Marie Robards | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid I almost did the
thing where I say and I'm Molina I almost said I'm Ash no you did no I really did because we were just talking
about names what yeah that's weird I really almost did I really almost did too not a bit I believe you like I'm
being real yeah cuz we were saying one of my biggest pet peeves in life and Elena was saying hers too I will
introduce myself to somebody and say like hey I'm Ash my name's Ash and they'll be like oh my God Ashley so nice
to meet you yeah and you're like that's not what I said suck my butt my name is Ash like of course legally in the
government in the eyes of the government it's Ashley see mine has been my entire
life and it's been like hi I'm Elena and they're like Alana that's great okay see
it and you're like that's a different name that's a completely different name that's spelled different it's said
different it's different it's a different name yeah that's stupid there are people named Elana correct there are
people named Elena I'm one of the ones that are named Elena so why are you calling me that's like being like oh hi
Carl it's like that's a different name I wish they would just do that you just said a different name hi Molina what's
up Carl yeah I like essentially that's what you're doing it's a totally different name I love that a lot I never
understood it I will never understand it no and that's you know that's for that on that I've even had people ask me like
if it if my name is like ashly because of the way that it's spelled and I'm like that's stupid that says
Le or Ash Ash I like that Ash imagine if we had to start podcast and I would have to
say hey weirdos I'm ashay I'm Ash no one would continue listen they'd be like I don't think so not with the way
it's spelled it's like no that's Ashley I'm Ashley it's like are you trying too hard I think you are no no I also was
thinking the other day one day I'm Pro like hopefully going to be a grandma and I'm going to be Grandma Ash your
grandma's name should not be Ash I there's going to be a whole chunk no okay of people who are going to be wild
grandma like I I have no problem with this name but Grandma Britney no yeah right it sounds funny that's not a
grandma name it's a very normal name like but when you think of a grandma name you think of like those very
classic you know very of a certain time names because that's all we've all ever had but we are
entering a phase where we're going to beting and some grandpas yeah like we're going to have like Grandpa creu stop it
floating around in there for going with the same family there and like wait Grandpa cash cuz people name their kids
cash which honestly is pretty flex but well that's the thing like these names are fine yeah I love them name your
child whatever the hell you want but Grandpa cash I'm obsessed with that actually I think it's going to be
awesome it's going to be a whole new world it's going to be a fun generation of grandparents if we make it that far
we will I'm not going to I'm going to elaborate cuz I have therapy appointment tomorrow to talk about my end of the
world anxiety I'm taking care of it that's right self-care you know but yeah we're going to be fine but Grandma Ash
Grandma Ash that's crazy grandma Elena is not that crazy no it kind of sounds like you love it all day no I'm just
kidding no I think it just works yeah I know I think it's just Elena is like a Timeless name I feel wow thanks you're
welcome I like that I'm just named Ashley for no [ __ ] reason literally none my middle name
doesn't even mean anything who named me dad mom what the [ __ ] what the [ __ ] what
the [ __ ] truly what the [ __ ] but yeah all that to say names you know nothing
really nothing really it was like an echo nothing it was like an EO that's what I was going
to say oh all right well it's my case today it's Ash Centric it's Nana Ash Centric Nana Ash and I have a wild case
I have been loving Texas lately you have know you been in a place I'm a Texas whir and today we're going crazy we're
going to be in Texas and Florida what a [ __ ] trip wow what a [ __ ] trip we're taking together you didn't prepare
me ahead of time I didn't but here we are uh so yeah I have I I don't want to say too much about it right off the bat
cuz if I say too much it'll just kind of give it away so I'm just going to start
I'm just going go right into it yeah so it starts with Dorothy Marie robard she was born in Texas in
1977 as the only child of Steven and Beth Robards uh Steven and Beth they were high school sweethearts that's
where they met and they were both super duper popular in high school oh my God oh my God Beth was a standout athlete
and also the president of the school's National Honor Society so she was young in doing it and then when they graduated
and each of them turned 18 in 1974 they decided to get married right before Stephen entered the Navy and actually
started a 4-year Tour of Duty that would end up relocating him to a base in San Diego and then eventually Florida okay
so they got married they did the whole Navy thing and being newly married Beth didn't want to separate from Steven so
she moved from Base to Base with him and in 77 obviously that's when they had Dorothy Marie who actually just went by
Marie cute speaking of names hey look at that names everywhere people go by their
middle names sometimes such as Marie it's true now once Steven was finished with the Navy finished up his time there
the family moved back to the Fort Worth area but within just a few years things between Steven and Beth became very
strained Beth ended up saying Steven's Behavior had always been a little erratic but I was a naive Catholic girl
caught up in this Whirlwind teenage romance with this swaave guy but not long after they moved back to Texas
Steven started going through a bit of a mental health crisis he was experiencing
kind of periodic bouts of depression but they started getting more and more frequent and lasting longer he was
getting jealous over Beth a lot like if she was talking to other people or just like going off and doing her own thing
he was getting jealous of that yeah and really just he overall seemed to be struggling emotionally okay so Beth said
there came a point when I didn't know how to act around him anymore he had temper tantrums he couldn't hold on to a
job and then there were times where he would get so tired and feel like everything was so Bleak and dark and
that nothing was worthwhile jeez which that's awful and you have to think this is at a time where again and we say it
all the time but people aren't necessarily going to therapy men especially are not taking it upon
themselves to sign up for therapy willy-nilly so it's not like this is an easy fix here exactly so by 1980 the
Mental Health crisis had really taken a toll on the two of them and they actually decided to separate and
ultimately ended up divorcing the next year Beth got remarried to a man named Frank buros he was also a Navy officer
and she had actually met Frank while she and Steven were stationed in Florida oh
when they met they were just friends there was like nothing weird about it yeah um cuz obviously they were both
married like no Affair or anything but Frank had also been recently divorced and moved back to Texas and taken a job
as a police officer so they kind of like rediscovered each other yeah and he also
had a young son of his own and he kind of really relished in his protective fatherly authority figure identity so he
happily and eagerly took on the role of a father figure like a bonus Father Figure to Marie okay cuz Marie was only
four years old when Steven and Beth ended up getting divorced Steven meanwhile he ended up moving into a
one-bedroom apartment in Fort Worth and at this time because remember he's really trying to get his mental health
in check during this time he was only seeing Marie like twice a month once or twice a month so after the divorce and
all the custody matters had been settled and were behind them it became clear that separating was actually really the
best thing that Stephen and Beth had done for their family that's good took some time but by the late ' 80s Steven
really prioritized his mental health he started taking medication and that made his symptoms of depression really easily
manageable he like really figured it out oh nice yeah so once his mental health was in check he also started dating a
new person her name was Sandra hudgin and she also had children they actually met at a Parents Without Partners
meeting oh my God didn't even know that was a thing yeah I it took I feel like it was um like a little Det chill in one
of my old cases and I think I was going to say cuz it sounds a little familiar but yeah I think you're right yeah I
think it was like another another case that I did but I think it I think it like was a bad like not the organization
but I think it ended up like not being great that these two people met there but didn't work out I'll let you know
then this time it's great like it's cool that they met yeah they realized that they had a lot of things in common so
things really Blossom between them from there but most importantly Steven had also uh managed to find a really steady
and sustainable job with the Postal Service Sandra his girlfriend said he was very proud of his job which was just
a rural root a rural root Postman but he liked his job and he liked being outdoors and he felt some pride in it
nice so he really found his stride yeah although he definitely struggled some after the divorce he had finally pulled
his life together by like I would say the early '90s oh good but unfortunately at Beth and Frank's house things weren't
really going as well as one would hope daily life had become much more of a struggle as Marie entered her teen years
a private psychologist that uh his name was Randall J Price and Marie ended up seeing him later he said when Marie has
described those days I've sensed there was some jealousy or possessiveness about her mother's relationship to Frank
and according to the psychologist uh price Marie seemed to perceive Beth's marriage to Frank as a way of taking her
mother away from her like Frank taking her mom away yeah and that jealous feeling really only deepened the older
she got M and I think it had a lot to do you know what I'm actually going to save it I think you'll see what it has a
lot to do with huh and you can form your own opinion I love that but at the same
time according to price Frank also likely harbored some of his own jealousy when it came to Marie and Beth's
relationship which had always been a really strong relationship he elaborated when I saw them they were quite
affectionate in an overt fashion hugging one another finishing each other's sentences they acted more like
contemporaries than mother and daughter they were like sisters who had grown up together okay Beth had always been
really really proud of Marie and would always gush to friends and family about how intelligent Marie was how well-liked
she was just really spoke her up of course which like yeah you want to do that it's your daughter of course but
whether he was conscious of it or not Frank seemed to have some kind of resentment due to how close Marie and
Beth were like there was some jealousy of the relationship which in my opinion is strange because she should love her
daughter and you should love that she loves her daughter yeah that's my opinion on that absolutely but the
tension between Frank and Marie came to AE in the summer of '92 when Marie came home one afternoon and actually
discovered Frank with another woman o so this is like she's finding her stepfather with another woman so she
literally just found her stepdad cheating on her mom who she's super close with so she's [ __ ] outraged and
immediately goes to tell Beth her mom but Marie was Sur surprised when she didn't really get the reaction she'd
been expecting Beth was obviously deeply hurt and upset when she found out that Frank was having some kind of affair but
if Marie thought that was going to be the end of her mom and Frank's relationship she was about to be very
disappointed wow later Beth told journalist skip hollandsworth who he writes about a lot of Texas cases and I
love his writing but Beth told skip hollinsworth I loved Frank and I knew that he just didn't have his head on
right he felt neglected because of all the time I was spending with my own job and this was his way of
reacting wow yeah so Beth was willing to give Frank's indiscretion there but Marie to each their own Marie had no
intention of doing so she was insolent she talked back she disobeyed him constantly at this point she was like
you don't respect my mom I don't respect you yeah and I mean she lost respect for
him absolutely like that's that's just the way it is yeah I mean I think I can understand that I can understand
understand that I feel like I would probably feel the same way yeah and again she's also a teenager so now she's
just like kind of going out of her way to defy course she's already in that phase anyway yeah she already didn't
really love you to begin with OR like you very much at least and they just gave her all the more reason exactly so
finally after a few months Marie just couldn't stand living with Frank any longer and she told her mom that Beth
said she withdrew from all of us and then one day she came to me and said I think you should divorce him and I said
but Marie I love frank I know him I know he'll change Marie looked at me and she
said I have to leave o so she it literally got to the point where Marie was like I don't know how you're with
this man and I'm not going to stand around and watch you get treated like this so I got to go and like I don't
really like him damn so not wanting to make the situation any worse Beth didn't really challenge Marie's decision to
move out okay and instead she just helped her make arrangements to go live with her
grandparents about 45 minutes away in Fort Worth and she enrolled her in a new school
district but it wasn't long because she's a teenager she just made a pretty rash decision yeah it wasn't long before
she regretted that decision and after just about 5 days of living with her grandparents M used all the money she
had saved to get a cab back to Beth and Frank's house in granberry yeah she's like I want to come home of course now
as a strict disciplinarian and the usual Target of Marie's teenage attitude Frank
wasn't NE necessarily excited to see his stepdaughter returning so soon after Beth had gone out of her way to
accommodate what he saw as Marie's demands and he had actually established this house rule a long time ago like
right when they first met and became a family and this rule was that it was set up with both Marie and his son and he
said should either one of them leave the house move out of the house to go live with another parent they were not going
to be allowed to move back with him and Beth like once you made that decision it
was a done deal okay yeah later in his court testimony he explained the rule was an important tool for two divorced
parents trying to meld two families he said he didn't want the kids to think they could go back and forth between
parents whenever they wanted to get their way okay which I totally understand yeah I mean I don't know what
it's like to have to navigate that kind household in like two families so I'll I'll withhold any any kind of judgment
on that cuz I don't yeah seems like when he what he's saying is logical it seems
definitely you know I feel like if it were me because I like I dealt with divorced parents yeah if it were me I
feel like it should be situational that's kind of that was kind of my thought but again I I've never
experienced my parents aren't divorced I am not divorced so it's like I I'm speaking from a place of total
inexperience so I will rely on you for this one I I don't know what it's like to be the parent of a divorced child I
just know what it's like to be the child and I feel like I mean I wouldn't say that my parents did a great job at it no
offense if you're listening but I think they know I think they probably know shouldn't come as a surprise I I don't
know I think that if if I ever found myself as a parent in this situation one it would be situational and two I could
see it working better as like a one strike and you're out like you get one chance to do this and if you don't like
it you don't get to make that decision again I could see that you know what I mean yeah that makes sense to me like
you get to come back this one time but if this ever happens again you don't get to come back and do this again you I can
definitely see that being a smart way to go about it yeah yeah so feels less uh harsh it does feel less harsh in my
opinion because everybody's again I'm just going off of what I'm looking at it's like feels like
everybody's trying to navigate a situation that nobody really should know how to navigate divorce is I imagine not
easy messy on anyone so it's like everybody's just trying to navigate including the kids and the kids are
trying to navigate it while also being kids and having a million different hormones and other emotions and all this
going on so they're not going to be able to make like rash decision you know or excuse me rational decisions yes you
know so it's like there needs to be a little bit of bending I feel and also might I point out Frank you got another
chance well thank you that was going to be my next thing was like pretty rich coming from Frank right
like Beth gets to give you another chance but then you got you get to decide together that she doesn't give
her daughter another chance kid don't get two chances but you get two chances I don't know about that after what could
be uh construed as a much bigger judgment here but I will say just to give you all of the facts Frank
wasn't just taking out some maybe like feelings of yuck on Marie actually his own son had moved out to live with his
mom a few years earlier and Frank did the same thing he wouldn't let him move back so he was like I'm not consistent
he was consistent and he oh he's consistent oh good and he said I'm not going to have Marie be treated
differently like when I did this to my own son you know okay whether it's whether it's good or not exactly
consistent totally opinion based but Beth this whole thing was a nightmare she remembered the day that Marie tried
to come home and said it was this terrible scene all of us outside screaming and crying at one another
Marie was crying for me to take her back and Frank was shouting at me you know the rule you can't break it the same
thing that applied to my son should apply to her so this was just a [ __ ] mess yeah and a therapist should have
been involved that sound and again I don't know it just sounds it's like screaming at you know at the
mother like this is what you're going to do with your kid yeah because I did it with mine it's like o I feel like you
guys like and obvious ly like I don't know I don't know it's rubbing me the wrong way but I'm not going to no I
agree you know the other thing knows but doesn't feel good you're allowing children to make life
decisions and like helping them make those life decisions by like saying like Okay if you want to move out I'll help
you figure it out but then you're not allowing them to be the child one and making those decisions or deciding they
regret those decisions that's okay that's part of the thing that gets me and for like the portion of people who
like can't stand when I talk about parenting trigger warning but I but CU like I don't know everything what the
[ __ ] I'm just doing the best I can nobody does but it bothers me when parents don't realize that their kids
are human beings as well yeah and when they don't look at your kid and go well well me as an adult sometimes I get to
say well [ __ ] that was a stupid decision I I'm going to go do this now yeah like
let me fix it but I'm not going to allow you to ever have that luxury that's not
fair why is that fair like to me personally you do you do whatever you want to do totally again but to me
personally I don't get that like I'm like it's the same thing of like you know small little things like you know
you're hungry close to bedtime I get hungry close to bedtime so like again do what you want with your own kids but I
never if the kids are hungry close like last night for ex this is funny that this came up last night for example all
three of them literally we got through bath time brushed teeth and then all three of them were like I'm kind of
hungry yeah and I was like do you want like toast with butter or something like do you want toast like what do you want
like we just made something small but I was like you're hungry that's what you would do for yourself sometimes I'm
hungry before bed you know what I mean it's like I just to me I'm not I'm I'm of the mind of like why T you're you're
not allowing your kids to change their mind yeah to change your mind obviously you want to teach them to make wise
decisions and to think through decisions to think of all the consequences of those decisions hopefully 90% of the
time those are good solid decisions that they are going to stay with because in life sometimes you don't get to change
your mind true and I think that is what like maybe he was trying to set I'm sure
that's maybe the mindset he was coming from is like that it was so all or nothing that's the thing and it's like
life isn't all or nothing so it's like there does need to be a little gray area but again parenting is hard and it's
hard to figure out different and it's such a different time and it's like so this is all very like it's easy to look
back and be like that's wild and like and it is it but like it's it's it's hard and I think especially not
everybody's going to get it I think especially in like the 70s and 80s it was probably even harder for divorced
parents because there weren't a lot of divorced people like there wasn't really a blueprint you know what I mean no it's
so true it's not like it is now where there's support groups so many divorced people you know like divorce is very
it's more common more marriage that more marriage more common than staying married so it's like you have a lot of
things to look at as like you said a blueprint right where they didn't necessarily have that but I never get
the like all or nothing I don't either at least in my house that's not yeah not how I understand the thing to be things
things can fluctuate yeah that's the thing you again you want to make them stand on their own te feet and like make
decisions but at least have a little wig over them and this just created like a really tension filled awful relationship
between everyone yeah it kind of feels like it's just a lot of yuck negative energy that doesn't
need to be spent this this hard you know what I mean like you you could maybe figure out a way to make stuff work and
honestly talking about blueprints this was the blueprint for like a [ __ ] disaster I'll tell you like ultimately
this results in disaster well it sounds like it's it's kind of eing up to that yeah so Beth obviously felt terrible for
her daughter Marie but ultimately she did stand by Frank's decision and she called Steven her ex-husband and was
like can Marie come and live with you and he was like oh my God totally like I I have this great job I've gotten my
mental health in check I love Mary I would love to see her more totally to Beth it seemed like the best decision at
the time because one it would allow some space for everyone to cool down and two
she also hoped that Frank would eventually change his mind and let Marie come move back in with them but Marie
would maybe she wasn't having like the best time at her grandparents house so she was like maybe she'll have a better
time at Stevens in the meantime and we can all figure this out yeah and we can get to something that makes sense for
everybody I do feel for Beth at this point in time because I think she was just between a rock and a hard place
well that's tough when you're married to someone who is making decisions for the
entire family yes and like that's that's tough and like I said he was he he really reveled in his author his
position as an authority figure yeah and see and it's like that's not marriage man like marriage is making decisions
together both you need to be comfortable with those decisions and if one of you isn't then you need to figure out a
different way exactly like that's how it needs to be it can't be I'm uncomfortable with this decision but
he's dead set on it so I just have to go along with it it's like no and again different times so like this is just yep
it's it's us looking at it in hindsight with our 2020 glasses on that's true but
to Marie this felt like the ultimate betrayal yeah one she she wasn't allowed to move back into her home like she was
like what the [ __ ] and Frank had already betrayed her mom and now her mom in her
eyes and realistically was siding with Frank well that I think that is the big thing here is also you put like like
you said put together that she walked in on him cheating on her mom disrespecting
her mom so it's like so then for this guy to be making proclamations about your family right after he has betrayed
your family yep that's rough that is rough like that's a that's a I imagine as a kid that would be a rough pill to
swallow and imagine you're looking at this Through The Eyes of like I think she was like 15 or 16 at this point oh
my God I was a nightmare yeah and I was a nightmare like I was a nightmare of just emotions and just like being a [ __ ]
and like hormonal as [ __ ] you know so it's like I can't fathom that right so Randall price
the psychologist said that Marie thought that Frank was relieve to have her gone
which I do wonder if part of him was yeah and he said Marie's constant presence and her friendship with her
mother were hindering him from putting his marriage back together with Beth that's how Marie felt okay so there's
that but even though the circumstances for Marie's move were not the best Steven robarts was super happy just to
have more time with his daughter and immediately started looking for a better living situation he was looking for a
two-bedroom apartment so that she could have her own space and like they could coexist together now after all the
positive changes he'd been making to improve his life his sister Stephanie Elder told skip hollinsworth Maurice
coming back to him was like the icing on the cake oh that like really I I hate that there's going to be a bad thing
happening here because I'm like this sounds nice yeah it sounds awesome Marie on the other hand was obviously far less
enthusiastic about this move she hated her new school in the meantime of Steven looking for a new apartment she had to
sleep on a rollway bed in the dining room and she was constantly frustrated with just her father's lack of domestic
skills he's a he's a man he's a single man who's been living on his own he wasn't great at cooking he wasn't great
at cleaning and that's not what she's used to no she's grown up with you know with a mama yeah but most of all she
missed her mama she missed being with her mom and now being so far away from her so stepen did his best to make the
transition e easy for Marie but his attempts typically fell flat or were somewhat unwelcome remember this is a
teenage girl well a very angry teenage didn't this transition didn't happen because everybody decided it was
going to happen together it came out of it came out of anger and her feeling like she wasn't welcome in her own home
so she's going to be angry no matter what he did I don't think that guy had a chance at at making this okay he sure
didn't uh Steve's girl friend Sandra told hollandsworth he was very anxious about pleasing her but I know that those
first few weeks Marie was constantly on the phone calling her mother she was pleading to get back home which is
really sad that is really sad it breaks your heart so the first few months after
the move obviously were difficult for both Marie and Steven but eventually Marie did appear to adjust to the new
living situation okay when she got settled in her new school her grades went right back up she was once again a
straight A student she started making friends she started becoming more sociable her chem teacher Tracy Arnold
said I do remember hearing her say she wanted to move back in with her mother but she was always a nice bubbly girl
okay a few months later Marie actually even started to warm up to Steven's new girlfriend Sandra and the quote unquote
tantrums and desperate pleas to return back to Beth and Frank's home became more infrequent as 1992 came to a close
okay it was only later that the adults around Marie would learn that what they thought was an adjustment was really
just an an act she was she was putting on an act like everything was okay but inside she was still absolutely
depressed and absolutely desperate to get back to her mom oh no so in reality her desire to return back to her mother
was just as strong as it had ever been like I just said and now desperate to get out of situ the situation that she
put herself in by challenging Frank's Authority she started brainstorming ways that she could get out of her living
Arrangement and at one point she actually even considered Burning Down the apartment comp complex while her dad
was out and she figured that if the apartment no longer existed her mom would have no choice but to let her move
back in oh wow so she got this is desperation she got Beyond desperate she I think she had somewhat of a break yeah
I mean if you're thinking that far like that's on another level the psychologist
she later saw said it's one of those Mysteries a teenager's desperation for whatever reason Marie did feel
permanently trapped and being a teenager she had little regard for the consequences uh but of course our sin
would cause a great deal of disc destruction and uh would most likely be easily traced back to her so what she
started to feel she needed was a plan that would be disruptive enough to reunite her with her mother but seemed
to everybody else like an unfortunate fluke and in February of 1993 she got an idea that seemed like the perfect plan I
don't think it's going to be it's not on the evening of February 18th Steven robard sat down at the dinner table with
his daughter for a quick little TexMex dinner before he had plans to head out to an evening church service at the
nearby Christ Church okay he returned less than an hour later though after he had finished dinner and gone out to the
church he came back and he said he was having severe severe stomach pains oh no not long after returning home he started
vomiting and in the hours that followed the cramps got increasingly more painful
so unsure what to do Marie ran to Sandra h apartment uh that's his girlfriend who
actually lives in the same apartment complex she told Marie just stay put here in my apartment and she went over
to find Steve in a terrible State Sandra said he said he couldn't swallow well and I saw saliva coming up through his
mouth I went into the other room and called an ambulance as she was on the phone with a paramedic she could hear
Steven struggling in the other room and when she looked in on him she saw that now he was foaming at the mouth and his
eyes had become fixed and glassy and he was staring off at nothing oh my God it was a incredibly Bleak violent situation
like he was violently ill holy [ __ ] by the time the paramedics arrived Steven had slipped into a coma and wasn't
breathing they tried to get an oxy oxygen tube down his throat to keep him alive but his throat had completely
closed at that point oh my gosh in the meantime Marie who was supposed to be waiting at Sandra's apartment had
wandered over and was watching as the parent paramedics tried in vain to save her father's life Sandra later said she
didn't tell the paramedics anything she only stood there what in an interview with the Associated Press a few years
later Marie recalled the incident and she said I was in shock my whole body just heated
up my God so the paramedics they rushed Steph to the hospital with Sandra and Marie following behind them in Sandra's
car but despite the doctor's best efforts Steven was in horrible shape by the time he got to the eer department
and he did die a short time later oh that's awful yeah like just when he had gotten his his life really together and
was thinking that he was getting you know his daughter on like the right like feeling good feeling comfortable yeah
being a bigger part of her life and oh that's so sad it is it really is oh that like breaks my heart I know Sandra
recall in an interview with CBS I didn't want to believe it how could it be that
bad he was 38 there he's my age 38 years old holy [ __ ] isn't that crazy wow that's so young that's really thank you
you're welcome that is very young like and to die that violently and to honestly have gone through everything
that that he went got through to get to where he was getting you know 38 years old he's had a whole career with the
Navy he's got he's had a child he's gotten divorced he's gotten his gone through depression battled depression
got it in check got his life back on track like was like moving forward got a new girlfriend welcoming his child into
the home to like really like get her back on track like it just feels like everything was falling into place and
damn and then it what a horrible end it all just exploded essentially but the medical examiner Dr
Mark Krauss declared Steven's death a heart attack very unusual for somebody so young but not unheard of the doctor
recalled his heart was mildly enlarged it was probably 25% too large for a man his age and size somewhat uncomfortably
I signed it out as a natural death and he acknowledged the somewhat unusual circumstances
but something was pulling at him like he was like he signed off on it as an as a
natural death but something in the back of his mind was like I'm not so sure yeah but it feels a little suspish yeah
but we'll leave that there for now okay funeral services were held for Steven robarts on February 22nd and during
Marie stood by her father's gravide in an absolute Daz once the service ended Beth took her aside to tell her some
news she said she really hoped that her and Frank could work things out but they
were still having issues and they decided to separate and Beth said I found a good job in Florida I know it's
not ideal timing but I'm going to take you and move to Florida she said when she shared that news with Marie Marie
stared at me like you had this plan all along to take me to Florida she looked looked like she couldn't
breathe that's rough mhm that's rough especially if you catch what's going on here wow yeah yeah so a month later Beth
and Marie had settled into a new apartment in Panama City where Beth started a new job as an administrative
assistant at the State Division of Motor Vehicles Marie meanwhile was enrolled at
a new high school but she was going through her own mental crisis some days she was so depressed and despondent that
she couldn't get out of bed much less go to school damn so now worried that Marie
had inherited some kind of depression from what her father went through Beth immediately set her up with a therapist
but even counseling did little to help Marie's mood and to make matters worse a few months after they arrived in Florida
Frank showed up at Beth's store promising to work harder to repair their marriage and not ready to give up on
their marriage Beth agreed to take him back w wow now despite her wor there's some decisions happening there are some
decisions as Tatiana says choices choices so despite her worsening depression the loss of her father and
the disruption of the move Marie actually seemed happy for her mom and she was even willing to make amends with
Frank for the sake of the family huh but unfortunately it wasn't long before Marie found a note from Frank's mistress
among his [ __ ] belongings which proved that he was still carrying on a godamn affair that had caused her to
move out in the first place what the [ __ ] so he show he goes all the way to Florida and he's like I
want to work on this and actually never ended things with a mistress or at the very least got a new one while he was
there I will never understand these people the way I want to junk punch this man who go out of their way to try to
get back someone while they're cheating on them still it's like no just be go off be who you want to be sing why are
you constantly trying to drag this other person into your [ __ ] why are you [ __ ] up other people's lives it's so
wild to me I don't get it Marie didn't get it either no and at that point she was like listen I've actually really
never felt at home in Florida because we moved here so suddenly I also really missed my friends back in Texas and she
pretty much went and told her mom that she said Mom you can put up with him if you want to but I don't have to I miss
Texas I'm going home so once again Beth chose to stay with Frank and helped Marie make arrangements to return to
Texas where she moved in with Steven's Father Jim Robards to Mansfield a small City near Fort Worth so once
again in Marie's eyes and the eyes of I'm sure many others Beth has chosen her husband over her daughter yes that's
just that's the unfortunate truth here that's what's happening damn so back in Texas Marie enrolled in Mansfield High I
was going to say high school high school high school uh to finish her senior year
where by all accounts she flourished socially and academically she joined the yearbook staff she actually like her mom
ended up becoming president of the school's National Honor Society jeez and also quickly became the star of the
volleyball team look at her go yeah she started doing a bunch of stuff the school's yearbook adviser uh leonitis
Patterson said she impressed all the teachers because here she was a brand new student and she had this hunger to
get involved but when it came to her father Marie became unusually Cy if not outright bizarre when whenever he got
brought up she told her grandfather and the rest of the robarts family that she couldn't visit Steven's grave because
she quote unquote couldn't handle it emotionally which you can understand absolutely but when anybody at school
would ask about her family she would make up a lie about her background specifically like where her dad was like
sometimes she would say he died other times she would say like he lived somewhere else she would it was always a
different story yeah when it came to friends Marie was generally friendly but she didn't really go out of her way to
make new friends but there was one girl who Marie actually formed a really close
relationship with with and that relationship in her life would become very consequential okay like Marie Stacy
High had also lost her father under different circumstances he was still alive he was just incredibly absent from
her life oh that's sad so they kind of bonded over the fact that they didn't really have a father figure Stacy said I
had come from an abused background I'd been to plenty of psychologists I could tell that Marie had gone through
something too I thought I could help her come out of her shell teach her to have
a little more fun in life yeah so senior year they meet each other they come from
different backgrounds they they get close they bond sounds like a nice reason to get close to someone you're
like I've been through it TR to help you get through it without going down a bad
path exactly so not long after arriving in Mansfield the two girls became really
Inseparable Stacy said I would say we were best friends we kind of fell in love with each other we had so much in
common and she just means in like a friendship yeah uh they would they would spend afternoons working together on
yearbook they would drive around town remember when you were a teenager and you just drive around I miss that I miss
that so much sometimes you would like go to Wendy's yeah that's really the only part I miss drive around listening to
music yeah on the weekends they would use their fake IDs to get into local country western bars they're just doing
like typical teenager [ __ ] and throughout that time Stacy could sense that something was weighing on Marie
like weighing very heavily on her and she would try to get her to open up but every time it just went nowhere the
attempts were completely unsuccessful but Stacy said I pride myself on asking really good questions and I tried to get
Marie to talk about her past and her dad's death thinking it might help her but it was like a den end street trying
to get her to talk wow so she's like completely closed up yeah but toward the end of the school year a secret Marie
was keeping was starting to weigh on her in ways she had likely not anticipated but it wasn't Stacy's persistent
questioning that moved Marie to share her secret it was actually a passage from one William Shakespeare that
finally brought the truth to light one day while they were rehearsing Hamlet together for school Stacy was reading
out of her copy of cliff notes and she turned to Marie and she started a dramatic reading of claudius's soliloquy
from act 3 scene three my fault is my past but oh what form of prayer can serve my turn forgive me my foul murder
that cannot be since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder oh so turning to her
friend Stacy expected a positive a positive reaction from Marie she was like I just slayed that passage yeah but
in turn Marie seemed very lost and dazed the scene where Claudius expresses his very deep remorse over his blind
ambition and impulsive decision to murder the king seemed to affect Marie very deeply kind of hit her kind of hit
her in a place she hadn't been hit in a while whether she was inspired by the text as she would later claim or she
just simply couldn't carry the burden of her secret anymore she turned to Stacy and asked her Stacy do you think people
can go through life without a conscience and as if to confirm Stacy pointed out that there were a lot of
people in the world who were capable of killing somebody without remorse and Marie backed up to the wall and then
collapsed to the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably oh my goodness so Stacy's
like what's wrong like I I don't understand what's going on here and all Marie could stay and say in response was
guess so without hesitation Stacy just ran through a list of teenage fear she was like are you pregnant did you wreck
the family car like coming up with every teenage crazy thing you could possibly do and when she had run out of all the
hypothetical tragedy she could possibly think of she said jokingly well you didn't kill somebody did you and in
between her sobs Marie answered my father I poisoned him holy [ __ ] yeah yeah I mean I like sensed this a little
bit but hearing her it's like and the fact it's just so haunting to me that that scene in Hamlet was like what
finally broke her my whole body is just chilled same and it just makes you think
like oh my God you're a [ __ ] teenager yeah like I remember senior year having to go up in front of the class and
reading Hamlet yeah can you imagine your it hitting home like that like I didn't
relate to hamlon anyway back then I still don't actually and the whole thing with like her mom being like I'm going
to take you to Florida this is the plan and she's like you had this plan like it
had been the plan she just hadn't had a chance to she was finishing it up like finishing the plan up but if she had
told Marie a little bit sooner this wouldn't have happened and it's like what and that's not on be
obviously I'm not saying that what a [ __ ] mess what a mess what an absolute mess oh that's
awful holy [ __ ] and it only gets worse and she did it in such a horrific way yeah and also and I know I'm I'm hoping
we're going to find out why did you choose him you I mean you shouldn't poison anyone but why did you poison that man
we find out but but it still does sense don't really like it's so you want to say it's like such a
teenage decision but then it's not at the same time no it's a very but the the the rale behind it the rationale behind
it is such teenage rationale but you're like you killed your father because was she and again I'm sure I'm skipping
ahead but it's like all I can think of is that she was thinking like well if I don't have a place to stay with him then
I have to go back to that's pretty much what it was and it's like oh my God but the that is not the way no and we'll get
to it there is there is debate over whether or not she intended to kill him but we'll we'll get to it
I we'll get to it okay so she just admits this horrible secret to Stacy while they're literally just getting
together practicing Hamlet and Stacy is completely taken ab and Marie made her swear that she wouldn't tell a soul and
reminded her that if she told anybody Marie herself would get arrested and sent to jail for the rest of her life so
she's like you can't tell anybody like I can't go to jail for the rest of my life
and because they're seniors in high school Stacy was like okay I'll keep quiet had they been adults in the same
situation I'm sure Stacy probably would have gone to the police with this information more or less immediately but
they're children teenagers damn and they you know teenagers live by their own set
of rules that's different from adults so Stacy would later tell skip skip hollandsworth when you're in high school
it's like so important not to betray your friends yeah so while it pained her to do so she kept Marie secret like she
promised sort of sort of we'll get there okay keeping Marie's terrible secret had
never been easy but the more and more time passed the more completely unbearable life became for Stacy she
started having these Vivid and Incredibly distressing distressing nightmares where she would hear Steven
calling out to her from the grave or she would have nightmares where Marie was chasing her through the night damn the
stress had her doing poorly in school she started that's intense it's intense you're faom that that's the wild I I
never had to go through that I can't imagine no being 17 16 17 years old and having a whole like your friend breaks
down and tells you they poison their father like what the [ __ ] do you do like I my brain would not be able to handle
that at 16 no but and the so she's she's doing horrible in like every part of her
life and now she's she's drinking heavily I don't remember if I said that part but she's drinking heavily to cook
she also at the same time was trying to put some distance between herself and Marie so she quit the yearbook she
started spending time with new friends but everything was getting to be too much and now thinking that she was
pretty much headed toward a nervous breakdown she took it upon herself to start going to an after school program
at a private mental health clinic but even there she couldn't bring herself to tell them the truth so it really didn't
do much good damn but finally after eight months Stacy couldn't stand the strain any longer and she went to the
school counselor for help wow good I mean I'm glad she did something but I'm I feel bad that she had to go through
all that you're about to feel even worse yeah incredibly the guidance counselor actually wasn't the first person that
Stacy told about this oh the night that Marie had told her Stacy went home and told her mom Libby what Marie had
confessed at first Libby was like no Marie's probably making things up until like you know she's feeling all this
grief over her father's death there's no way that she could have killed him but then she started thinking more and more
about it and was like well could she have so she called a poison control center to ask whether barium acetate
which is the chemical Marie claimed to have poisoned her father with could have caused the symptoms like those that
killed Steven and the operator confirmed yep there were several that could have oh boy so while she knew that now it was
definitely possible that Marie was telling the truth Libby did nothing to help her daughter who was clearly
suffering as a result of keeping Marie secret later in an interview she explained that she wanted Stacy to be
ready for the real world and said I wanted Stacy to know that I trusted her to make her own decision about Marie I
guess I knew this was the moment in which Stacy was going to have to grow up she's 17 18 at the oldest what's
happening with these [ __ ] all over the like what's like we you're not preparing your kid you're traumatizing
your kid like it's like let's be her brain is not ful this isn't your if if her friend came to her and said I
cheated on my boyfriend at 16 years old you guys fig and she's like I'm really struggling with the secret Mom I don't
know what to do that's when you go honey you got to figure that out I give you I'm going give you some advice I'm going
to I'm going to listen to you we can talk this through but you're going to ultimately have to make that decision of
what to do here when her friend comes to her and says I murdered my father in Cold Blood the only correct decision is
we're calling the police and it's like to be like hm I don't know I feel like she couldn't have done that
let me call po that's not on you man that's not up to you to call pois in control and find out if that would
actually kill a man you call the police and you say I don't know if this is true
or not here's the information we got you go do your investigation because that's
what they're [ __ ] paid for and also what are you doing calling trying to find out if things actually can kill
people no call the police exactly and also what's going on here what real world are you preparing your daughter
for the world come across this never in my life has someone confessed murder to me
that is not the real world like sure it's possible but I'm sure hoping that your daughter isn't walking out into a
real world where people are openly confessing murder to her on that regular of a basis that she's going to have to
have a like set way of dealing with it right and also I'm going to be honest I'm 38 years old if someone confess
murder to me I would lose my mind call the police and then I'd probably call my mom yeah 100% i' call your
like let's come on like what I'm just like I can't get I mean whoa yeah whoa so uh while Stacy's mom didn't
necessarily help the situation in any way shape or form have going on at that time Stacy's mom did not have it going
on at this point in time that's the that's that's the main takeaway the only levity you can find out of that whole
situation damn yeah I have a feeling Stacy def like she said that she had like gone through a lot of this point I
have the feeling she probably didn't have the best home life and I feel really hard for her I feel for that's
the thing I feel for Stacy here like that's too much you're a child too much to have on you so luckily like I said
she went to the school counselor after she went to her mom eight months later cuz that's the other thing she's like
okay so am I supposed to keep this secret like I have no [ __ ] idea what to do because I had zero guidance you
need guidance that's what your parents are for well apparently that's what the school counselor was for the guidance
counselor the guidance counselor took her seriously and together they contacted the police which should have
happened in far we won't on it but it should have [ __ ] happened finally an adult made a smart decision here yes so
the police were actually skeptical but they did take the report and said they would investigate everyone stop if
someone saying they killed someone they probably killed skepticism shouldn't be your first thought it's like
investigated like I understand being skeptical but investigate it but they and they do they do they're they're
skeptical but they investigate but while they had the Blood and Tissue samples that could have been tested for the
barium acetate they didn't have the gas chromatography Mass spectrom meter gcms necessary to do the test but you don't
just have one of those what the [ __ ] I also really wanted to say it more like gosh chromatography MH spectator I you
just have one of those lying around you have that but fortunately the medical examiner who was just days away from
destroying the Blood and Tissue samples per protocol cuz it's been like over a year at this point he remembered the
case being somewhat suspicious and agreed to find a lab in in Texas that had the equipment and expertise to test
these samples that literally were days away from being thrown the me coming through like these were going to be
destroyed in a matter of days damn tell me that's not some kind of [ __ ] divine intervention that's something
that's something I think that's like Steven from wherever he was being like please figure this out please but it
took the medical examiner actually almost 3 months to find a lab that had the gcms technology and another 3 months
for the test results to come back so in the meantime Marie and Stacy had both graduated from high school they'd gone
their separate ways Marie used the $60,000 she got from Steven's life insurance policy to enroll at the
University of Texas in hopes of becoming a medical pathologist someone who would
literally study bodily tissue wow it's also said that she may have wanted to become a medical examiner wow yes but
Stacy went to Sam Houston State University about 3 hours away so they didn't talk really ever again okay but
after months of no contact with either Marie or the police Stacy assumed nothing had come of the report so she
just refocused on her schoolwork and tried to put that entire part of her life behind her but then one day in
October she got a call from a detective in Mansfield the test results of Steven robarts blood had finally come back and
showed that he had 250 times the amount of barium acetate typically found in a person's blood which was 28 times the
amount necessary to kill holy [ __ ] based on those results detectives were uh opening an investigation into his death
as a possible homicide you don't say and they wanted another statement from Stacy
oh man so they got one and on October 18th 1994 detectives arrested Marie on the UT Austin campus on suspicion of
murder uh Taran County prosecutor Mitchell PO said she was pretty forthcoming with information fairly
quickly she didn't try to hide she was either guilt-ridden or had thought a lot about what she had done and come forward
with the information wow she told detectives and this is this blows my mind she told detectives that she had
actually stolen the barium acetate from her High School chem class what after the teacher had warned the students how
dangerous and toxic the chemical could be she said I took the chemical because I knew it would make him sick I just
wanted to be with my mom so bad that I would do anything to be with her I'm also like wow why wasn't the
Barry acetate under better controls why was it possible that she could just take
that much barate what adults do better so on the night of her father's death Marie offered to prepare his plate
for dinner and she mixed the barium acetate in his food which he ate then went to church where he started
experiencing those terrible stomach cramps she later told the jury I knew I had done something very very wrong but I
did not think of myself as a criminal wow she claimed sick sick she claimed she only wanted to make her
father too sick to care for her which she believed would have allowed her to move back in with her mom and that at no
time had she intended to actually kill him she said I think for a long time I did a good job of pretending it didn't
happen for a long time I tried just not to I tried not to think about it this is so [ __ ] up it is in so many
ways like I don't even know how to I this is just wild it is because all of the things that we've previously said
are true like she was in this terrible situation she felt rejected by her mom all of these she's going through all of
these awful teenage things but then at the very same time she makes a decision to murder someone a very adult a very
adult decision monstrous decision and it's premeditated it is like completely premeditated and she admits that she
wanted to make this poor man violently ill too ill to care for her that's sick and it's also that's also the
amount of desperation there for her mother that she and and it's like that's sad it isad there's so much here there's
so many layers of like that's monstrous what she did and it's monstrous what even intention was if her intention was
to make him sick that's monstrous yep but that's also so sad it is that this is a child desperate for their for a
different situation parent for their mother so while Marie had framed the murder as the impulsive Act of a
desperate teenager the district attorney disagreed there's a lot of debate here like I said there was going to be that's
the thing there's so many layers of and honestly I don't know where I sit at the
end of the day like I mean this is [ __ ] up regardless yeah I know I know I sit in the seat of holy the holy [ __ ]
this is [ __ ] up I don't I do wonder whether or not she intended to kill him or make him sick I can't really make a
decision either way yeah I don't know so far I'm where you are right I can't decide that either but the district
attorney said anybody who was going to go to medical school is probably above average as far as the science department
and as a matter of a fact that was part of my investigation I collected her grades and she had very high marks in
school and the Sciences yeah so you see that and that's the thing you see that side of it she's intelligent and you you
said yourself your teacher told you how dangerous this particular uh poison is to a human and yeah that's the thing cuz
it's like you know there's a potential and you also don't if you're like he said if you're planning on going to
medical school it's like you know that every body is different and that everybody takes differently to different
poisons or toxins or illnesses or diseases everyone handles it different and remember there was 28 times the
amount in his body you gave him too much and it's like if you were thinking you were going to make him sick you would it
would have been this tiny little dip that's what I would think you would start with a little no matter what this
is monstrous because you you claim you wanted to make him sick but you overdid it 28 times and either way that's
monster Behavior mhm so despite her having been forthcoming upon her arrest the district attorney told reporters
that Marie knew exactly what she was doing when she poisoned her father and had she not told her best friend about
it she would have committed the perfect murder he said in my opinion she gave him a death sentence and she fully
intended to do what she did so following her arrest Beth used her portion of Steven's life insurance payout to H hire
Bill uh magnusen I believe and Ward Casey veteran criminal defense attorneys from Fort Worth she had confessed to the
murder Marie had when she appeared for her arraignment the next day though she pleaded not guilty to the charge of
murder so she confessed but then pleaded not guilty instead her lawyers argued she was a confused teenager and had no
idea that the chemical would have been fatal so because she was still a minor at the time that the crime was committed
she was no longer a minor but she was when the crime was committed she was held in a juvenile detention center for
nearly 2 weeks until a judge did agree to release her un bombed wow once out of the facility she got a job at a local
TGI Fridays and even ended up in one of their commercials I'm sorry you roll roll back that tape excuse me what
she got a job in a restaurant at the tji Fridays when she's out on bond for poisoning food for poisoning somebody
with dinner yeah the irony is not lost on me The Reckless abandonment is not lost on
me I don't know Texas um I'm without wow I don't know she ended up in one of the
tji Fridays in Texas I think they're closing right now actually What the fu they're
like under new ownership or something I should hope so why do I know that much about TJ I don't know but my goodness
gracious yeah that's not great yeah holy [ __ ] imagine knowing that she would like
that she was you went to to that place during that time yeah and she was your and being like Oh that was my
waitress yeah oh my goodness y okay didn't see that one coming on the days when she wasn't working inside of a
restaurant where she had access to food uh Beth brought Marie to work with her at the Granbury City Hall quote so she
could keep watch on her I think she was worried that she might have done something to herself you know uh
whatever her intention Marie's presence was a big disruption to the office workplace and city manager Bob Brockman
had to limit uh Marie's presence in the office he said I just think it could be a disruptive Force noting that some city
employees were very disturbed by her constant presence yeah if I'm working and somebody's like
oh here's my daughter she might have killed her father I don't want she's just going to hang out today I'd be like
I'm going to work from home like it's just like I don't know about that that would be a little
distracting yeah I could defitely see the distraction there uh but more than a month passed before Marie was back
before a judge on January 26 1995 where she was certified to stand trial as an adult for the murder of her father if
she was found guilty she could face as many as 99 years in prison her lawyers indicated to the judge and to the press
that she intended to plead her innocence which uh presented a challenge seeing as
she had already confessed to the crime but as a result her lawyers knew that their only viable strategy was to
convince the jury that Marie's actions were those of an emotionally distraught teenager which they hoped would Inspire
some sympathy among the jury and lead to a lesser sentence mhm her defense team knew that before setting foot in a
courtroom they needed to win over the public though and convince the public that Marie was no criminal so in order
to do that they actually arranged for her to be interviewed by the Associated Press which would go out on the wire and
be published in newspapers all all across the country wow like what a what a [ __ ] choice I was just gonna say
choices Tatiana but Marie told the reporter I never thought anything through I didn't realize what I was
doing she explained that her father had never abused her generally treated her very well but she had always been much
closer to her mom and desperately wanted to move back in with her she said I feel
so guilty about what happened I know I hurt a lot of people that's what's even sadder is like my father did nothing he
did not abuse me he did not treated me he treated me very well generally I violently murdered him violently like
this man did nothing wrong that like really breaks like thinking of that like really that's the part that really gets
me and scary part of like okay rash teenage decision uh you killed the one man that was willing to take you in in
your time of need this is the parent that is act actually like you know putting everything aside and being like
I want to concate on for you and it's like that and I'm sorry like rash it's like poisoning someone is not a rash
teenage decision no you know like her her logic behind this saying like I was just so desperate for my mom yeah that's
really sad you don't [ __ ] kill someone for it no and you should know better right like why why don't you know
better right like you that should never be part of your choices is or I could kill him like that could that should
never be up for thought no there's got to be something missing something off there's something off there cuz I've
I've been upset I've been sad I've been desperate I've been this I've been that never
has murder been on the docket for a possibility and it's like the fact that it was and then she followed through
with it makes there's an issue absolutely I've been in a very similar situation yeah and never thought of
murdering anyone involved ever yeah but that's just me but perhaps anticipating the defenses
intentions the prosecutor's office actually gave their own interview to the Press where they emphasized their belief
that that Marie hadn't simply acted impulsively but had in fact planned to kill her father district attorney po
told reporters she was fascinated with figuring out how people die pointing to her dream of becoming a medical examiner
and he emphasized the same points in his opening statements when the trial did end up beginning in may of
1996 reminding the jury that she was a very intelligent girl who excelled in science class and all in all her other
classes and had been present and alert when her chemistry teacher gave a very clear warning of the dangers of this
specific barium acetate yeah so it's like I don't know what what's to be confused here right Marie's awareness of
the dangers of baram acetate became the Lynch pin to post case to support the argument he played a section of her
confession to investigators where she admitted to knowing the dangers of the chemical in the recording the
interviewing detective asks her whether or not she knew what the effect the poison would have and she said it would
make him sick but when the detective pressed her for a more detailed response Marie admitted the chemistry teacher
explicitly told them it would close up someone's throat I mean you know someone's going to die so when you know
that yeah when she was cross-examined by the defense Marie's chemistry teacher who now had to [ __ ] testify in all of
this Tracy Arnold claimed she never informed the class that baram acetate would have that
effect so the defense is like oh cool like she never said that but rather than help the defense this admission only
supported the argument that Marie had to have done her own research of the drug otherwise she never would have known
that effect oh [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] exactly so according to the prosecution this is
also really haunting the page on barium acetate poisoning in the emergency handbook that was kept in the classroom
had been torn out of the book wow which they believed also supported their theory that Marie had fully intended to
kill her father holy [ __ ] [ __ ] this is so sad it is so her lawyers rejected the
prosecutions theory pointing out that Marie always maintained she did not intend to kill her father she just
wanted to make him sick and they played their own section of the taped confession where Marie tells a detective
she put the barium in her father's food because it was the only thing and this is from her she said it was the only
thing I could think of to be able to move back to where I wanted to be they said far from the cold-blooded killer
the prosecution was making her out to be that she had never been properly warned
of the dangers of barium acetate and if she truly knew what she was doing she quote would not have put so much barium
in her father's food since he would be far more likely to taste the salty substance and not eat
it but this argument doesn't work because she did put so much on and he did eat it that doesn't work at all I
guess that's probably why they retired at that point yeah probably now after a relatively short trial the jury retired
for deliberation on May 9th and returned less than an hour later to deliver their
verdict the jury found her guilty I saw that coming I would have too yeah when the judge asked if she had anything to
say to the court Marie broke down just saying I'm sorry I'm so very sorry before bursting into tears and pushing
the microphone away from her when she composed herself she continued her statement explaining that she'd become
so scared once her father had become so seriously ill and was just too frightened to say anything but Mitchell
Poe the da interjected to ask whether she was scared for herself or her father he was like who were you really afraid
for and she said I was scared for both so he stood silent for a few seconds and then said but more scared for yourself
right so yikes [ __ ] but the next day during the penal penalty phase po argued for a harsh sentence for Marie despite
her age and her displays of remorse he said if she gets probation she can go down on the elevator and serve your next
meal I was like [ __ ] wow ultimately the judge sentenced her to 28 years in prison with eligibility for parole after
7 years so Ward Casey one of her uh defense attorneys after the sentencing told reporters of course we were
disappointed I just kept thinking about my own kids and she really is a real real real nice girl she was just in a
hell of a trap I just got chill saying that yeah so while serving her sentence which she
did Marie was by all accounts a model prisoner she was fully compliant with all the guards all the staff she
volunteered appeared to do chores in prison she helped out where she could and they said she did seem to express a
great deal of remorse for having killed her father and after serving seven years
in prison she was granted parole and has since changed her name and gone out of her way to start her life over in
complete obscurity and there's nothing crazy related to her like this ever happened again wow but the case
completely captivated the public due at least in part to the fact that it actually seemed to be a larger Trend in
the United States in the 1990s paraside which is the murder of a parent by their
child obviously is pretty exceedingly rare and rarer when the child is a girl actually in a study completed in the mid
1990s only about 10% of children who killed one or both of their parents was female but because the bond between
parents and children is so strong in Western culture obviously these killings are incredibly taboo yeah according to
Paul bones who studies the phenomenon it only occurs in extreme situations and often after years of physical sexual or
psychological abuse but she said her father had never been abusive toward that's why this one's so
shocking and in the case of Marie robard skip hollandsworth believes she was the
symbol of what modern divorce has done to our society desperate to hold on to the attention and affection of a mom who
pretty much always seemed preoccupied with her own life and very fragile marriage Marie resorted to extreme
measure measures without regard for the consequences of her actions and just only cared that she would maintain her
position of significance in her mother's life this is such like there was such a disconnect there
really was where there needed to be a connect and there was such a a crazy series of events where and I think we
talked about this in my most recent case that I covered the society murders where
had one thing not happened maybe person would have ended up being K and it really is just absolutely Bonkers how
like one and it's not a small decision in this case the fact that she wasn't allowed to move back but one
decision can complet completely alter the course of and multip people CU then it goes back into like you know her her
you know stepfather and her mom's marriage where it was like a marriage where he got to make the decisions
regardless of you know what she thought yeah and she went along with it and like
he betrayed that family yeah and Marie was angry super angry and like you know obviously not respecting him and to see
her mother putting him on such a higher pedestal than her relationship with her yeah is tough and it's like that's not
to say what she did was okay that is anyone's fault either like anyone's fault outside of Marie for doing that
because it's like you make a decision to do that M and you're old enough to know
that that is not a decision that you even consider but it's like so many things led up to this moment that should have
been handled differently and then if you think about it actually like cuz obviously like you want to say you're
old enough to make a decision to to know that that's right from wrong but then if
you look at it like psychologically her brain was not developed like don't they say like the a campus is the part of
your brain where like decisions are made and like you you say like yes or no 15 when this happened she was either 15 or
16 yeah so is is it's a weird argument that you can make and then you look at the fact that she went to prison and
then went about the rest of her life and then nothing like this ever happened again but the I mean like yeah you you
have TR you know you're not fully ready to make decisions at that time you're ready to make a decision of whether to
murder someone or not I think decision is a full should be a fully formed one I definitely think by that point like at
15 or 16 like that shouldn't be one of those gray areas where it's like but isn't it weird how like yeah that that
can be part of it you know yeah and like PE people can make that argument well they can make that argument for sure I
don't know if I fully buy into it but they can make that legal argument legally it's an argument too and then it
is interesting that if you look at it is there are cases where like teenagers do
these [ __ ] horrible things and you're like holy [ __ ] how did you do that and
then they go and they serve time and then nothing like that ever happens again it's so true and I think that's
why like it does need to be studied more for sure yeah and there was like The Cloud of desperation on this there was
the cloud and it's like so many influencing factors can't State enough that the decision that was made should
have never even been a decision that was considered never ever ever ever so there's no overstating that there's not
I can't say that enough that there's no way that you can justify that in any way
shape form nothing no especially to this man who didn't do anything that's the other thing it's not like he was abusing
you and like you were at a point of no return those are the times when you can be like you know what like obviously you
don't murder someone but it's like you can almost understand that someone's been pushed so hard to a point right and
it's like but this is just one of those things that I think there was so many factors outside of this man completely
outside of this that led to him being the one to get punished that it was as soon as I found this I was like we have
to tell this story because it's just one of those stories that I think should be
told yeah you just can't wrap your brain around it and that's that like it makes
absolutely no sense that he was the one that got I mean I hope she had true remorse I hope again it doesn't change
the fact of what she did or that she's taking this man BR back this world this man who did nothing to her yeah except
take her in and it's like so it's like I hope yeah I'm glad she's you know that she went through and
hopefully nothing like this ever happens again that's a really [ __ ] up case it
is that's really [ __ ] up I don't even know what my closing thoughts are on that that's the thing I don't even
really know what my closing thoughts are and I've like I've been going over this
for the past few weeks that you can't take back yeah you've taken someone out of the world
permanently it's because of a rash decision that came together through many many other [ __ ] decisions around you and
by you like made for you and made and by you all of them together it was like such a [ __ ] storm of [ __ ] it was the
complete opposite of a perfect storm no it was a horrible storm but I think it's
good that we can't wrap our brains around this and that we don't have any we don't need to wrap up with thoughts
because there's no thoughts this is just wild awful and sad and tragic and shocking very shocking
wow but yeah that is the case of uh Marie robarts and the very tragic death of Step
robarts wow so we hope that you keep listening yeah we do and we hope you keep it we but not so weird that any of
this and definitely not so weird that if your kids comes to you with like a crazy
ass confession you're just like out on your own hun like come on help out don't keep it out there do a little work do do
a little something something yeah [Music] bye

When thirty-eight-year-old Steven Robards died unexpectedly in the winter of 1993, everyone including the coroner believed his death to have been the result of a heart attack—unusual for someone so young, but certainly not unheard of. It wasn’t until the following year, when Steven’s teenage daughter, Marie, was practicing for the school play, that the girl confessed the truth to her friend: Steven Robards didn’t die from a heart attack, he was murdered by his daughter with chemicals she’d stolen from the high school chemistry lab.

In the United States, it’s exceedingly rare for a child to kill a parent, and rarer still for that child to be female. The truth about Steven Robards murder shocked the residents of the Fort Worth area and divided the community between those who were sympathetic to her claims of desperation and those who saw her as nothing more than a craven predator who’d do anything to get what she wanted. Indeed, Marie claimed she had only wanted to make her father sick so she could return to living with her mother, from whom she’d been separated since her parents’ divorce, and she had never wanted to kill him.

Ultimately a jury didn’t buy Marie’s story and sentenced her to twenty-seven years in prison, of which she served only seven years before being paroled. Was Marie Robards really just a confused teenager who acted impulsive without regard for the consequences of her actions? Or was she really the calculating self-serving killer some believed her to be?

Thank you to David White, of the Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research assistance!

References

Blaney, Betsy. 1997. "Trial near for NRH teen accused of killing father." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 17: 1.

Cochran, Mike. 1996. "Ex-UT student headed for patricide trial." Austin American-Statesman, May 6: 11.

—. 1996. "Teen says she didn't mean to kill dad." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 6: 1.

Hanna, Bill, and Kathy Sanders. 1994. "Daughter appears in court." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 20: 21.

Hollandsworth, Skip. 1996. "Poisoning Daddy." Texas Monthly, July 01.

Hood County News. 1994. "City staff's reactions mixed on poison suspect's presence." Hood County News, November 2: 1.

Vozzella, Laura. 1996. "Accused dreamed of being coroner, prosecutor says." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 8: 50.

—. 1996. "Chemistry student gets 28-year term in father's death." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 11: 1.

—. 1996. "Teen is found guilty of poisoning her father." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 10: 15.

—. 1996. "Teacher says chemical hidden from police." Fort Worth Star-Telegraph, May 9: 21.

2001. Forensic Files. Directed by David Wasser. Performed by David Wasser.

Alaina's 2nd book in the Dr Wren Muller Series, THE BUTCHER GAME will be released on September 17th, 2024! To Pre-order go to (https://zandoprojects.com/books/the-butcher-game/) PLUS! If you preorder the book, get an autographed poster while supplies last by visiting (http://thebutchergame.com/)

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

Marie Robards poisoned her father in a desperate attempt to return to her mother, leading to a tragic murder case and complex family dynamics.

Key points

Modern Grandparent Names. The hosts humorously explore what names like 'Grandpa Cash' mean for future generations.
Mental Health Struggles. The story of Steven's mental health crisis and its impact on his family unfolds.
Marie’s Struggles with Parenting Decisions. Marie reflects on the challenges of parenting and the importance of allowing children to make decisions.
Marie’s Desperate Act. Marie considers a drastic measure to return to her mother after feeling trapped.
Steven's Sudden Illness. Steven experiences severe stomach pains leading to a tragic outcome.
Frank's Affair Exposed. Marie discovers her father’s ongoing affair, leading to her decision to leave.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What the [ __ ] truly? What the [ __ ]?

Ash questions the reasoning behind her name.

4:00WatchApr 4, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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