Stevie Allman | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[dramatic music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth, to separate fact from fiction,
to catch the killer, and to make sure that justice is served. [dramatic music] What happens when the truth vanishes with the victim?
I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd, and I've spent my entire career as a forensic pathologist
performing nearly 23,000 autopsies, including on some of the most high-profile cases
of recent times. I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth and they never lie.
Through me, you'll be hearing directly from the victim. From a state-of-the-art laboratory
with groundbreaking technology that uses digitally scanned sample bodies. I'll be investigating a series of intriguing murders
where from the victim's bodies, I'll be revealing to you the truth behind those horrific crimes.
[camera lens flashing] [dramatic music] [bright music] [birds chirping] On the 1st of July, 1997, in Oakland, California,
police found the dismembered body of a woman. The house had been attacked by arsonists
just two weeks earlier. [bright music] But who was the victim and what could her body reveal about its own death?
[tense music] [birds chirping] - East Oakland, not a bad neighborhood. [tense music]
A lot of people had been in that neighborhood for many years. You know, there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood
and a lot of people seemed to know each other. [tense music] - Residential neighborhood, but like everything else
it had its share of problems. [tense music] - It was predominantly African American
and what I would call a working-class neighborhood. [tense music] [suspenseful music]
- [Richard] But on the 15th of July, 1997, a grim discovery was made. [suspenseful music]
- I was the crime scene investigator on the scene, the primary one that was in the field.
I was called in the morning and was told to respond to the address on 50th Avenue in Oakland,
and I was there to search for evidence and a body. [tense music] The canine units went in first
and searched the basement as well as the home. [tense music] - [Richard] It wasn't long before they were on the scent.
- I get to the scene and I'm trying to get my equipment out of the car. The guys were yelling for me to hurry up
and come on in the house. So I just grabbed my camera and ran up into the house,
and they took me into the kitchen area, and propped open a floor freezer. [tense music]
It was very dark inside, and I reached into the freezer to see what was in there,
and it was, it appeared to be plastic, like garbage bags. [tense music] From one of the garbage bags I could feel an arm, an elbow.
[tense music] Told everybody to be quiet and be still, and I tried to feel for a pulse, but there was none.
[tense music] We secured that area and I asked everybody to leave because now, I've got a dead body in a freezer box.
[tense music] [suspenseful music] We had to figure out how we were gonna transport the body
to the coroner's office. [suspenseful music] Few discussions occurred and it was finally decided
that we would transport the body fully and completely inside the freezer box. We had to get a truck, we had to get a dolly,
we had to get some duct tape because I wanted to make sure that the box was secured.
[suspenseful music] I was there at the coroner's office and I photographed the beginning of the autopsy.
The body wasn't burned, it was starting to decompose, but her legs were cut off, her torso was cut.
[suspenseful music] There were four body parts that came out of those bags. [suspenseful music]
- The body parts were found in the home of local woman, Stevie Allman, so they assumed she was the victim,
but they needed to be sure. [suspenseful music] [dramatic music] The first job of a pathologist is to identify the body.
The body goes through a number of stages after death, which aren't particularly time-dependent,
but they usually start with discoloration of the skin, then blister formation, then bloating and liquefaction.
And all of these changes are environmentally dependent. You can see here on this sample body on the digital table
how rigor mortis occurs after death, when the muscles stop receiving oxygen. And that's a change that starts immediately someone dies
and is present in the hands and the feet at about four hours and spreads the whole of the muscle mass of the body
at about 12 hours. Here they were posed with a problem. This body was quite severely decomposed.
In fact, the body was so severely decomposed, the crime scene investigators couldn't work out
if it was a man or a woman. Now, to make an identification, you need to compare records
that were made before death with those that were discovered at the autopsy. We know the body was found in the home of Stevie Allman,
but who was she? [mysterious music] - Stevie Allman was very kind, very giving person,
and wanted to do good for mankind, for her neighborhood, for the people that she loved and care about.
[mysterious music] - [Richard] Stevie lived with her sister in a small bungalow at 50th Avenue, Oakland, California, where she grew up.
She came from a big family with 10 brothers and sisters. - Most of the kids had already moved outta the house,
and were long gone, and started their own families while Stevie lived in this small white bungalow.
[mysterious music] - Stevie Allman was a hardworking woman, had a career, I think she was an accountant
or some administrative position, that she had earned a 20-year retirement from. [suspenseful music]
- Two weeks before the body was found, a 911 call had come in from a neighbor saying there was a fire in Stevie Allman's home.
[fire truck siren blaring] [suspenseful music] When firefighters arrived at the scene,
they rescued a woman at the front of the house. [water hose spraying] [suspenseful music]
- So when firefighters arrived, they asked her what happened, and of course, what was her name?
She identified herself as Stevie Allman, and she said that drug dealers had surrounded the house
and had thrown fire bombs into the house. [fire crackling] [ominous music] And that they were fire bombing the house
because they had been videotaping the drug dealers in the area. - [Richard] She also said that she intended
to hand this evidence into the police. [ominous music] Stevie was taken to Alta Bates Medical Center
for treatment of her injuries. - The Oakland Police Department put out a $50,000 reward,
and that was later doubled by the governor of the state of California. And so there was a $100,000 reward
for anyone who could give any information on the drug dealers who allegedly firebombed the house.
[suspenseful music] - When we have a citizen of this type who gets out and fights for the peace of the community,
then we need to all rally around her, and this police department to solve this crime.
[suspenseful music] [tense music] - [Richard] Stevie told investigators that on the night of the fire,
while she was sitting in the living room, she heard a crash in the kitchen. [glass shattering]
Followed by a one-gallon-sized glass jar hitting the kitchen floor and breaking into pieces.
[glass shattering] That crash was followed immediately by glass jars being thrown into the living room, the bathroom,
and the front bedroom. [tense music] - I was called into this case, it was getting a lot of publicity
from the media, politicians. You know, I thought everything was legitimate, that it was somebody
who was doing something for the community. [tense music] [suspenseful music] - [Richard] Stevie claimed she was targeted
because she was trying to catch local drug dealers. - So I thought there's good reason to investigate
who's committing these crimes. [suspenseful music] - [Richard] Having spent a week in hospital,
Stevie issued a news statement. "I have no doubt they intended to murder me and burn the house down on top of me.
Their warped minds thought the act would clear the way to do their dirty dealing, and at the same time,
scare everyone else along 50th avenue and beyond into a submissive, terrified slave state."
- Everyone was talking about was this family that had been firebombed because they were taping drug dealers,
and as a result, there was an outpouring of public support for Stevie Allman, and donations began pouring in.
The donations totaled $4,700. Several contractors offered to rebuild the Stevie Allman's home.
[tense music] - [Richard] But while investigating the arson attack, Sergeant Gregory was beginning to feel
Stevie's story wasn't adding up. [tense music] - We kind of walked around the scene
and things just didn't look right to me. I've led to believe that dope dealers carrying large ice tea jars with gasoline in them
had thrown them through the windows. Well, this is not the way you retaliate against somebody out in the streets of Oakland.
For one, I would be worried if I was carrying that jar of gasoline that I'd be doused with some of that gasoline,
my own self, and it would take a minimum of four people to do this because one would have to carry the jug,
one would have to light it on fire, and we had two different locations. So you're talking four people minimum.
- [Richard] However, there was no evidence of anyone running from the house on the night of the fire.
- They were ice tea fragment jars because you could see glass fragments on the ground.
What I thought was suspicious from the very beginning was the fact that they were on the outside of the house.
If they were thrown from outside of the house into the house through a window, the projectile would go through the window.
Instead, these were on the outside of the house. Meaning to me, they came from inside, out.
[suspenseful music] - [Richard] Forensic investigations concluded the same thing, that the fire
had most likely been intentionally set with a flammable liquid from inside the property.
- We did a complete canvas of the neighborhood that day, and very little information was developed.
One of the things that myself and other officers did, asked neighbors, are you aware of the dope dealing going on?
Yes, of course. Were you aware that she was videotaping these dope dealers? No, not so much.
But there wasn't really feeling on the neighbor's part that she was being targeted by any of the dope dealers.
[suspenseful music] We had gone through probably a week of interviewing drug dealers, prostitutes,
neighborhood people, and it just wasn't coming together. Dope dealers had told me, the hardcore dope dealers
that actually told me in an interview, if she was that much of a problem to us, we wouldn't use fire and gasoline,
we'd just put a bullet in her head. Which to me, that's the way problems were dealt with
out there on the street. [suspenseful music] [tense music] - [Richard] Further investigations reveal
that only two weeks earlier, there had been another fire when firefighters had been called to Stevie's bungalow.
- [Richard] But investigators weren't getting closer to finding out who was starting them.
- Even after my canvas, talking to all the other investigators that interviewed people in the jail, I had nothing,
nothing to substantiate that there was anybody else burning 'em out. There was, oh yeah, I heard that she was being burned out,
you know, by dope dealers, but they're hearing this third hand, you know, from somebody else.
[tense music] Nothing to substantiate any of that. - The Oakland Police Department had not received one tip
as a result of that reward money that was put out there. And you know, the reality is, in Oakland,
most of the people will turn their grandmother in for a hundred dollars, whereas in this case,
they had a hundred thousand dollars reward out there, and that was very unusual in Oakland
to not receive not one tip with that kind of money being out there. It was clear to many of them
that there was something strange going on in this case. - [Richard] Stevie's accounts of the fires
just weren't adding up. [suspenseful music] - Things like this that are just so bizarre
and out of the norm, this is what horror movies are made out of. [suspenseful music]
[dramatic music] [tense music] - On the 15th of July, 1997, a dismembered body was found in the freezer of Stevie Allman's home
in Oakland, California. Who was the victim and what secrets could the body reveal?
Two weeks earlier, a woman identifying herself as Stevie had suffered horrific injuries
after her home was firebombed. [tense music] Although badly burned, she survived.
And she was showered with support and money by local, public, and politicians. After she said she'd been targeted by drug dealers.
But it wasn't long before detectives became suspicious and wondered how much of her story was actually true.
[suspenseful music] When Stevie was injured in the firebombing, it was all over the local news.
- One thing that was brought to the attention was that when the news media took photographs
of Stevie being put into an ambulance and sent up to the hospital, word got back to me
that that wasn't Stevie at all. [ambulance siren blaring] [tense music] - [Richard] Stevie's older sister, Leotta Belleville,
told police that the injured woman was actually Sarah Mitchell, another sister who lived with Stevie.
- And she made it very adamant to me that that was Sarah that was put into the ambulance, not Stevie.
[ambulance siren blaring] - Stevie was always what you would call a homebody. Stevie would just go to work and then come home.
She was a very private person. If she wasn't at work, then Stevie was at home. And so it was very unusual for the house
to have suffered this fire damage and for Stevie to not be present after several days.
And family members began asking, where is Stevie? - [Richard] Leotta called her sister, Sarah,
to see if she knew where the other sister, Stevie, was. - And the first time she asked her the question,
she said, she's in Reno. Well, a little bit later in the conversation, the sister asked her again, well, where is Stevie?
[suspenseful music] And when she answered the second time, she said, I told you she's in Lake Tahoe.
[suspenseful music] Leotta said, well, wait a minute. The first time you told me that she was in Reno,
and now, you just told me that she's in Lake Tahoe. So what is it? [suspenseful music]
- [Richard] Leotta then immediately filed a missing person's report. - Then it's time to call out all the stops
and bring Sarah or Stevie into the office to interview 'em to find out who, in fact, they are.
[suspenseful music] I wasn't able to get a hold of her at the hospital because she was confined to the burn unit
and the burn unit has to stay very antiseptic. [suspenseful music] - [Richard] Over a week later, the injured woman
was released from hospital, and officers located her at a hotel in Alameda and brought her in for interview.
- So I wanted to know who I was speaking to because even during our interview I was referring to her as Stevie.
[tense music] I had my suspicions about the fire. [tense music] She had frontal burns,
which told me that she was in front of the fire. She had a full head of hair, but the hair wasn't burned,
nothing on her back. She had burns, burns, all frontal burns, which is unusual because to get frontal burns,
you're not running through the house screaming as it follows you out the house. You're in front of the fire as opposed to being behind you,
if that makes sense. [tense music] - [Richard] Still, assuming she was Stevie, he wanted to know where her sister Sarah was.
- And then when questioning her about the whereabouts of Sarah, she said, oh, nonchalantly, very cavalier,
she's off in Reno with her boyfriend. [suspenseful music] It was like, when's the last time you talked to her?
Oh, I don't know, a few days ago, maybe a week ago. That just seemed totally out of the realm
of being realistic to me. - [Richard] So Sarah had told her family that Stevie was in Reno and this woman claiming to be Stevie
was now telling the police that Sarah was in Reno. - She had multiple identifications on her.
I mean, she had Stevie's identification on her and Sarah's. You know what I'm thinking, if Sarah's off in Nevada,
what are you doing with Sarah's identification? - [Richard] They found in her purse
a check made out to Stevie Allman by the Alpha Bates Hospital for $2,744. [suspenseful music]
- So she's got a lot of money on her, in her purse. Where did you get the money, Stevie?
Well, I got this from donations while I was in the hospital from people to get by.
[suspenseful music] - [Richard] Still unsure as to whether she was Stevie or Sarah, Gregory decided to take fingerprints
to confirm her identity. - And luckily for us, Sarah had a prior criminal record, very minor.
She had been arrested for prostitution for quite a few years before that, but the fingerprints did come back and confirmed
that the person that we rolled were that belonging to Sarah. [suspenseful music]
- [Richard] It was now clear that it was Sarah Mitchell, not Stevie Allman, who had been burned in the fire.
Sarah was pretending to be her sister, Stevie. She had Stevie's ID on her and had a large check
made out to Stevie on her person. - At that point, we arrested Sarah for forgeries.
[tense music] - [Richard] If she had lied about her identity, what else had she lied about?
- My suspicion was, was that Stevie was dead somewhere. [tense music] My feeling was that she would be at the house.
The search warrant was prepared and we were told to put it on hold the next day.
I had had a friend of mine bring a cadaver dog from San Mateo County. It sniffs and smells blood, body tissue.
[tense music] - [Richard] Whilst waiting for the search warrant to come through, the cadaver dog was outside the property
when nature called. [tense music] - He ultimately let his dog relieve itself in the backyard
and the dog promptly went right to a Skil saw blade. [tense music] The dog started licking the Skil saw blade.
That told me that there was blood residue on the Skil saw blade. So that told me that we were on the right path right there.
Later on, other homicide detectives and myself went ahead and served the search warrant on the house.
- A week after Sarah's true identity was revealed, the dismembered body was discovered in the freezer
at the home of Stevie Allman. [tense music] Police were now sure that two women lived in the house.
They were Stevie Allman, age 52, and her sister, Sarah Mitchell, age 47. And they looked very similar, the same body shape,
the same height, the same appearance. So much so that neighbors sometimes thought
that they were twins. And that's what made identification even more important. Three ways of identifying a body were present.
First, we'd use now was DNA, but it's still in its infancy then and probably wasn't used.
The second was fingerprints. They can be really valuable, only if somebody has a criminal record
and their fingerprints are stored by the police. But fingerprints can be lost through decomposition
and so not be reliable. Finally, there are the dental records, but only if somebody has dental records
that are available for comparison. So when we look at this lady on the digital autopsy table,
we can see she's got the changes in her mouth that are really important for a dental identification.
Loss of teeth in the upper jaw, but marks where the teeth have been, scanned teeth in the lower jaw with evidence of dental work.
And this is what's important in making a positive dental identification. [suspenseful music]
The dental records proved the body in the freezer was Stevie Allman. [suspenseful music]
- Why was her sister pretending to be Stevie? And why would anyone want Stevie Allman dead?
[dramatic music] [ominous music] - In California, police were dealing with a strange case
of confused identities. They had a dismembered body which had been clearly identified as Stevie Allman,
but they also had a very much alive woman who was insisting that she was Stevie Allman,
even though her fingerprints had identified her as Stevie's sister, Sarah Mitchell.
[suspenseful music] When the body was discovered at the home of the sisters, police moved in on Sarah.
[suspenseful music] - And it was at that point, Sarah Mitchell was charged with the murder of her sister.
But there was still a lot of investigation that needed to be done because at this point,
it was a completely circumstantial evidence case. - [Richard] To try and uncover the truth,
investigators wanted to find out more about the sisters. - It was Stevie, Sarah, and the mother
that lived in the house. When the mother passed, it was just Stevie and Sarah that lived in the house.
Both of them were very similar, probably in height, I would say not tall women, 5'6, 5'7 maybe.
[tense music] And within a few years of each other, they tend to comb their hair the same way,
straight back a lot of times. To me, they could be very well twins. - [Richard] Despite looking alike,
they were said to have very different personalities. - Stevie Allman was very hardworking, very industrious,
the kind of person who always had a job and was always a provider for her family.
[tense music] - Stevie had a retirement, she was responsible, she was maintaining the upkeep of the house.
She was doing everything she could to be a good person in a neighborhood like that.
- Whereas Sarah, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Some would even go as far as to say,
Sarah was absolutely lazy, never wanted to work, she always was looking for someone else to take care of her.
- It's my understanding that Sarah had just been kinda living there, rent-free, just taking and taking and taking.
- Sarah had gone through her share of boyfriends, she was addicted to prescription medication
and was always trying to get over on somebody, you know, rather than earn a living herself and do the right thing.
[ominous music] - Stevie thought that, you know, it was time for Sarah to be a responsible adult, take care of herself,
go get a job, and that she wasn't willing to carry the load. for Sarah. - I would describe Stevie and Sarah,
the good sister and the bad sister really. [ominous music] - But was Sarah really bad enough to kill her own sister?
When the dismembered body was recovered, it was hoped that it would be able to reveal the truth
about its murder at autopsy. [ominous music] If the murderer was trying to hide the evidence
by starting the fire, they'd failed because the body was protected within the freezer.
And so the whole of Stevie Allman's body was available for autopsy. And when they looked at the head,
they found areas of over 20 separate injuries. On the skin, many of them had a tram line
or rail track appearance, two parallel lines of bruising consistent with a linear object.
Internally, when they looked, there were extensive fractures to the face and also to the skull,
so fractured the cheekbone, of the jaw, of the forehead, of the skull all over. But more importantly, there was evidence of hemorrhaging
around the brain, and the hemorrhaging would've occurred inside the skull, around the fractures,
but also on and within the brain, and that would've been the cause of death. The pathologist couldn't be certain as to the weapon used,
but he said that it was elongated with a hard edge like a metal bar. [tense music]
- Well, it appeared that the body had major trauma to the head, so we were asked to go back to the scene
and see what we could find. I didn't know if I was looking for a hammer, a crowbar, a pipe.
We just didn't know. So I was collecting a lot of possibilities that may have had some blood or hair transfer on it.
[tense music] - [Richard] The investigators were also looking for evidence of how and where the body had been dismembered.
- I know the crime lab recovered the trap in the bathroom tub, blood gets washed down,
there's always some type of residue of blood that's left, and you can use what they call luminol,
which is a liquid or spray that can spray it on there, use a black light, and it'll just pop right up.
We were able to also discover some cut marks in the bathtub. [tense music] I recovered saws and knives, and blades, and a crowbar,
and hammers, and like tools on the back porch area as well. [tense music] Crime lab established that she was killed in her bedroom,
possibly in her bed while she was sleeping. And then the body was moved from that room into the bathroom
where her body was dismembered. [tense music] [ominous music] - [Richard] A neighbor told police
they saw Stevie and Sarah together in their backyard on the 15th of June, four days before the first fire.
[ominous music] This was the last time Stevie Allman was seen alive. [ominous music]
Could the body help them establish a time of death? Estimating the time of death in a decomposing body
can be a real challenge, but it's especially complicated where the body was initially frozen
and only started to decompose when the freezer stopped working after the second fire.
Estimations suggest that Stevie had been dead for around a month, and that fits quite well
with her being seen on the 15th of June. [suspenseful music] There was nothing to suggest why Sarah Mitchell
would want to kill her sister Stevie Allman. So investigators looked into her financial situation
to see if that would provide any clues. - What we found was that every one of her accounts
had been emptied. Sarah Mitchell had cleaned out her bank accounts, her mutual funds, her retirement account,
and had withdrawn all of the money. And for every transaction, there's a photograph
or a video of the transaction. On every transaction, there was Sarah Mitchell disguised as her sister and using her sister's ID
to obtain monies from her sister's accounts. We had one of the top forensic handwriting experts
in the United States, Lloyd Cunningham, and confirmed that the signatures that Sarah Mitchell signed
in the name of Stevie Allman were forged signatures by Sarah Mitchell. - By assuming that Stevie's identity,
the checks would be coming in to Stevie, all the good things that Stevie did, Sarah was mooching off of that.
I mean, that's just total greed. [tense music] - [Richard] But Sarah didn't stop
at emptying Stevie's bank accounts, only 24 hours before the second fire, she received a visit from an insurance adjuster.
- I believe it was the next day that she burned the whole house down and that if she burned the whole house down,
she could also get the insurance proceeds for the home. And we think that that was the motive
for her burning the whole house down. You know, this case took so many bizarre twists
that it was crazy. [tense music] [dramatic music] [suspenseful music] - Police had been investigating the murder of Stevie Allman,
whose body had been dismembered and put in the chest freezer in her home. They discovered that her sister, Sarah Mitchell,
had stolen her identity and was stealing her money. Yet, Sarah continued to maintain her innocence.
Despite this, police had charged Sarah Mitchell with the murder of her sister, Stevie Allman.
But now, they had to build the case. Could the body give any more clues? The body had revealed that Stevie Allman was killed
by blows to the head, using an elongated instrument with a hard edge that caused hemorrhaging inside the skull.
And the body had also been dismembered. Dismemberment murders are quite rare. It also adds a huge psychological overlay
to the type of person who would commit that murder and then go on to cut up a human body.
I can show you where the body had been cut apart. First cut was through the knees
and the lower legs were missing. The second cut had been through the waist. And both arms had also been cut off.
I think the murderer stopped at this point because she got the body small enough
to fit into the freezer, which was only four foot long. The one thing in the investigator's favor
was that all parts of the body were present. Now, I know from personal experience
that dismembering a body can be really difficult task even for someone with specialist skills.
But in this case, evidence from the body showed that the person had struggled to cut through all of the joints, and it became clear
that she must have used a saw to cut through many of the bones. This must have been a terrible end.
[ominous music] [tense music] - The forensic pathologist took photos of the areas
where the cuts were made. You could tell by the smooth cuts that it was done with an electric saw because if it was a handheld saw,
you would have a more jagged cut. And then it was consistent with an electric Skil saw
because there was blood everywhere in the room. There was blood spatter on all four walls of the bedroom,
and that she was unable to clean all of the blood evidence. So rather than clean all the blood off of the walls,
she lit the room on fire. [fire crackling] There was no evidence of anyone breaking into the house.
Even when they did the arson investigation, it was determined that the fire bombs were consistent
with having been ignited from inside the house because there was no broken glass inside the house
indicating that any kind of fire bomb had been thrown through a window. [suspenseful music]
- [Richard] Investigators now believe Sarah staged the fire to conceal the murder and the burns on her body
were splash burns, which can happen to an arsonist when they set a fire. And they discovered she had stolen Stevie's identity
even before she had killed her. - We found evidence of her engaged in financial theft
from Stevie's accounts even before the murder and the fire bombing. [suspenseful music]
And we also did think that that was part of why she also killed her sister because there had been previous incidents of theft
from Stevie's accounts. And Stevie had also warned her that if there was a repeat incident
of her stealing from Stevie, that Stevie was going to throw her out of the house.
So I think that once Stevie Allman made that demand that Sarah would need to go out, and get a job,
and really take care of herself, I think began the breakdown of the relationship
between Sarah Mitchell and Stevie Allman. And it was at some time during that period
that Sarah Mitchell determined that she was going to kill Stevie Allman, and assume her identity, and take all of her assets.
[suspenseful music] [ominous music] And then we found several checks that had been fraudulently cashed on Stevie's account
prior to the murder. So that was where we eventually concluded that the motive for this whole case was financial gain.
[suspenseful music] - [Richard] In November 2000, Sarah Mitchell faced trial at Alameda County Superior Court
for the murder of her sister, Stevie Allman. [suspenseful music] - Sarah had two attorneys, and these guys were top-notch.
They were outstanding defense attorneys. But, you know, good representation doesn't change the fact
that the evidence of her guilt was overwhelming, despite it being only circumstantial evidence.
And so, you know, during the trial, you know, she would smile some days, and some days she wouldn't smile
because she's heard evidence of just the brutality of her crime, the cruelty of it.
Those were hard days even for her to deal with. [ominous music] [suspenseful music]
- [Richard] After a three-week trial, the jury delivered their verdict. [suspenseful music]
Sarah Mitchell was convicted of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of intentional murder
carried out for financial gain. The special circumstance clause made her eligible to die
by means of a lethal injection. [suspenseful music] - In America, the jury's verdict has to be unanimous,
so there are 12 jurors, if one juror votes not guilty, then the person is not convicted.
And in this case, it was all 12. All 12 people indicated that Sarah Mitchell is guilty of murder.
[tense music] I looked over at Sarah Mitchell and I saw absolute relief on her face.
[tense music] You would think if you've just been convicted of a special circumstance murder
that the person would be upset, instead what we saw on her face was absolute relief that the trial was over.
[tense music] And it was at that point, that both myself, and later, we found out that for many of the jurors,
that when they saw her expression after the verdict was read, everyone in the courtroom knew
that she was guilty. [tense music] - They were gonna give her the death penalty,
but one of her other sisters did not want to pursue the death penalty. They'd already suffered a big enough loss.
They asked the district attorney, Terry Wiley, to ask for a life sentence for her,
which is probably better in the end, make her suffer a little bit, you know? - [Richard] Sarah Mitchell was given a life sentence
without the possibility of parole. - The end of the day, Stevie's not coming back
and neither is Sarah. So I suppose justice was served. [tense music] [suspenseful music]
- Never had a case with a more depraved heart than Sarah Mitchell had. I mean, it's just, it was just a depraved heart.
[suspenseful music] - It was very complex because you have the two sisters that look so much alike.
[suspenseful music] Money, greed, jealousy, and evil. [suspenseful music] This woman was evil.
[suspenseful music] She wanted everything she couldn't have. [suspenseful music]
So she just thought, I guess she'd take it from her sister. - I mean, who could do that to a sister,
to a blood relative, to any person for that matter, but to a sister that you've grown up with your entire life,
I can't even imagine it at all. [somber music] - You know, this case was all about greed.
And one sister feeling entitled to be taken care of for the rest of her life by her sister.
And as soon as the sister indicated that she was not willing to do that, she murdered her.
[somber music] And she tried to take her money, and she tried to erase her sister
from the face of the Earth. And it just showed someone who had an absolute lack of character.
[somber music] I was glad that we were able to give the family some sense of justice,
because although they did not want her to get the death penalty, they did want her punished
for what she did to a very valuable member of their family. [somber music] - Sarah Mitchell had gone to extreme lengths
to try and hide the murder of her sister, Stevie Allman. She'd dismembered the body and hidden it in the freezer
at their home and then committed arson on the home twice to try and get rid of the body.
But bodies never lie. And by literally piecing Stevie back together, the truth behind her murder was revealed.
[dramatic music]

Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the case of Stevie Allman, killed for money by her sister Sarah Mitchell, who dismembered her body, set fire to her house and also stole her identity.

In The Truth About My Murder, Dr. Richard Shepherd showcases a state-of-the-art digital autopsy table featuring digitally scanned sample bodies to investigate a series of intriguing murders where the victims' bodies help reveal the truth behind horrific crimes.

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Brief Summary

Stevie Allman's murder by her sister Sarah reveals a dark tale of greed and deception in Oakland, California.

Key points

The Mysterious Firebombing. Stevie Allman claims drug dealers firebombed her home, leading to public support and donations.
The Discovery of a Dismembered Body. A dismembered body is found in the freezer of Stevie Allman's home, raising questions about her fate.
The Identity Crisis. Police uncover a bizarre case of mistaken identity involving a dismembered body and a living sister.
Murder Investigation Unfolds. Sarah Mitchell is charged with her sister's murder as investigators delve into their troubled relationship.
Trial and Conviction. After a lengthy trial, Sarah Mitchell is convicted of first-degree murder for financial gain.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The dead don't hide the truth and they never lie.

Dr. Richard Shepherd on forensic pathologists' role

0:33WatchFeb 6, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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