Shadowing Sheila | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

this episode picks up from our last one episode 88 Cold Case so if you haven't heard that one yet you should probably
go back and listen to them in order this episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for
everyone if you're in it for Revenge I'm not your person if you're in it to stir up
something because it's the ex-wife not your person and I usually can tell who the right people are there's a sound
when I talk to him at first and I know that sound I've had that sound I know the desperation
after Sheila wysaki became a private investigator to help solve the murder of her college roommate Angie samoda she
wasn't planning to take on any more cases she'd done what she'd hoped to do but she was inundated with requests from
other people who'd lost loved ones the first letter was from a mother who didn't believe that her teenage son died
by Suicide so I'm reading this letter in a course I'm a crier and it just upset me so much and she wrote her name and
number at the bottom and I called her Sheila looked into the case and found evidence that there were too many
bullets for suicide to make sense Sheila says her investigation compelled the district attorney to reopen the case
and from there she just kept going what percentage breakdown who's contacting you is it parents is it
husbands or wives family members who who's contacting you I would say mainly it's parents even parents of older like
an adult so if they're missing or they suspect Foul Play A lot of times the moms I used to say only the moms but
recently I probably had three dads call me which is unusual she's selective about what cases she
takes sure that her clients understand that they may not like what she finds out
and she often stipulates that they enter into grief counseling during the investigation
the worst part she says is telling people no last year alone I gave 101 cases away
think about that that's 101 people out there how many people are out there there's a bunch that have questions so
the families know I will go through their case I will work their case but they have to on the other side do the
things that I ask them to do at any given point if I number one find out that they lied to me were done the
second thing is if I go through and find evidence that needs to be turned over to
the police we immediately turn it over to the police what they do with it you never know
the process to become a private investigator varies from state to state in Tennessee where Sheila lives you need
to demonstrate that you're working under an investigator who's already licensed and has more experience you take an exam
send your fingerprints to the FBI and submit to a background check you also need to be quote of good moral
character and quote not suffer from habitual drunkenness in five states Alaska Idaho Mississippi
South Dakota and Wyoming the state doesn't require you to do anything special at all
Sheila says she can't imagine how much harder this job must have been 30 years ago before the internet but she says she
does things the old-fashioned way too knocking on doors and asking questions I'm lucky the way I look because people
will open the door to me I've had people escort me out of their homes I've had people and I use that word I've been
thrown out I've had people open the door in the slammed the door in my face and after going door to door
you'll find it's amazing what people remember but I have found that nobody's asked them so nobody knocked on that
door to ask the question and I think that's a mistake I think canvassing the area and seeing what people remember or
what they don't and then I take a um it's kind of like an octopus I try to find who their friends are because you and I
both know people talk and if they're in a relationship they're talking if what I find is if they're in any kind of
a relationship at some intimate level they'll discuss something personal if that relationship ends
that's a gold mine do you people out do you watch people and follow people of course you have to
get a pattern so you have to know what their schedule is who they're talking to if they stay inside all day with the
blinds shut why would you do that if you're pregnant and you stay inside all day with the blind shut and nobody comes
and goes that's kind of interesting to me are there a lot of women in this line of
work no no just then one of Sheila's colleagues showed up a man named David Gray who she
hires to keep her computer and her house secure so I have cameras all over my house
you do I do you're on TV no not that bad but I do and so one of the things that David's brought you want to tell her
what it is there you go um do you need this at all no not no I'm good this right here is
basically a Wi-Fi camera that sits and fits into a um a light fixture well this this is the stuff we don't
actually know exists but here it is and so this I mean it looks kind of like a light bulb so you wouldn't know it's a
light bulb and it's got a uh uh a very good um camera built into it and sound so yeah I'm sure people always come over
here and look around and I'm looking up right now and then you look going yep I know she's got something around but it's
all over before you hit the driveway you're on TV yeah Sheila told us stories about being intimidated by suspects and
having police officers show up at her door telling her to back off calling her a liar it's her job to be adversarial
I'm set up to go in and they're upset with me I walked through the door and I'm saying have you thought about it's
so a lot of people don't like that I'm not on Christmas card lists of most people I've asked questions about but I
try to go in with a really okay I just want to know can you help me if you can't I'm going to move on
David Gray has installed a lot of software to make sure no one can access her computer he didn't want to say too
much about what kind of software or what kinds of things someone might be looking
for but he told us that once Sheila had a strange experience where someone took control of her computer remotely and she
could see them operating her Mouse opening Case Files paper just you know nosy there's a lot of good hackers out
there and you know with the business that she's in I definitely think she's always a Target
so every once in a while you'll have him come look I have him come look more than
every once in a while it's something it's a regular relationship because it's so important and how often are you
looking at private investigators computers is this a is this a rare relationship I do have a few pis that I
work with none like Sheila of course this is what we heard for Nashville that there are a lot of private
private but none quite like Sheila wysocki I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal [Music]
I'm sorry this is hey Michael hey are you outside okay bye so Mike Michael Kenny so we have two
mics I don't know how we're gonna do this for one of her most challenging cases Sheila is working with two other
private investigators Michael Kenny and Michael Sands my name is Michael Sands I
am a private investigator and I've had my business 18 years a former veteran police captain and U.S army Captain
helicopter pilot where were you uh where what Police Department I was in a police
department in Indiana was a captain and a police officer in Texas as well surveillance child custody insurance
fraud divorce I have women calling up asking you to follow their husbands absolutely and actually over the
probably about the last five years has been more men calling to follow their wives
even when we've had somebody trying to verify stayed overnight somewhere I went old school and put a stick or a
rock on top of the vehicle's tire and took a photo of a date time stamp so if it actually moved or not or a piece of
uh Scotch tape on a door frame to see if it had been opened from the outside you're still doing that stuff yes
absolutely being a police officer and a private investigator I tell everybody as a police officer
it's mainly black and white but as a pi we work in a very gray area we have less
restrictions and more flexibility and in our business how creative you can be is
how successful you are he's worked with Sheila for about a year and a half and he says that when he first met her
he was intrigued I was taken back a little bit then after talking to her we just meshed
immediately I mean built an immediate friendship and camaraderie what were you intrigued by
just her being the soccer mom or mature mother and just I loved it I mean just I mean and
appreciate strong women with my wife being a professional herself and having that you know Drive is is essential his
wife or special agent the other person working on the case was Sheila is Michael Kenny by the time he
got there it was a full house three private investigators and David Gray working on Sheila's computer
before Michael Kenny became a private investigator he used to hire a lot of them for his work as an insurance claims
adjuster and one day he decided to open his own shop he says it hasn't made him very popular
well I have eight active death threats that I believe right now I've gotten more than that but eight that I believe
a lot of times you'll have somebody that uh an example would be there's a car wreck and the the attorney tells them
they're gonna get a million dollars and we go out and show them golfing all weekend and so that million dollars
becomes ten thousand dollars and they don't blame themselves they blame me he says social media has changed everything
about the work I think the world for I think Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook so people will post what they're doing I
would have not imagined 21 years ago that there'd be websites where people would tell us what they were doing or
who their family members were or what they drove for instance if it's not coming back to the state I'll tell you
Michael Kenny taught me to be nice and dumb so when I go in I never know anything and it's amazing how people
want to tell you things when you're that stupid they want to correct you and tell
you what really happened and also I go in a lot of times they have mommy issues so I go in and they want to tell me
what's going on and cry on my shoulder people don't realize like the police May cool off and move on to the next case
but Sheila doesn't she she'll get focused and she'll lock on and she will not let go until there's an answer
the reason for their meeting today is to discuss the case of 21 year old Lauren Agee I received a phone call from a
girlfriend of mine when I was down in Florida recovering from another case and I said I'm not taking cases I'm not
doing it and she said would you please just talk to the mother and I received an email from Sherry Smith that
it's heartbreaking when Sheila started looking into Lauren Agee's death she asked Michael Kenny if
he would put his eyes on it Michael Sands had already been working on the case and then the three of them
teamed up is this type of collaboration common oh that's the way I do my cases is I
want to be the dumbest person in the room I don't want to be the smartest person in the room I want people like
Michael and Michael to come in and tell me what I've missed Lauren Agee died in July of 2015.
she and some friends were camping on Center Hill Lake in central Tennessee for a wakeboarding event called wake
Fest wakefest was the weekend of July 24th 25th and 26th 24th was a Friday Lauren shows up with Hannah Palmer
and they meet up with Aaron Lilly and Chris Stout and they camp on top the cliff
they were there to party all weekend and it's kind of it's like a X Games is what
it reminded me of with the giant you know the giant ramps and they're doing flips and it was quite a sight a lot of
talent but a lot of bikini and booze yeah and there were families there too do what oh a lot of socializing so they
the way they have it set up is you go to the wakeboard event six miles out from where the cliff
and the marina and then you come back in and at night time you're drinking and and having a
great time that Friday night Hannah Lauren another acquaintance Aaron and Chris Stout were
up there they go to wake Fest on Saturday same same scenarios just rinse and repeat they go to wake Fest come back
they're um at Fishlips Fishlips is a is a bar restaurant it's a bar restaurant remind you of kind of
Florida divish and then Lauren goes up on the cliff that night with the group the next morning they wake up and she's
gone [Music] Lauren's friends said they looked for her but couldn't find her according to
the statements they gave to the police they thought Lauren may have left the campsite and either gone to find an
ex-boyfriend or gone ahead to wakefest he had the problem with the whole scenario is Lauren's phone shoes and
clothing he first come along the phone keys purse everything that she had took up
there was still there so think about that your girl you're you're a girl your shoes are up
there your phones the two most important things a girl could have a 21 year old a
21 year old and it Dawns on you she's missing wouldn't it Dawn on you to make a phone
call or call the police or alert the Police well the fact that you're climbing a
mountain without your shoes or in this case climbing down the mountain and then they get on a boat and go to
wake Fest look at that picture so this is the day after this is the day of that she was
missing so looking having great time so this is after she had gone missing yes so instead of
looking for her this is what they're doing and one of his posts was what is it Best Day Ever
so their best day ever and this girl is Missing do they at that point call the police
call her mother call anyone to say Lauren's missing nope and then what happens then at 4 30 in the afternoon two
fishermen find her body [Music] Lauren Agee's body was found in the water not far from the campsite
the medical examiner found quote predominantly blunt force injuries to the top of the head and slightly right
side of the head as well as to the back they found multiple fractured ribs the autopsy report concludes the cause of
death is multiple blunt force injuries contributing to the death is possible drowning the manner of death is accident
in his investigative report detective Jeremy Taylor wrote Lauren Taylor agey's death is consistent
with an accident at this time I do not have any evidence to support foul play in the death of Lauren Taylor h e
so the story was that she fell from she fell yes that was that was the alleged story
that she had fell from the cliff while they were sleeping during the night that's not true
I know that's not true look Michael Kenny and Michael Sands together with Lauren's parents do not
believe that Lauren Fell they've spent the last year doing their own investigation going back and
interviewing everyone they can find looking at water flow the angle of the cliff drop comparing the autopsy report
with photographs of Lauren taken at the scene they're also curious about the behavior
of the friends who are camping with Lauren why didn't they go to the funeral why didn't they call her mom so over
time and time again we see that the behavior doesn't line up with with a normal behavior of friends and I want to
be very clear about this location because Michael and Michael have both been up there when I initially took the
case I thought okay you know somebody probably could have fallen off I have her autopsy pictures I have the crime
scene photos from the EMTs her injuries do not line up with somebody who fell off a cliff and we took a dummy got it
the size that she is and again in my investigations you try to reenact what happened we took a dummy and we we did
it more than once we took it and tried to recreate what the police came to the conclusion of and we couldn't get it to
make it down the cliff so what do you think happened what do I think happened I can tell you
what didn't happen she did not fall off the cliff and end up in the second Cove in addition to trying to recreate a fall
Sheila has hired a hydrologist to look at the way the water flows in the lake and in and out of the coves around the
campsite there are two very uneven campsites there's the one where Chris and Lauren had a hammock which
is is insane I mean no one would choose to Camp up here I mean if you did move in any direction you could easily go off
the very steep side and then you had to go down a little area and walk and climb
up a Shale Cliff if you will to get to the campsite where the where the tents were or where uh Aaron stayed
when we were originally told it was understand that she fell out of the hammock off the Steep side of the right
side of the point this side the very steep side and the water's flowing to the point so anything
would fall would go to the point and so somehow Lauren made it down the wooded side so she would have had to somehow
her body would have had to navigate all the way to the water and then go against
the current to be stuck back in the Cove an impossibility in my personal opinion
so how do you think she she actually died I mean I think she hit her head or was pushed or shoved or
um you know a girl with no shoes on who's a girly girl Lauren was a girly girl um
you know I think there was something that made her I I just I I have my theory but
um I think that somebody was doing something to her and she probably fought back a little bit and uh her head was
hit and that's how she died and her body did not fall off that cliff I think someone placed it in that Cove
after she had died after she had died did the autopsy show that she had been raped
they did not do a rape kick no rape kit they did not do a rape kit so my scenario of what happened is she
goes into the medical examiner the police officers said she was drunk and fell off the cliff check off move on
we spent the day listening to the three of them think through all the possible things that could have happened to
Lauren Agee this is the strange work of a private investigator testing each part of a police
investigation imagining alternative scenarios and then seeing if the facts bear them out
Lauren's parents filed the wrongful death suit against the people camping with Lauren that weekend it's currently
pending Sheila speaks with Lauren's mother Sherry Smith many times a day the reality of a case like this is it
takes more investigating so the information that we keep getting and the interviews we keep doing lead to
something else and I'm still gathering information the court case is in the court system that's
not what I've been hired to do I've been hired to find out what happened to Lauren
find out what happened to Lauren for who oh I've been hired to find out what happened that night for Sherry Smith and
Michael Smith and that's the difference of what cases I take the parents I deal with are the
ones that want to know what happened it's not about money it's not about the legal it is only about what happened
that night the truth and they want their daughter's story to be correct not she was drunk and fell off the cliff that's
not Lauren's story I know she doesn't like it when I use the term pit bull but if if Sheila's
really on it she won't give up she will keep pursuing that goes for law enforcement if it's your agency she will
bang on your door as many times we can show yeah it's very thorough made a mistake
a million mistakes every day of course because the only way you can do an investigation
is try different things and you never know how it's going to turn out so I've hired a private investigator to go in
that's younger than I am and would fit into the group and that did not work out well because they wanted to tell
everybody they were a pi are you kidding me yeah before we left Sheila put out an enormous lunch for her
team quiche and tuna salad and chicken salad and rolls and Pie we're almost to that point I'm gonna Heat this up a
little bit in the microwave I hate using the microwave but I have to she wouldn't
let anyone help her and spent most of the time not eating herself but asking if everyone else had what they needed
and then we remembered her email address Scrappy mom P.I [Music] you know if I had committed a crime well
I'd be terrified if I knew you were out there working on it are you gonna do anything
I know you're around you want to tell me something now do you want to confess criminal is produced by Lauren Spore
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SPOILER WARNING: Please listen to our first episode about Sheila, Episode 88: Cold Case, before you listen to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMuOp6CTmns

This episode contains descriptions of violence and may not be suitable for everyone.

Sheila Wysocki became a private investigator to try to help solve the murder of her college roommate, Angela Samota. She wasn’t planning on taking any other cases, but then the letters started coming. This week, we shadow Sheila and her colleagues as she investigates the unsolved murder of Lauren Agee.

Music in the episode “Cash Cow” by Blue Dot Sessions “Fifteen Street” by Blue Dot Sessions “Tessalit” by Blue Dot Sessions “Margerie” by Blue Dot Sessions “Aourourou” by Blue Dot Sessions “KeoKeo” by Blue Dot Sessions

Criminal is a show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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Episode transcripts are posted on our website https://thisiscriminal.com/.

Episode 89 originally published 4/20/2018 https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-89-shadowing-sheila-04-20-2018

Brief Summary

Sheila Wysocki discusses her investigations into cold cases, focusing on Lauren Agee's suspicious death and the challenges faced by families seeking answers.

Key points

Sheila Wysocki's Journey. Sheila became a private investigator to solve her roommate's murder, leading to many more cases.
The Mysterious Death of Lauren Agee. Lauren Agee's death raises questions about the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
Investigating Lauren's Case. Sheila and her team challenge the official narrative of Lauren's death, seeking the truth.
The Pursuit of Truth. Parents want to uncover the truth of what happened that night, beyond just legalities.
Sheila's Dedication. Sheila goes above and beyond for her team, prioritizing their needs over her own.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The worst part she says is telling people no.

2:12WatchJan 10, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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