doctor. The pediatrician Dr. Alrich thought that Seth may have a metabolic disorder and recommended that they admit him to the hospital to monitor his condition. Gotcha.

Come like a failure to thrive. Deal? Yeah. Yeah.

So after four days at the local hospital physicians felt more but more had to be done for Seth so they transferred him to a larger hospital with more resources. The Davis's chose to move their son to children's hospital of Pittsburgh where he could receive more in-depth care. Okay. Back at the Davis's apartment they were packing up for the trip when Mary Beth noticed that Seth was stiffening and grunting in his stroller.

Mary Beth picked him up and the child went rigid and as a nurse she recognized that he was having a seizure. Yeah. So he's a seizure. Yep.

Mary Beth and Gary rushed their son to the local hospital the same hospital that he had been discharged from just days earlier and Dr. Ulrich takes a blood sample and he checks on the child's blood sugar levels. To note here very high and very low blood sugar levels can induce seizures. Yeah.

So the doctor just assumed okay he has some type of metabolic disorder it seems reasonable like we would check this. Right. Yeah. Seth had a normal glucose level between 16 and 120 so everything seemed fine.

The doctor then performed a spinal tap which retained fluid from the spinal cord and this would be to rule in or out things like meningitis also to check again for glucose levels but in a different way. I almost had a spinal tap when I was doing this with before I got a line. I had viral meningitis from the Lyme disease but they were concerned that could be bacterial so they were like there was discussion of like sending me to get that done and this was like something that long ago we were doing like this and I was like that's fine I'll just I'll croak out of that sorry. So that tick take me out I don't need any of that.

I have heard it is unbearable. Oh yeah well I was so sick at that point I'm not sure I really would have noticed because I was so ill but yeah would not. Nope don't want that. No hard pass.

Can't they knock you out for it? I'm sure they could but maybe they don't probably wouldn't. I'm sure it's a local and it's that I give you. Still still not great.

No nothing. So it was discovered that baby Seth had a significantly low blood sugar level. Oh from the spinal tap. Yeah.

At this point Seth is in a near catatonic state. Oh my god. So emergency medicine team flew him to the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. Wow.

Seth's blood sugar level had plummeted in the helicopter and he had several seizures. He was given a dose of glucose to bring his insulin levels back up. Mary Beth quickly flew to Pittsburgh to be with her son but a staff member stopped her and told her let us do our jobs like backup. She gave her son a kiss and returned the next day.

By this point Seth was in the ICU. After a week in the hospital doctors informed the Davises that their son had significant brain damage and would likely be in a vegetated state for the rest of his life. They recommended Seth be put in an institution in order to provide the care he needed. Seth ended up spending a total of six weeks in the hospital with doctors and nurses running all types of tests.

The doctor who discharged Seth wrote quote it was felt dot dot dot that he could be cared for just as well or even better at home. So I guess they changed their minds. The doctor listed his primary diagnosis as hypoglycemia, low glucose that can lead to seizures and noted that the hospital was awaiting further test results. So he's had like a sounds like from the seizures looks like brain damage probably an anoxic brain injury.

Multiple seizures. Yeah. A month or so later Mary Beth and Gary take their son for a visit to Dr. Ulrich.

The doctor informs them that the C peptide tests run on Seth when he arrived at the hospital showed high levels of insulin in his body. But that's different. But he had a low blood sugar. Because he had a low blood sugar.

So how is it possible? Does it make sense? Because insulin levels out your blood sugar. That's weird.

Very strange. So the doctor informed the parents that there was no way Seth's body could produce high levels of insulin like that it had to come from an external source. Like what? What if you're injected by it with insulin?

Maybe. What if in between coming to the hospital and going to the next hospital you're injected with insulin? But why would you be injected with insulin? Just throw that out.

All right. There's more. Okay. The doctor informed the parents that they're like this notion was silly.

Like no no no it can't be something like external. He encouraged the family to go to the University of Virginia Medical Center for further testing because he just he kind of poo pooed what Pittsburgh said. He's like don't go there I just don't trust it like go somewhere else. So the physicians in Virginia felt that Seth may have something called Lee's disease.

Okay. Which is a rare hereditary disease that causes a breakdown in the central nervous system. This would explain seizures, lack of motor skills and ability to feed all that stuff. A neurologist told Mary Beth and Gary that says long-term prognosis was not good and that most children with this diagnosis only lived to be aged three years old.

Yeah. So the Davis's took their son home to care for him and accepted that his life would be short. They did plan to make his last few years the best that they could. Yeah.

So a few months later in March of 1982 the Davis's daughter Tegan began experiencing flu-like symptoms. Gary was five hours away working in Pennsylvania at a hospital. Gary was a doctor in his own right. Okay.

Mary Beth called Dr. Al Rick who told her to treat the flu symptoms and you know take cool baths bring down fevers, tiling all those normal things. Exactly. One night Gary called back home to check on little Tegan and Mary Beth gave her the phone so she was talking to her dad and she told him that there were choo choo trains on her walls.

There weren't any choo choos on her. She also told her father that a statue of the Virgin Mary was speaking to her. That's not great. Concerned.

Gary insisted that Mary Beth take Tegan to the hospital. Yeah. So Mary Beth took Tegan to the local hospital in Greenbrier and Tegan was admitted and her condition got worse. Do you have a really high fever?

Seems like Shanghai fever and it gets it's about to get worse. So because I the only time I've ever hallucinated and I don't even remember it was when I had like a hundred four degree fever. Yes. And was like out of my mind.

Like seeing things. Apparently my mom's like you were full on hallucinating. I was like oh great I don't remember. Where are you in the altar?

No I was in my basement apartment. Okay I was talking something about it was pitch black in there again from the line. I had such bad light sensitivity that like any like ounce of light hurt to the point. So my mom's I was laying in the bed with my arm like draped over my eyes just like talking out of my head about like things I was seeing and like all this I don't remember any of it.

I also again had a fever of like one or four. At that point probably should have gone to the ER. But no. It was fine.

My son when he was 13 months old spiked a fever of 105. I was terrified. It was the middle of the night he started crying and he was just burning up. I ran to the ER and they said he had an ear infection and maybe some other kind of viral infection.

But I don't know I still think that was weird. Well sometimes like babies like spike random fevers and did. They have febros seizures and which is terrifying. I was a seizure.

Yeah. But I got him there immediately. They you know gave him intravenous fluids. They gave him time and all they did all the things which slowly brought it down.

I think we left the ER at 102. It's still I was like I did not feel comfortable leaving and they're like no no no you're good. You're good. Just follow up with your primary care.

Oh my god. So we did. It was it was scary. It was so scary.

That's the scariest I've ever been as a mom. But it was health wise. Yeah. So Tegan was put in the same room as her brother who was in the hospital for monitoring due to his condition.

So now both kids are there. Tegan's temperature got up to 108 degrees. Oh my god. She began hyperventilating, vomiting and convulsing.

Yeah that's like frying your brain. Yes. Within a few hours of being admitted she slipped into a coma. Yeah.

I can't believe it. I mean that's that's and I guess it's just not responding to anything. That's crazy. Dr.

Ulrich thought that Tegan may have Lee's disease just like her brother or maybe even raised syndrome and equally rare disease that causes the organs of the body to shut down. Marybeth asked the doctor is she can administer thymine intravenously to Tegan. What's thymine? Thymine.

I'm not really sure what that is. That's a good Google. Okay. I would assume you would know.

I don't know what thymine is. A compound is one of four constitutant bases of new lack assets. It's like sure assets. Sure.

Interesting. I don't really know what it does. Why is it important? Necessary for the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

Okay. Oh enzyme. Oh yeah. It's your yeah.

I'm going right back to like freshman biology. Great. Yeah. I know what that is.

Anyway. So she asked the doctor, hey can I give this to her intravenously? Marybeth was a skilled nurse. She had administered intravenous medication to her son while he was in the ICU.

She had also given him thymine. So just let me say this is weird. Oh, I don't think that's what that is. I think thymine is also known as vitamin B1.

Okay. Yeah. There's thymine and then there's thymine. That they're two different things.

The thymine that is part of DNA was what you were reading. And I was like that doesn't make any sense. How would you inject that? But then thymine.

Like a vitamin B. It's vitamin B. Vitamin B. Vitamin B1.

Okay. Okay. That makes more sense. That makes more sense.

Yeah. It's a lot of times. I don't know what's mine. It's a lot of thymine.

Who knows. All the things. Periodic table. I didn't say I was a science major.

I'm definitely not. All right. So this is something that's weird. Why would you ask a doctor like, Hey, let me inject my kid with this.

Even though you're a nurse, like, I mean, I know this was the early 80s, but it's still strange. So the doctor thinking the child had Lee's disease just like her brother said, Sure. Go ahead and do it. Dr.

Ulrich suggested they move Tegan to the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, but Marybeth didn't want to move her due to her condition. And she didn't have her husband there for support. He was still working out of town. So the delay in moving Tegan is going to be paramount.

Okay. Eventually, Marybeth agreed to take Tegan 80 miles away to Roanoke, Virginia to a bigger hospital. On the way to the hospital, Tegan's heart stopped and she died. Oh my God.

Yeah. In order to determine the cause of death, a pathologist conducted an autopsy. She stated, this is the pathologist that Tegan had hundreds of bead-like formations in her digestive track, which she concluded was likely the result of time released pills. Time released?

Like extended referrals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The toxicology report showed high levels of caffeine, making it seem likely that Tegan had caffeine pills in her system. Weird. Marybeth, who had gained some extra weight with her pregnancy with Seth, was trying to lose it by taking caffeine pills. Caffeine pills are said to be a stimulant to the metabolism to give you more energy, all those things.

It was what Jessie on Save by the Bell was so excited about. If you've ever seen, I'm so excited. She was addicted to Nodos, you know, basically crack from her. Anyway, so the pathologist wrote, quote, suspected homicide on the death certificate.

Wow. Yeah. So not even thinking maybe she got into the accident link. Well, the parents thought it was an accident.

They're like, Oh my gosh, you know, but the pathologist was like, I don't know. This seems fishing to me. The Davis's searched their house up and down to see like were any pills missing, like maybe she got into them. So Gary goes outside to the garbage bin and finds empty dexetrim packets, which in the early 80s, dexetrim or speed was basically what you would take to lose weight.

And so they were made of like caffeine. Unless Mary Beth had taken them and tossed them herself, it seems likely or highly unlikely that Tegan, who was three years old, would not only take them, but also throw them in the garbage outside. Right. That makes no sense.

Because if you've ever had a child, you know that they get into something and throw it on the floor and you know, like that's weird. So Tegan's death was briefly investigated, but nothing ever came of it. Gary got a job in Ohio. So he and Mary Beth put Seth, who may said that they would take care of, no matter what, they put him at home and moved out of state.

Feels kind of cold. Oh, Brady then. Yeah. They also adopted a daughter in 1984, whom they named Katie Beth.

How does that happen? So it's two years after their daughter's death. Right. How does that work?

Well, the social workers in charge of the screening process asked about Tegan and Seth. And I guess the family told them, but they raised no objections to the adoption. What? Hmm.

I mean, I guess it's how they present the story. I mean, you gotta remember, it's 1984. There's no internet. Right.

You know, some was born with this tragic genetic condition. He's in a home. Our daughter had a similar condition in past. And so the social workers probably thinking, oh, this poor fan.

Right. They don't want to have any more biological kids for the risk of having another child with a genetic condition. Exactly. Opening their home to, okay, sure.

I can see. I can see. No, he's a trusted physician. She's a nurse on paper.

Perfect. They're a perfect family. So I can see how that would happen. They run a real good narrative.

So Gary and Mary Beth's marriage became a little shaky after they adopted Katie Beth, but they actually have another child biologically, whom they named Gary Richard. So in 1985, that same year, the couple separated and Mary Beth moved back to West Virginia with the kids, Katie Beth and baby Gary. The children remained in good health and Mary Beth was seen as the ideal soccer mom. She was involved in the school, big sales, the children's extra curriculars.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for this family. No other incidents of sickness or anything else had happened. No genetic issues coming out for baby Gary. Nothing like that.

Okay. So now it's 1995 and West Virginia enacts a law pursuing even old cases of child abuse. Oh, wow. Okay.

Rumors start going around in town about Teagan's death and how some people believe that Mary Beth and Dr. Aldrich were having an affair. The talk was also about the suspiciousness of Seth's condition. His step at this point was still alive.

He was in a home. He was about 14. Oh my gosh. And talking about Teagan's death and how just seemed too coincidental.

Yeah. A local detective started looking into the case and he finds that back in 1981, a doctor at the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh who treated Seth made a report to the West Virginia Child Protective Services. The doctor felt that these high insulin levels were the result of the mother injecting her son. Witnesses soon came forward and in November of 1996 there was enough evidence to convene a grand jury.

They indicted her on murder charges. Dang. Mary Beth was arrested and her trial began in early 1997, some 15 years after Teagan's death. Wow.

The prosecution set up the theory that Mary Beth had munchausen by proxy and had the means of the medical know-how to poison her own children. So for those of you who've heard it but don't really know what it is currently in the DSM-5, munchausen by proxy is seen as a mental disorder or defect. So this is when you are making your own child sick to get attention for yourself. Yeah.

That's that. You can have munchausen which is making yourself sick and the by proxy is making someone else sick. Yeah. To be a child or a family member somebody you're you're caring for.

Exactly. Yeah. So weird. I felt okay and then Hayley came here and I don't feel right.

She's just staring at me. Let's go to the altar. All right. So prosecutors set up the theory that Mary Beth had munchausen by proxy.

They stated that she made her children sick in order to garner attention from Dr. Ulrich. Yep. They presented a toxicology report from the pathologist who examined Teagan postmortem.

The report indicated that Teagan had the equivalent of nine cups of coffee in her body at the time of her death leading them to suspect that a time released caffeine pill was the culprit. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

The defense claimed that Mary Beth had two children who had rare hereditary diseases and that she did everything that she could to ensure that they were cared for even seeking out medical attention. Mary Beth was presented by the defense as a loving mother and nothing else. Her two children who were alive advocated for her and stated that she had been nothing but a wonderful mother. Wow.

Mary Beth was furious at the insinuation that she had munchausen by proxy, one chausen by proxy and felt that it was the opinions of nurses who had cared for her children who really didn't like her because Mary Beth was kind of pushy. Yeah. You know like I'll take care of this. I'll give them the injection.

I'll do this. And so I guess the other nurses probably didn't like her but that's a pretty tall claim. Right. Yeah.

That's a heavy claim there. Oh. Mary Beth was found guilty of Teagan's murder and attempted murder of Seth. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole but this is not the end of the story.

In September of 1997 Gary finally divorces Mary Beth. You see they've been married in the Catholic Church and because they were Catholic they didn't believe in divorce but after you know they predicted of murdering her their children he was like you know what I'm out I'm good. Seth died in his care home in 2002 at the age of 21. Wow.

So that whole theory of Lee's disease seems unlikely. Right. Because you know that life insectancy is only a few years. Yeah.

And then he's 21. But he loved to be 21. The cause of death listed on his death certificate is homicide. Wow.

Which is again feels like a bit of a stretch. I don't know if that's I mean if that's what caused like if it was malice that caused the condition that eventually led to his death. I mean maybe but he also could have had like I don't know he could have had like a respiratory infection. But would he have had that and would have killed him if he didn't know this.

I feel like there would be a secondary listed on there as well. I don't know. I'm sure. But it was listed as homicide.

Wow. So in April of 2002 a conviction on a conviction appeal Teagan's body was exhumed. Oh my god. The child was dressed in a hat, Easter dress and white patent leather shoes.

She was also in the coffin with her two dolls. They took tissue samples to test and found caffeine was not in the body tissue. In order to kill someone with caffeine it would have had to reach the body tissue. So this means that perhaps she had caffeine in her system but it wasn't enough to kill her.

But what did have stayed in her body tissue in the ground? Yes. Oh. Okay.

Now sure. This bird an appeal for a retrial which was granted in 2004. Wow. In October of 2007 the prosecutor's office did not want to spend any more money or time on this retrial.

So they offered her a deal. They told her if she were to plead guilty to two counts of attempting to injure her children with poison. And by the way she had proclaimed her innocence from the very beginning the whole time. They stated that they would give her a sentence of three to 18 years per count to be served concurrently.

Mary Beth seen, you know, a way out of jail was like, okay, I'll take it. So she she please guilty. And due to the fact that she had been in jail for 10 years, she was released on time served and immediately eligible for parole. She was 55 years old at the time of her release.

And I currently don't have any information. I try Google in it. I couldn't really find anything. But she's about 72 years old now.

And she hasn't made any headlines and from what I can tell hasn't been arrested again. So it seems like nothing else has happened. But it leads the question. Do we think that her children just have these genetic abnormalities?

Or do we really think she was a culprit that she had much housing by proxy? But if you have that, you can't, it's not something that you can control. Like you would make your other kids sick then. Or you would think?

I don't know, man. Would you make me sick for attention? No. Your brother?

No. No. Your dog. No.