The fact is, a majority of murder cases are not the inspiration for, or equal to, a diabolical plot from a Netflix or a BBC limited, binge-worthy dramatic crime series. Solving murders generally follows an A-to-Z blueprint. There’s no script. There’s no criminal mastermind. There’s no villainous prosecution, sitting back, dreaming up ways in which to coerce a confession or find an innocent person guilty in order to close a case. Of course, there are anomalies in any system, and it happens (very rarely). But that’s Hollywood, my friends. In the real world, cops follow the evidence where it leads.
Closely look at and study conclusions, yes. Question the evidence and law enforcement integrity, ethics and tactics, always. Never, ever go into an investigation with tunnel vision, certainly. But do not allow ignorance or prejudice to cloud logic. If the answer is staring back at you, slapping you across the face, do the one thing we, as contemporary Americans, struggle so much with today: accept it.
* * *
I THINK A GOOD question regarding Katie is: Could there have been several different personalities she projected within her world in order to obtain what she wanted? In other words, various personalities she created and used to influence different people in her life.
“Intentional schizophrenia,” Adam later called it, coining a term for what he believed was a condition Katie was not at all confused about. She knew what she was doing. It served a purpose in her life. She might not have feigned hearing voices and experiencing hallucinations—two factors in what is called “faked schizophrenia”—but her intent was to become a different person for a preconceived outcome around certain people.
“She’s chosen to have different personalities of which she applies to different people and places,” Adam concluded. “And that is scary shit.”
The closest clinical term for what Adam described, on top of several behaviors Katie exhibited, is “malingered psychosis.” Those who malinger do it for two reasons: to avoid pain or seek pleasure. Either way, it is a manipulative tactic devised to support the motives of the individual.
I believe Katie mastered this.
Katie has difficulty losing or being rejected. Lashing out stealthily after a defeat, she feels vindicated—a sense of pleasure and relief at getting back at the person who wronged her. We see this over and over in the narrative of her life with Adam. After the first big breakup, she faked an ectopic pregnancy to get him back. Second, she dreamed up this rape scenario and there she was, in bed with him the next day, eventually dropping those charges—and Adam went back to her. Third time, she poisoned Adam. When that did not work, she went after the one thing in Adam’s life he loved more than anything else.
Mary Yoder.
Mary and Bill Yoder met in college and began a storybook romance, traveling to Arizona, living in New Mexico and Hawaii, before getting married and settling down in Sauquoit, New York.
Mary was described as a woman full of life, who put all of herself into everything she did.
Mary’s talents included gardening, painting, and making pottery.
In the four decades that
Mary and Bill Yoder were married,
their happiness deepened.
Mary and Bill Yoder started Chiropractic Family Care near Utica, New York, to help people heal “from the inside out.”
(Photos courtesy of the author.)
A loving mother and a doting grandmother, Mary adored her family.
Mary’s son Adam and his girlfriend, Katie Conley, met at a high school graduation party in 2011.
Adam soon got Katie a job as office manager of Chiropractic Family Care.
Mary took a sixtieth-birthday selfie on March 18, 2015.
It was the last birthday she celebrated.
After Mary’s death, some of her art and favorite pottery were displayed at a celebration-of-life ceremony in her and Bill’s home.
An anonymous letter informed the medical examiner and the Oneida County sheriff that a bottle of colchicine could be found inside Adam Yoder’s Jeep.
(Photos courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
Under the passenger’s seat, investigators discovered a bottle of colchicine.
(Photos courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
This plastic bag shows the miniscule amount of colchicine—0.6 milligrams, about 100 granules equal in size to one sugar granule—it took to kill Mary Yoder.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
As a comparison, this bag contains just a half-teaspoon of colchicine.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
A typewriter ribbon, taken out of an old-school typewriter inside Chiropractic Family Care, was imprinted with words and phrases from the envelope containing the anonymous letter, pointing to Adam Yoder as his mother’s killer.
(Photos courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
Oneida County Prosecutor Stacey Scotti points to portions of the typewriter ribbon where those phrases and information were uncovered. The ribbon also contained information used in the false documentation created to support the purchase of colchicine.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
In November 2015, Oneida County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Mark VanNamee took a call from Mary Yoder’s sister, who asked him to look into her sister’s death.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
After exploring the possibility that Adam Yoder or his father, Bill Yoder, could have killed Mary, Investigator VanNamee interviewed Katie Conley. (Screenshot from the police interview courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office began surveillance of Katie Conley—pictured here inside her car as she drove into the parking lot of Chiropractic Family Care.
(Photo courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
Investigators believe this bottle of
Alpha BRAIN (a supplement), given to Adam Yoder by Katie Conley, also contained traces of colchicine—which caused him to go to the emergency room on April 2015.
His symptoms were the same as those his mother experienced three months later.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
Katie Conley’s iPhone became a major source of evidence.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
In January 2018, after Katie Conley’s first trial ended in a hung jury, she was convicted of first-degree manslaughter in the death of Mary Yoder.
(Photo and screenshot courtesy of Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.)
Despite the evidence against her, many in the community showed their belief in Conley’s innocence.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
Conley’s DNA, found on this small bottle of colchicine, was a key piece of forensic evidence used to convict her.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
Prosecutor Stacey Scotti, pictured here explaining a piece of evidence, worked with the lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Laurie Lisi, and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office to secure a conviction.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
Mary Louise Yoder is missed not only by her family, but by her community, friends, neighbors, and patients.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SO MANY PEOPLE PARTICIPATE in the book-writing process in ways they do not realize, it is impossible for me to thank each of you individually. I believe you know who you are. In addition, please know how forever grateful I am for your contribution, however large or small, and your support.
My readers and fans: I bow to you. Thank you from the depths of my heart for continuing to support my career and interact with me on social media and share your love for what I do. Every complimentary note, comment, and hello is humbling. I read them all. I am honored. Truly.
It took some doing, but Bill Yoder opened up; he was honest, sincere, and willing to do whatever it took to get me the truth, whether it favored him and his son, Adam, or not. There is no doubt in my mind Mary Yoder was the
love of Bill’s life. I thank him for his honesty and commitment to the facts of the case.
Liana Hegde is an inspiration. A class act. A doctor, Liana has opted right now to take on the toughest job in the world, which she does without reservation and, I gather from talking to her, would have it no other way: raising a family. And those children, I know, were the light of Mary Yoder’s life. Liana’s help in understanding her mother and those days leading up to Mary’s death was essential. I cannot thank Liana enough for carving out time from what is a busy-beyond-belief life to talk to me.
To all the Yoder family members who helped, I appreciate the sacrifice, along with the courage you showed in reliving what is the toughest and most painful moments of your lives. I am honored, grateful, and fortunate for your willingness to trust me. My hope is that I told your stories with accuracy, fairness, and integrity. None of you deserved the utter BS you put up with before, during, and after the trials. The lies and rumors printed and spread about you, the absolute drivel disguised as social media conversation, were reprehensible. Without reacting or responding to any of it, again, shows class and restraint. All you ever asked for was the public to objectively consider the evidence.
Laurie Lisi, Stacey Scotti, and the OCSO were incredibly helpful getting me documentation and explaining the evidence, making themselves available for interviews, going above and beyond to be certain I understood the entire case—again, whether or not it favored their side of the case. The countless e-mails all of you answered did not go without my utmost appreciation and gratitude.
On the investigation front, I need to say there were many instrumental players—investigators—involved in working countless hours on this case. To include all of you in the narrative would have confused the reader and I opted instead to tell most of the OCSO’s story through Detective Mark VanNamee’s point of view. But every single investigator and forensic expert (including those from the ME’s office and PCC) deserve to be acknowledged for their professionalism and hard work. Without each and every one of you (I don’t need to tell you), Mary Yoder and her family would not have received the justice they deserved.
Family, friends, and my literary agent/business manager/entertainment attorney, Matthew Valentinas, are always, of course, right there by my side encouraging and inspiring me in ways I could never explain here. You all know I love you because I tell you often. What I don’t always share is how utterly grateful I am for your presence in my life.
Andrea Quick is someone I need to thank for changing my life and helping me realize there is light at the end of a dark and seemingly endless tunnel. Andrea is a special person in my life. Without her, I am not sure I would have been able to write this book or any that follow.
My good friend Paul Tieger has been someone who has both inspired and set me straight when I needed to hear it. I cannot thank Paul enough for his friendship, time, unconditional love, wisdom, and experience.
I would like to say how much I appreciate Jeremy Adair, my executive producing partner. Jeremy’s friendship and creative genius has been a blessing in my life. An Australian by birth, I am so proud Jeremy is now and American citizen. I consider his presence in my life over the past 15 years an honor.
And last, if you are into true-crime podcasts, please search for M. William Phelps wherever you get your podcast fix. Download my investigative, narrative, episodic podcast Paper Ghosts, the first season of which focuses on a series of cold cases I’ve spent eleven years investigating: four missing girls and one confirmed murder in my hometown. It is available from iHeartRadio.
About the Author
New York Times bestselling, award-winning investigative journalist, executive producer, and serial killer expert, M. William Phelps is the author of more than forty-one nonfiction books and has made over three hundred television appearances. He created, produced, and hosted the series Dark Minds and is one of the stars of Deadly Women and Oxygen’s Snapped, Killer Couples, and REELZ’s Sex, Lies, and Murder. Radio America calls him “the nation’s leading authority on the mind of the female murderer.” The first season of his iHeartRadio investigative podcast, Paper Ghosts, which he wrote, directed, and executive-produced, debuted in the fall of 2020. Based on his 2017 book Dangerous Ground: My “Friendship” with a Serial Killer, Phelps is currently executive-producing and filming the limited do-cuseries “Happy Face Killer” for Oxygen Network. Look for it in 2021.
Touched by tragedy himself through the unsolved murder of his sister-in-law, Phelps is able to enter the hearts and minds of his subjects like no one else. He lives in Connecticut and can be reached at his website, www.mwilliamphelps.com.
Notes
1 I find this comment quite interesting. When I interviewed Bill Yoder, sitting with him for hours, I asked him to send me the pictures of Mary he had on his phone and iPad. Bill had no idea how to get those photos from his phone/iPad to my phone. “I’ll have to ask Liana to do that for me,” he said. “Extensive knowledge of computers,” based on what I witnessed, is false. The guy could barely find his notes on his iPad without difficulty.
2 Bill emphatically denied this entire statement—and produced financial records and other documentation to corroborate his opinion.
3 There is no documentation I could find proving Katie ever went to the hospital that night, or had an ectopic pregnancy.
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20586571.
5 https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-06-21/the-10-most-dangerous-animals-in-the-world
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