Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 37 - Breaking the Mold - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] this young couple had everything successful careers money time to enjoy it and a home fit for a movie star
then everything changed their three-year-old son developed serious respiratory problems
and his father started showing signs of alzheimer's disease forensic scientists needed to know
whether these illnesses were bad luck bad genes or something else [Music] dripping springs texas a town where you
can enjoy the beauty of the texas hill country yet commute to downtown austin in just
over half an hour [Music] melinda ballard fell in love with dripping springs and bought this
georgian style mansion on 72 acres of land in 1994 she met ron allison after dating for less than a year the
couple married it was everything i had ever wanted in a man very intelligent a real go-getter
a workaholic which is what i am so we seem to match up pretty well in that regard um just a super guy
we both had the same interest we both wanted to have a family i think that was the the
key career-wise with similar interests melinda had been head of her own public relations business a firm she sold in
1989 but she still continued her career i said as a board member of the bank and
still represent a number of clients that are i guess holdovers from my company in in
new york ron worked in investment banking and was head of corporate finance at his firm
in 1996 melinda gave birth to their son rhys ron loved being a father and a weekend
baseball coach then in february 1999 three-year-old reese developed what seemed like a flu
he started having some respiratory problems and he would have a real hard time catching his
breath and and we thought god maybe he's exercising too much or something the symptoms lingered
one month later reece seemed to be getting worse not better initially we thought
maybe it's because rhys is in preschool in nursery school and you know how kids just they constantly get
contaminate one another with a little bug or virus doctors could find nothing wrong
tests were inconclusive when he was taken for allergy tests those two were negative
soon reese's problems move from respiratory to neurological reese who had learned his abcs from a to
z suddenly couldn't get past d he was deteriorating quickly and we were taking him to doctor after doctor after doctor
and they told us that something was wrong but they didn't know what it was when doctors came up empty a team of
forensic scientists and epidemiologists had better luck [Music] melinda ballard was living a dream life
she and her husband had a beautiful home a healthy adorable son and successful careers
until their three-year-old son developed a serious illness i didn't know if he had some kind of
rare disease that nobody had ever heard of i didn't know what to think but i knew it was getting worse
and that we were not able at the time to get a handle on the situation reese was still asthmatic very asthmatic
in fact he the pulmonologist said he had scarred lung tissue but still the cause couldn't be found
it appeared to ron's co-workers that the stress associated with his son's illness
was starting to get to him i was sitting at his desk and ron was looking at his computer
screen which was unusual but when i walked closer to his desk i realized that he was staring at a
blank screen and ron exhibited other symptoms he came out of the grocery store and could not remember where he had
parked his car or what car he even drove it took him about five hours to come back from the grocery store when he it
should have taken him 20 minutes and when he gets home everything's melted and he said i don't
know i i'm having a i had a blackout or something i didn't know what was going on and
the wheels were coming off and it was it was i was i was scared ron went to a neurologist for testing
the results showed a dramatic decrease in his cognitive abilities my doctor sat me down and told me that i
was about halfway through the progression of alzheimer's and that's based on my my neurological
uh test results but that's all he could tell me is is that you're you're you're you're functioning on this level
and it's uh seems to be getting worse but they didn't know exactly why or what to do about it
on april 1 1999 melinda boarded a southwest airlines flight heading to little rock arkansas
it was a flight that forever changed the course of her life a man named bill holder
was assigned to the seat next to melinda on the way to dallas which was our first
job i heard her talking to some people there sitting there by me and she was complaining about all
these illnesses and problems that she and her family were having and without warning
melinda fell ill and i kept coughing up blood and bill holder said to me lady what in the world's wrong with you
and i said i really don't know i just asked her i said do you have a water leak at your house
and she said yes i do i have several water leaks she told holder that a month earlier
there was a leak in her home causing the downstairs floors to buckle a plumber repaired the leak which was in
the water line leading to the refrigerator's ice maker holder began to suspect that it was a
mold causing the family's illness holder owns the assured indoor air quality business that removes toxic mold
from buildings [Music] but melinda dismissed this possibility she kept her home spotless and no one in
her family tested positive for allergies the allergist did these little pinprick
tests to determine whether or not we were allergic to mold and it came back that we weren't
so i dismissed it as as our problem but during their conversation on the plane holder said something prophetic
he's telling me these aren't allergens lady this is a poison now suspecting that there was some kind
of mold behind a wall or above the ceiling somewhere ron and melinda decided not to take any
chances and moved out of the main house into an apartment over the garage but even with the move
ron's neurological problems continued to get worse at the office i would be on a a phone
call and 10 or 20 minutes into the phone call just not have any idea what we discussed
if there was some kind of mold behind a wall or ceiling how would investigators find it
[Music] medical experts began to suspect that something in their home environment was
making ron melinda and rhee sick the property included 72 acres there was a man-made pond that melinda
stocked with swans and catfish a barn for horses a backyard gazebo and pool the house itself was enormous 12 000
square feet modeled after the movie version of para scarlet o'hara's plantation home in gone with the wind
it was lots of columns a georgian style home antebellum and it was just gorgeous
scientific experts began to focus on the possibility that it was mold for mold to grow
it requires water to be where it shouldn't be it requires cellulose which is a component of most building
materials for example sheet rock ceiling tile pressed particle board and then a mold also needs the appropriate
temperature and it needs oxygen melinda asked bill holder to inspect their home to see if he could find
anything suspicious he started behind the refrigerator the location of the original water leak
and under the first floor floorboards take clear cellophane tape push it on the suspect area
and then attach it to a glass slide at the same time take a sterile cotton swab and lift some of the material off of
that surface with a sterile cotton swab put it in a sterile container send it to the
laboratory dr david strauss is a professor of microbiology and immunology at texas
tech university i spent about a half an hour in the house and i was talking with bill mr
holder and i said to him turn to him and i said bill i don't feel very good i said i got to get out of here and uh
really just literally walked out the front door and pretty much collapsed i lost any any ability to stand without
without aid the samples were processed at texas tech health sciences center technicians there sterilized the slides
then examined them under a high powered microscope the cotton swab samples were transferred
to petri dishes then put in an incubator for five to seven days if there were spores present they would
grow mold which could be examined under the microscope most household molds are harmless
but dr strauss found one type of mold in the home that was not harmless it was a toxic deadly mold known
as stacky botrus [Music] experts believe stachybotrys spores exist on many building materials
as long as those materials stay dry the spores don't present a problem but when the spores get wet from a leaky
roof for example or in a dark moist environment and are near a paper product like drywall and
insulation the spores multiply quickly and they produce a potentially deadly poison called
mycotoxins mycotoxins are on the surface of these spores so when you inhale these fungal
spores you're also taking the mycotoxins into your lungs as well later bill holder went back to conduct an
airborne test canisters placed throughout the house capture any airborne spores which might
be present a short time later melinda was notified of the results they informed us that it was literally
everywhere and including in the apartment where we were living and for us to it'd be a good idea to
leave to avoid the possibility of cross-contamination the family was told to leave the grounds
immediately and to take nothing with them at that point we got the heck out of dodge
we left with literally nothing from that home because of cross contamination we didn't want to bring a problem with us
buildings never get better by themselves in fact if you leave a building alone that has mold infestation it gets worse
melinda and ron hope the family's health problems would clear up once they left the house
but they didn't ron is a bright bright guy but he's become almost um it it's very sad he carries a
carries a little notebook in his pocket got his phone number car license number things of this nature and he's not a
buffoon by any stretch you know but i know he's seriously affected by this ron is just really loves his son and on
several occasions i would hear him talking about his son and he would say my son
and stop because he didn't remember his son's name ron's memory problems forced him to
resign from his firm reese continued to suffer from asthma and learning disabilities
only melinda came through without permanent health problems doctors have no idea why
toxic mold reproduces by shedding microscopic spores it can't be cleaned from surfaces
because to do so would release thousands of spores into the air instead each piece of contaminated
building material has to be dismantled sealed in air-tight plastic and carted away
the question now was could the house be saved melinda and ron moved out of their dream home following
the scientific diagnosis that it was infested with a potentially deadly mold growing behind the walls and ceilings
the couple says that the first time they noticed any water damage was the leak behind the refrigerator which the
plumber had fixed the leak had caused extensive damage to the flooring throughout the area
the couple says they wanted to repair the water damage right away but their insurance company said no
we had asked the insurance company in writing to allow us to begin repairs immediately
and at least rip out some of the wet flooring and the insurance company said that if i
had made repairs during their investigation that i would lose coverage scientific experts say that most
household molds are harmless but with stachybotrys the mold must be removed immediately since it's capable
of spreading the cost to eliminate all of the stachybotrys in ron and melinda's home
was originally estimated to be one million dollars the insurance company offered less than
two hundred thousand dollars while the two sides tried to reach a settlement construction experts found 13
additional plumbing leaks and one roof leak in the home causing even more stachybotrys contamination
they kept wanting to investigate claims which is their right and their duty to do
but the problem is they would never allow us to begin making repairs the investigations and disputes over
cost dragged on for two years by then experts concluded that the house and everything in it was so contaminated
it was beyond repair to enter the house now melinda has to don a special suit and respirator to
protect herself against the poisonous mold experts recommended that the home be demolished
melinda and ron filed suit against their insurance company for the financial loss
of their property the last thing i wanted to do was have to sue my insurance company
but they left me no choice the suit argued that the insurance company knew or should have known about
the potentially dangerous effects of delaying repairs to water damage inside of homes and buildings
dr michael gray sees more than 150 patients a year who suffer from exposure to toxic molds
i concluded that ron allison was definitely affected by the mycotoxins which he was exposed to in the context
of his living environment in the house that they lived in in addition to medical experts ron's
attorney presented epidemiological studies showing the relationship between tricathazine the toxin found in
stachybotrys mold and mental functioning i was confident that we had found the kind of scientific information that
would allow us to try this case to a jury ron and melinda were asking the insurance company for the cost of their
home and property six million dollars the jury took two and a half days to come back with their verdict
but it was not for the six million dollars melinda and ron asked for the jury awarded the couple
32 million dollars it was a great relief to me that the jury system worked i was obviously relieved
i had hoped that they would not get away with what they had done the verdict in this case is now on
appeal the home once a showplace is now sitting abandoned it's been looted numerous times
ron is learning to live with an impaired memory he enters his daily schedule into his
hand-held computer each morning and relies on its alarm to help him stay on track
to make certain that people know their rights relative to water damage in their home
melinda created her own website policyholdersofamerica.org it's not just been a home
that has been lost here it has been the health of a little boy and a a very energetic workaholic man
who has lost his identity and i don't want to see this happen to any other family i can promise you that
all of those medical doctors and quality scientists that have been involved in our case
are my heroes they are our heroes [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

The 3-year-old son of parents in Dripping Springs, Texas develops a respiratory condition. Then the father develops signs of Alzheimer's disease, and an investigator reveals that their ill health is due to a form of black mold in their modern home.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Melinda Ballard's family faced severe health issues linked to toxic mold in their home, leading to a major legal battle with their insurance company.

Key points

A Dream Life Shattered. A young couple's idyllic life is turned upside down when their son falls seriously ill.
The Mold Revelation. A chance encounter leads to the discovery of toxic mold in their home.
A Major Verdict. After a long battle, the jury awards the couple a staggering $32 million.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Everything changed.

0:19WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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