The Lake | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

This episode may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion. Nobody was there to witness uh the car
going into the water. Uh there was no surveillance video there at the lake. Um there was a boater who came upon
uh the accident um before the for first responders arrived. He tried to call 911
on his cell phone from his boat, but he's probably the closest person there was um to an eyewitness to what
happened. On September 2nd, 2003, a 911 call was placed from a pay phone at Clinton Lake
in Clinton, Illinois. We're hearing about it from Edith Brady Lunny, courts reporter for the Panagramraph newspaper
in Bloomington, Illinois. I went to the hospital which is um right there in the in the center of Clinton. Um and we
really didn't know at that point exactly what had happened. We knew that three children had drowned. Um but it was not
clear what the circumstances were uh surrounding the drownings. >> A 1997 Oldsmobile Cutless had been
recovered from the lake. The driver was 28-year-old Maurice Lrron. In the passenger seat was his girlfriend,
27-year-old Amanda Ham. They survived. In the back seat, Amanda Ham's three children, ages 6, 3, and 23 months, did
not. According to Maurice Lrone and Amanda Ham, they'd gone out to dinner and then gone to the lake. Maurice
parked close to the edge of the water on a sloped boat ramp with the nose of the
car facing the water. So he parked just a matter of a few feet from the water on
the boat ramp. The kids and the two adults got out and played for a while. After they were done playing, they all
got back in the car and instead [music] of backing the car up the boat ramp, it went into the water and sank. [music]
The next day, Dwit County Sheriff Roger Massie told a local newspaper, [music] "We don't want to blow this up into
something that it's not, but on the other side, we've got three children who are dead. None of us know exactly what
happened. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. [music] >> [music] >> Maurice Lrron and Amanda Ham said that
it was a horrible accident. [music] Maurice Lrron told police that when he put the car in reverse to back out and
took his foot off the [music] brake, the car rolled forward more than he had expected. He said that when he put his
foot [music] on the gas pedal, the tires began to spin. The car moved into the water [music] and began to float.
When the police pulled the car out of the water, it was indeed in reverse. [music] But once it was in the water, um
it's it went out about uh 30 ft into the water, took a nose dive [music] with the
hood of the car in about 8 ft of water, the rear bumper in about 4 ft of water. Here's Maurice Lrron at the scene of the
drownings 3 days later doing a walkthrough of the scene with county investigators.
>> Okay, Maurice, I'd like to point out something real quick. You're standing on
the same ramp today. You notice that the condition of the ramp is very dry. Is it
not? >> Yes, sir. >> Is it slippery at all, Maurice? >> So, it is. >> Okay. What takes place inside the car?
Do you recall if Amanda said anything? >> She said the car was the car's going in
the water. Something to that effect. I'm not sure exactly. >> I said you went for the window.
>> Yes, sir. >> Can you explain that to me? >> I went to roll down the window. Okay.
And cuz I knew if the car was sub submerged, the chances of of me getting out the
door to help get them out would have been slammed. Okay. >> So I figured with that window rolled
down, you know, I would have had a better chance. >> Okay. So you rolled down, sir. I was
just trying to figure out the best way to deal with this situation as possible. You know, cuz like I said,
I was I was panicking. I was terrified. >> Maurice Lrone later testified that he
was able to open his driver's side door and get out of the car. He testified that Amanda, a ham, appeared behind him
in the water. He said he was unable to open the back door or reach the children through the car window.
According to the owner's manual for the make and model of the car, the doors lock automatically when the ignition
switch is on and the car is in reverse. Amanda Ham got out of the water and called 911 from a nearby pay phone. On
the 911 recording, she's hysterical. The operator can't understand her. And then
Maurice Lrron appears on the recording and gives the operator their location. He asks repeatedly what other
information the 911 operator needs in order to find out where they are. You can hear that he's agitated, but he
seems to be trying to remain calm. At one point, he yells at the 911 operator because he doesn't seem to think she's
responding fast enough. And with a within about 4 minutes, the first responders were there. Um, and they were
able to pull the children out of the car within just a couple of minutes. Um, but
the kids were in bad shape when they got to the hospital. The two boys who were ages six and three died at the hospital.
Their little sister, who was just a little uh shy of her second birthday, uh, died the next day at another
hospital. One of the doctors at the hospital asked Amanda Ham what happened at the lake.
The doctor later testified that Amanda Ham said, "We were getting ready to leave and he got confused on which way.
He put it in the wrong gear and hit the gas and we sped into the lake. He got mixed up."
In the days and months that followed, Amanda Ham was interviewed by the police seven times without a lawyer present.
Most of the interviews were recorded. When an investigator asked Amanda why she did not save her children, she said
that she was trying to, but quote, "The water was coming in so fast. The best thing I could think of to do was call
911, and that's what I went and did." At times, investigators are shouting at her. They asked Amanda Ham when Maurice
Lrron first suggested that life would be easier without the children. He never has. She said he's never said anything
like that to me. Here's a clip from a September 10th, 2003 interview, one week after the death of her children. So man,
when you walk out of this place, everybody from the local Clinton newspaper to CNN has been covering this
case. Now you can leave her one way or the other. You're going to go out with this was a
cold, calculated, murderous fish that went out there with the intent to murder these three little kids because they
were excess baggage. because they weren't fixed. Listen to me, Amanda. Listen to me.
>> Because they're excess baggage. Okay? Cold, calculated, heartless, murderous [ __ ] That's one end of the spectrum
we're looking at. All right? Or we're talking about maybe the other end of the spectrum. We've got a young
mother. We've got a young mother in financial trouble. We've got a young mother with high stress trying to raise
three kids on her own. We've got a young mother with a living boyfriend and his boyfriend is very possessive. He's very
controlling and these kids are an obstacle to him and I think maybe took advantage of this mother and persuaded
her to do something that she didn't want to do. Oh my god. >> You cannot walk for your children.
>> And no matter how much financial situation I had, no matter how much baggage I've had for my past, I would
never hurt these kids. >> In a subsequent interview, Amanda Ham told investigators that Maurice Lrone
cheated on her and that he would sometimes get frustrated with her children. She began to agree with police
when they suggested that Maurice had wanted to drive into the water that night. She was admitted to a psychiatric
hospital. Police interviewed her at the hospital for 7 hours. Doctors had administered three psychotropic
medications. This interview was not recorded, but police testified that when they asked
her if she knew Maurice planned to harm the children, she nodded yes. When Maurice Lrron was interviewed by
police, he maintained that it had been an accident. In December of 2003, Maurice Lrron and
Amanda Ham were charged with nine counts of first-degree murder and each held on
$5 million bail. In announcing the charges, Sheriff Roger Massie said there were quote some similarities between
this case and a case 10 years earlier in South Carolina. In 1994, a woman named Susan Smith
called 911 and said that a man had stolen her car and driven off with her two young sons. She was all over the
news, pleading for the safe return of her children. But nine days later, she confessed that she'd driven to a lake,
parked on the boat ramp, got out of the car, and released the brake while her two sons slept in the back seat. The
prosecution's um theory was that um Amanda and Maurice wanted to eliminate her three children so that they could
move to St. Louis where she was going to go to school. and um life would be much
easier without these three pesky uh children around to take care of. The thing about that theory though that
really didn't make sense to the defense and to a lot of people was was this. Um Amanda and Maurice had an apartment that
was subsidized with public funds because she had three children. uh much of their support for uh their
finances and their utilities and things like uh rent and food came from the fact
that she had three children. And so it and their only vehicle that they had to go anywhere with was her car that was
put into the lake. And you put that together with the evidence that she had applied for housing in St. Louis um as
part of her plan to go to school and she was accepted into public housing and that application included herself and
the three children. Amanda Ham and Maurice Lrron were tried separately. Maurice Lron's trial
happened first. During jury selection for Maurice Lron's trial, potential jurors were asked if
they had any water traumas in their lives and how they felt about biracial relationships.
The prosecution argued this is not a who done it. This is a how case. The prosecutors told jurors that Amanda
Ham's children got in the way of Maurice Lron's life of quote smoking marijuana,
having sex, not working, and living off his girlfriend. Maurice Lrron's defense attorney told
the jury, "The guy who allegedly planned this incident is the same guy who got demoted because he could not operate a
cash register and he couldn't count change." His ex-girlfriends testified that he'd
been good with their children. One said he had the patience of 10,000 men. Amanda's mother testified that Maurice
and the children had been close. Maurice testified. He admitted to slapping Amanda once. The police were
called. He admitted that he cheated on her often. He testified that he wasn't in love with her, but that he stayed
because I didn't have anywhere else to go. He said he played pranks on Amanda's children. He once pretended to put one
of them in the oven. The oven was off. He said that night at the lake, I was playing around with the kids, acting as
if I was going to drive into the water, and that's how I ended up on the boat ramp.
Did you ever hit the brake as the car was going into the water? His lawyer asked. Maurice Lrone said he did not. I
panicked, he said. I can't tell you why. I didn't. I just didn't. The judge in that case would not allow
the jury to consider involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense. So in
other words, for that jury, they had one option, murder or nothing. So they convicted him of murder and the judge
immediately [music] sentenced him to life in prison. Um because uh that's the law in Illinois. he had killed um more
than uh one person. So it it he is serving a life sentence. [music] After the verdict, one of the jurors
told reporters, [music] "We didn't believe there was intent, but he was put in a situation that got out of hand and
didn't save them." And what about Amanda? And then uh later that same year in 2006, [music] she has
her own murder trial in yet another county. But in that case, the judge [music] allowed the jury to consider child
endangerment charges, which is of course a far less serious uh criminal offense.
[music] Uh the jury deliberated over about 3 days and the jury took that option and convicted her of child
endangerment and she was uh incarcerated about 5 [music] years. >> Hello. >> Hi. This is Phoebe Judge calling you.
>> Is that an alias or a stage name or are you really a Phoebe? >> And I'm really a judge too. I My real
name is Phoebe Judge. >> Okay. Well, I'll treat you with uh difference and respect then.
>> Well, I'll do the same to you. Um, could we just start with you introducing yourself?
>> Um, my name is Steve Skelton. I'm an attorney in Bloomington, Illinois, uh, who has specialized in criminal defense
for uh, roughly 40 years at this point in time. And I represented uh, Amanda Ham at a murder trial that took place
several years ago here in central Illinois. We were not able to reach the lead prosecutor, but Steve Skelton remembers
that the prosecution emphasized how Amanda Ham reacted after learning her children were dead.
>> The the 600 lb gorilla in the room was we've got three dead children. Uh and even though my client uh was profoundly
affected by it, uh she according to the state did not react in the way that one quote unquote should react uh when
confronted with the stark reality of the fact that her three kids were dead. >> What's she like?
>> She she's a a nice person. Uh she's not overly bright. She's not uh well educated.
Um she's um there's nothing outstanding about her. I mean, she is about a million miles from
being an evil person. Um, I mean, it's just u just a regular run-of-the-mill um [clears throat]
[snorts] someone who who doesn't have a great employment history. I mean, she works
hard uh and trying to make the best of her situation. >> Amanda Ham declined to speak with us for
the story. Do I think she bears any culpability um either morally or legally for the deaths of her child children?
Excuse me. No, absolutely not. 300%. >> Why was Maurice convicted and not she of of murder, do
you think? >> [sighs] >> I I I don't enjoy uh saying that uh the race and the background of a defendant uh comes into
play. But uh based on my knowledge of his trial uh and you know the equivalency of the evidence that was
presented at both of the trials uh and I have to draw the conclusion that the fact that he was an undermployed or
unemployed young black man uh who uh was dating a white woman and living with her
three white children. uh played at least to some degree a role in the process that led to his conviction of murder.
>> What was your defense strategy? >> Uh to try to explain uh the totality of the circumstances
leading up to uh her children's deaths uh in a reasonable and informed way. uh rather than just
jumping to the conclusion that since three young children were dead that somebody necessarily has to be
criminally responsible for that. >> In both trials, there was a lot of confusion about whether Maurice and
Amanda's clothes were wet or dry when the first responders arrived at the lake. Witnesses testified to both. A
doctor at the hospital testified that Amanda's hair was dry. A first responder testified that Amanda's sweatpants were
so wet that they were falling down. Someone else testified that Amanda was wearing a skirt. In his closing
argument, prosecutor Roger Simpson told the jury that they could learn about Amanda's priorities in life just by
looking at her first name. He said the first four letters of her name are a man.
At her sentencing hearing, she read a statement. I regret that I formed a relationship with Maurice Lrone, not
because he was an evil person, but because he was immature, selfish, and unwilling to be a responsible partner.
And she pledged not to make similar mistakes in future relationships. After serving nearly 5 years for child
endangerment, Amanda Ham was released from prison on September 9th, 2008. She moved to Chicago and um she um wanted to
start her life over there. She got married to a man named uh Leo Wear and they decided to have uh more children.
She changed her name to Amanda Wear. She has said, "What happened in 2003 is something I'll never get over, but I
have to try to move forward. and having a home, a husband and a family is the biggest part of that.
She and Leo Wear had a daughter and two years later a second daughter. [music] On February 28th, 2014, she went to
Present St. Joseph Hospital to deliver [music] her third child, a son. The hospital staff comes in, approaches her
and says, "Are you Amanda Ham?" [music] She tells them yes, she is. They then place a hotline call [music]
to child welfare people and tell them Amanda Ham is in the hospital [music] and she has children.
>> [music] >> The next day, members of the Illinois DCFS, Department of Children and Family
Services, appeared at the hospital [music] and began to ask questions about the 2003 drowning. And while they're
having that conversation, that very same day, another staff person is going to [music]
the war's uh home, and Leo is there with one of the girls. The other girl is out
[music] with her maternal grandmother at an outing. And when they return to the home, that's when the girls are taken.
[music] So, their baby brother is just one day old when the girls are taken. Amanda isn't allowed to see the baby for
several days after that. [music] Um, because DCFS also takes custody of the baby.
>> [music] >> The basis for taking uh the children was the 2003 drowning case [snorts] when um
Amanda was convicted of child endangerment. Uh it's called uh anticipatory neglect. Um we we may not
have a complaint against you today. In other words, but because of what you've done in the past, we're going to
anticipate and decide whether or not you might be a future danger to your children.
>> I'm limited in what I can say. But yeah, that's what brought the case in. When Amanda and Leo Wear's children were
taken into state custody in February of 2014, Carol Casey was appointed to be the children's attorney. She's the
attorney supervisor at the Cook County Public Guardians office. What does the public guardian's office do? We have a
number of different divisions, but I'm in the juvenile division and we function as attorney and guardian adidum for all
the children, pretty much all the children involved in child protection cases. We currently represent over 6,000
children. >> What are the conditions for the state to intervene in this anticipatory neglect
scenario? If there's been a finding, generally if there's been a finding of a abuse or
neglect as to another child, the concept is is that you don't have to wait for the second child to be hurt.
So, um sometimes you can have, you know, all the kids in the same environment. One
kid is hurt and the other kids aren't hurt. Generally, you're going to say, "Well, we're not going to take the risk
with those with those other children." Right? But then take it out to the next level which is there is a child who is
then born after the experience in that home. And so the question becomes is like okay
are the parents able to care for the kid safely? The issue was not the immediate health
and well-being of the wearer children but rather was Amanda herself a danger. Did the events of 2003 constitute
grounds for anticipatory neglect? >> The one thing that I think really um is important [music]
in to remember in this case is uh number one they there were no allegations of abuse or neglect regarding these three
children who were born to Amanda and Leah [music] wear. Uh the children were doing uh really uh really thriving with
their two parents in their apartment there. The Wear children were placed in the care of Leo Wear's sister. In
September 2015, Amanda and Leo Wear went to court to ask for their kids back. So
the judge uh said initially, we just want to make sure that the children are safe and that you have um
basically that you have healed from that experience. That's that's what we're looking to do here. And that that was
the first uh sort of commentary that the judge had in this. But as the case moved
forward, the state was um it was obvious the state was going to be very very aggressive in this. And the first thing
they did was order all of the court documents from the Dwit County Courthouse. Their
plan was to try to show the judge that because she was convicted of the child endangerment that she should not be
allowed to care for her three new children. Law enforcement involved in the 2003
drowning were brought to Chicago to testify. The Chicago Tribune reported that it was
quote mostly a repreeze of Ham's 2006 murder trial as investigators, some long retired, recounted the horrific events
of that day in September 2003. The state also presented Leo Wear's criminal record, felony convictions in
the 80s and 90s for delivery of a controlled substance and theft. They introduced Amanda Wear's history
with drugs and alcohol and presented evidence that she had called the police in 2012 because Leah Wearer hit her. In
2013, she took out an order of protection against him. In a written statement, she said, "He's been abusive
in the past, and I know what he's capable of doing to me." She dropped the petition 2 weeks later.
The assistant state's attorney said she has a pattern of choosing relationships that are abusive in different ways.
Leah Wer told reporters, "We raised my kids for 3 years before they decided it was a problem. We all make bad decisions
in life. This is about moving on." [music] Amanda and Leo Wear were instructed by
the judge to go to counseling. Amanda to drug and alcohol counseling [music] and
Leo to domestic violence courses before the case was reviewed again. Leo and Amanda went back to court frequently to
have the case reviewed. For the most part, they did complete the court's requirements, but there were slip ups.
Leo failed a drug test. But as time passed, it seemed that what mattered most to [music] the judge was what
happened in 2003. The judge said that Amanda was quote dishonest with herself and cut off
emotionally from [music] the deaths of her children. He said that she had quote conned her therapist. The judge said in
his order that he wanted most of all for Amanda to admit that she had played a role in the murder of her children. and
that she was not uh willing to do because she claims her innocence of murder and she claims Maurice's [music]
innocence of murder. The judge said Mrs. Wear has put on blinders to that event [music]
in order to survive her everyday life and go on. That may serve her well as an individual, but the court's focus
[music] is on the minors in this case, their well-being, their survival. This court will not put on blinders.
Here's Carol Casey. >> My job isn't to think about the parents. Um, this is a little Carol on life, but I
think you have to recognize the dignity of everybody who comes into the court. Not simply being polite, but recognizing
that they're human beings with their own challenges. And it's easy to disregard the people
around you. um to say, "Oh, that's just somebody who whose kids ended up dead because of what
they did." Um but that's my client's parent. Um my clients look in the mirror and
they see at some point, as you would do, as I do, their parents, you know, I still hear words that my father say
coming out of my mouth. You can't disregard that person. It the process falls to heck and it's just not good and
it's not healthy. That having been said, um, I think recognizing that you may be causing a
person pain doesn't mean that you not do what you have to do for the benefit of your of of my child client, but it's
important to recognize that they have huge challenges and their life hasn't been easy and this is hard.
>> [music] >> Edith Brady Loney has been covering this case since that first night nearly 16
[music] years ago. For her, what continues to be so interesting about this story is that Amanda Wear was
essentially tried [music] twice. Once in criminal court and once in a child welfare court. She [music] wonders
whether Leo and Amanda Wear's children are better off now than [music] they were when they were living with their
parents. These were not two perfect [music] people, but you know what is our standard for allowing people to keep and
to and to raise their children. In February of 2018, [music] the Wear's returned to court and the judge ruled
that Leo Wear's sister would be [music] the children's permanent legal guardian.
Amanda and Leo Wear have [music] separated. They visit their children often. Leo has been granted unsupervised
visits, but Amanda's [music] visits must be supervised at all times. [music] [music]
Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and me. [music] Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. audio mix by Rob Buyers.
Special thanks to Susanna Robertson. [music] Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of
Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com [music] or on Facebook and Twitter
@criminal show. If you'd like to learn more about the case, [music] Edith Brady Lani has written a book
along with Steve Vogle. It's called [music] The Unforgiven. Criminal is recorded in the studios of
North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from [music] PRX, a collection of the best
podcasts around. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal [music] >> Radiotopia [music]
from PRX.

Amanda Hamm and her boyfriend Maurice LaGrone drove to Clinton Lake one night in 2003. The next day, DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey told a local newspaper, “We don’t want to blow this up into something that it’s not. But on the other side, we’ve got three children who are dead. None of us know exactly what happened.”

If you’d like to learn more about the case, Edith Brady Lunny has written a book, along with Steve Vogel, called The Unforgiven (https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-unforgiven).

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 117 originally published June 21, 2019. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-117-the-lake-6-21-2019/

Music in this episode: “Junaluska Alternate Low Melody” by Blue Dot Sessions “Dark Sky” by Blue Dot Sessions “Cabin Porch” by Blue Dot Sessions “Clouds at Castor Ridge” by Blue Dot Sessions “Slow Casino” by Blue Dot Sessions “Keller Branch” by Blue Dot Sessions

Brief Summary

The episode recounts the drowning of three children in a car accident and the subsequent trials of their mother and her boyfriend.

Key points

Tragic Drowning Incident. Three children drowned after a car rolled into a lake, leading to a complex investigation.
Murder Charges Filed. Amanda Ham and Maurice Lrron face nine counts of first-degree murder following the drownings.
Amanda's Life After Conviction. After serving time for child endangerment, Amanda Ham starts anew with a family.
Leah Wear's Reflection. Leah Wear discusses the challenges of parenting and moving forward after mistakes.
Court's Requirements. Amanda and Leo Wear were instructed to complete counseling before regaining custody of their children.
The Judge's Focus. The judge emphasizes the importance of the children's well-being over parental issues.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The best thing I could think of to do was call 911.

Amanda Ham's response during the investigation.

7:23WatchJun 16, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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