The Murder of Aliza Sherman /// Part 3 /// 169 | Forensic Files

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[Music] foreign [Music] well where we're at right now obviously we're uh two years from the from the
date of the incident uh the case has been actively being investigated by the division of police and a couple months
ago we turned our investigation over to the prosecutor's office and uh they have
convened a grand jury and they have been bringing people into the grand jury and
taking testimony from from people in the grand jury as far as what that testimony
is as everyone knows that's that's secret we don't know what that is but there is no one person or persons that
we're actually looking at we're just trying to gather as much information as we can
well from from an investigative process I feel like we're a little closer because
um you know before we didn't have uh enough where we didn't uh the prosecutors didn't feel we had enough to
even convene a grand jury so yeah I do feel like that we are a little bit closer but you know as you know we're
you know have to follow the the letter of the law and provide everybody their uh their constitutional rights but yeah
I do uh I'm optimistic that we are getting closer and how does the um Titans attorney
well I don't you know that those are those are three separate uh events that took place right now it really has
nothing to do with this but you know obviously she was down here to meet him so you know that's something that we
definitely have to look at and something that we have looked at but as far as him
being indicted those are three separate issues in three different counties that he's going to answer for
[Music] Elisa Sherman was stabbed outside her lawyer's office in Cleveland Ohio in
March 2013 just two days before her divorce trial was scheduled to begin it starts with a chilling call to 9-1-1
after a man heard elise's screams and rushed to her Aid Elisa Sherman and mother of four was in the alleyway of an
office building bleeding from 11 stab wounds it was Kenny Shepard who ran to her
he said she was having trouble standing she fell to the ground Kenny did everything he could to try to help her
Eliza who was just 53 years old died in a hospital emergency room she had her purse with her when she was
found so police rule out robbery as motive The Savage attack left her best friend Jan lash in shock Jan spoke with
Eliza just an hour before she was stabbed to death Jan told reporters that they had their usual conversation adding
Eliza was a little anxious because she was going to court soon that's why Eliza Sherman went downtown
on that Sunday she was there to visit her divorce lawyer Jan lash told reporters that she offered to go with
her but Eliza said no thanks Jan lash and some of elise's family say Elisa Sherman wanted to change attorneys
but it was far too late in her case the meeting that was scheduled for that Sunday at her attorney Gregory Moore's
request well it now looks like that meeting may have never have happened early in this case it was suspected that
Eliza was killed after leaving Moore's office but now it appears she was walking to possibly enter the building
not exit the building we will get into that a little bit more later what was apparent very early on in this
investigation was that Elisa Sherman's murder revealed a family torn apart she and her husband Samford Sherman a
retired ophthalmologist was facing a contentious divorce proceedings that were going to take place that week
scheduled to start just two days after her death the investigation turned up a surveillance video from a nearby parking
garage showing a person fleeing the scene of Eliza's murder covered nearly head to toe in dark colored clothing
the video does not tell us much leaving only speculation as to the person's race
and gender police searched for a murder weapon at the scene and on the rooftops of nearby
buildings and turned up nothing they searched the Sherman residence for knives but none of them matched the
murder weapon investigators interviewed employees in the floors above the walkway where she was killed they also
questioned attorney Gregory Moore and members of the Sherman family and still did not have evidence
to put together a good suspect in this case now just a few weeks after the murder the justice for Eliza movement
began this was started by Elisa's daughter that she was so close to Jennifer they teamed up with the
Cuyahoga County Crime Stoppers to offer a 25 000 reward for information in the case and promoted it on a billboard near
East 14th Street and Carnegie Avenue in July Jennifer gathered more than 100 women for a self-defense class at the
Beachwood Community Center then one month later in hopes that someone would come forward with information The Crime
Stoppers reward was increased to fifty thousand dollars Jennifer also replaced her father as an executor of Eliza
Sherman's estate Jennifer was very adamant about finding out whoever was responsible for her mother's murder and
making sure that everything and I do mean everything would come to light now I want everyone to return their seats to
a fully upright position because it's about to get Harry okay long hair don't care so two months after the first
anniversary of elise's death Jennifer Sherman filed a civil suit against her father in it she sought to recover more
than two million dollars Sanford allegedly funneled out of a joint bank account that he held with Elisa while
she was still alive Jennifer's civil suit claimed that Samford conspired with five unnamed
individuals to hide more than two million dollars from Eliza by moving it from their joint bank account into one
in Elisa's name according to the court records this was a Merrill Lynch account that was in question and this was
discovered by Elisa after she hired forensic accountant Jeffrey Firestone two months just two months before she
was killed right so how this works uh being a former Banker is normally when you're going through a divorce if you
have money or some wealth then what they do is they hire basically a detective if you will to go through
financial chains to see you know what accounts they have because when you go to get the divorce you're
going to say well let's just split up our accounts well everything that you earn during that wedding is then in
debate if you don't have a prenup so basically what they found out was he was taking
you know millions of dollars but what was weird here was he was still put in an account with her name on it
yeah so there she and just with her name being on it she's entitled to that money
yeah and and it's it's a little crazy that's why we'll have to get into it but you're exactly right that's just what
you do you cannot always trust everyone to come to the Forefront and say look lay everything on the table
this is what I have this is what you have this is what we have right let's just divvy it up 50 50. it doesn't work
that way sometimes people have accounts and they have funds and things that even
their significant other who's supposed to be the closest one to them may not be aware of well if they were that close
they'd probably want to be getting a divorce anyways so well according to the lawsuit Eliza's claim was that she was
not aware of this account at any time until it was discovered by the forensic accountant she was unaware of this
account when it was opened in her name back in 2000 and according to emails she sent to her attorney Gregory Moore Eliza
was also unaware of having ever signed a power of attorney this power of attorney
that was signed regarding this account gave Samford control over the funds and the account itself he might have had an
inside person and if he had an inside person then they can basically quickly create whatever accounts they want and
be all fraudulent just I mean just to let you know how it would work I mean you have to you can't just go into a
bank and open up account in somebody else's name you have to have their ID their information their signature uh
they have to be present most of the time um so he had to know somebody on the inside
okay I know this episode is titled suspects and we are talking about forensic accountants bank accounts and
power of attorneys but this account just this one account that was discovered just two months before Elisa's Murder In
Cold Blood on the cold streets of Cleveland I mean we are talking a large sum of money I'm sure not quite two
million dollars after everything is moved around and transfer fees and penalties and all of that stuff well
think about it we've had so many cases where you know the motive has been money but that could be as little as a
thousand dollars or you know a couple hundred thousands of dollars in a life insurance or something but here we
have at least one uh you know not only are they dividing up all the money but on top of that we have this extra
fun of 2 million you don't think 2 million is enough reason I mean he's already being
nefarious by not even telling her about the count anyways well Dr Evil threatened a lot of
horrible things for just one million dollars so let's keep in mind here this is just one account and one that I must
say I must say this allegedly found but who knows there could be more of these accounts right of course this leads to
motive a motive for Samford to have his wife killed if their divorce proceedings
don't go to court does this account come to light you know is anyone else aware of this account in the Sherman family
well right but we have the one account that's two million dollars that's great and all but you have motive to begin
with two days after her murder what was going to happen the divorce proceeding and and
like the judge said we're not going to have any more continuance this is going forward we're not going to waste any
more time so half your stuff is going to be and it's such a weird situation to go
through to have a court tell you what is yours and what is hers you know what I mean yeah and that's
what's going to happen to him and and let if she's alive that's what's happening in two days so that that's
motive by itself on top of that you gotta account that's two million dollars well in two million dollars that is a
lot of late night tacos my friends that's a lot of cheddar okay but but to be fair we should at least present the
other side of the coin right so Samford has always stated in regards to this account that
has been called into question that one he told Elisa about this account that that when he had explained it to her she
had fully a full understanding of that account and two that account was used mostly for family expenses
everyone anyone in this case that I could find statements from and this included persons that sided with Samford
and liked him and also those that did not they all say it was the understanding that Samford was primarily
responsible for paying the family's bills right so Samford says this account paid the family's household bills
and we're talking about that you know that we spoke of that almost 4 900 square foot home I'm sure that that really nice
home came with a really nice mortgage right and the account according to Samford was also used for credit cards
and tuition payments as well yeah which you have some kids in college so those are going to be big payments
emotions filed in the court this motion contended that these funds from this account were not used for family
purposes but in fact they were used for strippers maybe another lover trips and a defamation suit that Elisa
never knew about okay love a lover okay so we need some detail here right yeah because on one side he's
saying hey I'm I'm using this for my kids college but you know but he's also using this to look at some titties well
out comes the sleazy stuff all right let's get easy okay so there is believed to have been a trip taken and I have a
little I have a little I call this into question a little bit well we kind of talked about it yesterday he would take
these trips to New York and Florida yeah well okay so this is what the court documents State there was a trip that
was taken to New York City sometime between 2007 and 2009. that seems a little random to me but anyway Sanford
Sherman's there's a trip taking it sometime two or three year window yeah in these 24 months he took a trip this
uh that Samford Sherman paid for I guess using this account on this trip it's thought that he and a friend
um they spend the quote-unquote well well well no well we haven't got to the first quote unquote yeah this was an
actual real friend okay it's thought that he and one of his friends spent several days with a woman friend that
Samford had become more than friends with regarding wait so him and his friend were hanging out with a lady friend
correct double dick and from my understanding it's not that kind of party anyway on this trip uh they spent
several days or he spent several days with a woman that uh supposedly he had become more than friends with anyway
regarding the defamation suit this involves Samford making sexual advances toward an exotic dancer and then
threatening to kill her and her father okay okay wait so he makes sexual advances towards a
stripper and those go south and then he threatens to kill her and her father correct once I have this what does he
have to do with anything do we know no we don't have details about this exact stuff okay
um it's okay here's really what it sounds like to me is that there's some evidence to
support some of these claims my guess is that there's not enough evidence to be 100 sure that these things actually
happened so while I bet you that he was actually sued by this person and in within the suit the defamation lawsuit
there was probably a complaint filed by this individual that sued him so what I'm guessing is the information that
that's being presented in these depositions in court proceedings is information taken from that complaint
not not the outcome of right where he was able to defend himself and say I only threatened to kill you not your
father your father's a great guy um and other golf every week and then the thing regarding the trip to New York
City like you said he took lots of trips to Florida and to New York City he he went to Florida because they had
property there right okay so this New York City trip when you when you're going to accuse me let's say of taking
some strange trip with a woman that I'm not supposed to be involved with and you
put a date on it that it happened sometime between 2007 and 2009 my guess is what took place is this
there was a friend he had a friend and I think the friend's name first name was Larry all right let's go with Larry okay
Larry he had a friend named Larry that apparently his wife um not Larry's wife Sanford's wife Elisa
she was not comfortable with Samford being friends with this guy and my guess is that when he was out partying with
Larry they probably got in trouble together from time to time right right everybody has that one friend right well
at some point in their relationship Sanford must have agreed to not hang out with Larry anymore right no more Lair
Bear right well I what I'm guessing took place was that he probably took several
trips to New York City during the course of 2007 2008 and 2009. many of these trips were taken with this friend Larry
that he's not supposed to be hanging out with I'm guessing that they have some information that he was hanging out with
this woman on one or more of these trips to New York City I guess he met this woman in Vero Beach Florida
so here's here's what my thoughts are on this I'm guessing that Sanford took a lot of
trips with his buddy Larry to New York City during the course of those three years you know could be half a dozen
could be a dozen um I'm I'm guessing that he went there under the guise that he's going to be
hanging out with his friend right his friend was probably in New York City during those occasions so it
kind of backs up that information however he's actually going there to hang out with this woman on at least one
of those occasions according to these documents right but so but just because you're having an
affair or doing some sleazy stuff doesn't mean you're a murderer well yeah of course and and that's why you know
this stuff doesn't really Point toward motive for me however it points towards possible and I'm talking about the
defamation lawsuit possible violent Behavior or threatening behavior at the least right but with that
with that lawsuit though you have to take into account that it's a it's a stripper right so let's hypothetically
they're hanging out he's just a customer oh you know that's fine but then she finds out he has some money and she's
using this as a way to get money I mean that's very possible again possible violent Behavior or possible
threatening behavior just after the two-year anniversary of Eliza's murder the police when speaking to the media
reiterated that they believed early on and still believe that this attack this stabbing death was committed by someone
that knew Eliza and wanted her dead they also added some new information following this statement adding that
they have spoke with many people regarding this unsolved case in some people and these are people who are not
cooperating let's be clear that the police are on record as stating these people are people that knew Eliza so
they have people that know Elisa they suspect someone that knew her killed her and now they have people within that
Circle that are not cooperating with the police they of course do not name this person or I should say persons because
the Curious Thing here to me is they used the word people rather than we have a person that's not cooperating so more
than one right what does this mean Captain what do you think this means I mean who knows I mean but the thing is
it's like we've seen this at like like on her memorial service we've seen her son's State my father had nothing to do
with this so if you have the cops knocking on your door trying to pin this on your father and
you don't believe that your father is capable of this or capable of hiring somebody to kill her then you're not
going to cooperate I get that so it could be as simple as that um you know but again the police aren't
releasing who they are so it's really hard to speculate on any of that it's very possible that one of the people
that they were talking about was in fact Samford himself because while police acknowledge that they spoke with Samford
early in the investigation later they were reported as having said they interviewed Samford Sherman but then he
hired a prominent defense attorney and now he's not talking with the detectives and here here's the thing that happens
all the time and it's almost uh it's sickening almost how much it happens it's at the
beginning of the case this person was cooperating and they gave you all this information at some point once you give
the police as much information as you can and then you realize that you're possibly a suspect but you already gave
all your information why wouldn't you lawyer up you know what I mean like we've seen this in so many cases and it
and it's like and I wonder what the demeanor of the cops are in that room does it become does it turn from
questioning to interrogation and if it does how many times have we seen false confessions yeah you know so at some
point you know um this guy is not a dumb guy if if they're coming at you know again he was
cooperating I think that's a key thing that people Miss is well he's not cooperating now
so what he did before and he has a lawyer so now the cops just in law enforcement just have to go through the
certain chains to talk to him he's still willing to talk but he has a lawyer so it's his counsel he is someone to help
him decipher what it is that the police and the interrogators the investigators are
attempting to do like you said we've seen setups in the past um the thing here is it's exactly what
you said if if they turn up the heat in the frying pan every one of us want to jump out of that frying pan right so I
think it's possible that Samford looks like a good suspect here and I I understand why people think he should be
a good suspect of course the husband's always the person that you look at first and then when you find out later he's
not cooperating that makes you question it not me personally but it makes you question it maybe a little more the
money it would be the motive here for me yeah definitely definitely the motive and then he has some sleazy behavior and
and kind of some suspicious behavior that he's keeping secrets so what else is he hiding I mean he might be hiding
uh a very vicious person that that the public hasn't really seen foreign [Music]
cheers mates happy holidays to everybody okay there is another person that the police's statement of persons not
cooperating May pertain to and oddly enough this is elise's attorney Gregory Moore this seems to be a very similar
situation to the husband's situation Moore spoke with the police he was interviewed the day after her murder he
cooperated with the police on that day he answered their questions he told the police he was in his office at the time
of the attack he was waiting for their scheduled appointment they were going to go over everything before the trial
proceedings were to begin now let's remind ourselves of a couple of things here the trial proceedings were to take place
from my understanding two days later on that Tuesday I should point out here that a few newspaper accounts and
Publications state that the trial proceedings were actually scheduled for the next day to start that Monday
morning in the way it would make sense why they would meet on a Sunday correct and in
the wake of someone's death a day's difference in the account seems to me like a trivial detail but
I just wanted to point that out in case we are wrong and someone is screaming at
their iPhone or their computer right now we chose to report Tuesday as the start
of the trial two days later as this is what is more commonly reported the most important thing here
but it's also commonly reported that she was leaving the meeting yes and she wasn't she was entering the
meeting but that is corrected in later uh statements and later newspaper accounts the important thing here about
what this is is is being reported is that the judge in this case in the divorce case has ordered that the
proceedings move forward that there were to be no more continuances in this case
and that's because her lawyer kept on it wasn't ready ever so they had to keep pushing the date back and the date back
yeah and and at some point Gregory Moore is no longer interested in talking with
police regarding the murder of his former client Elisa and this could be why because Gregory Moore lands himself
in some pretty hot water he gets indicted facing charges in a July 2012 bomb threat
that's wow I know I know people are like why are you laughing at that um well because it's weird well because
he's such an idiot that basically what would happen is he wouldn't be ready for the case he wouldn't be ready for the
trial so what would he do he'd call in bomb threats yeah that's right so not just once right yes multiple times he
called in the old bomb threat typically adults do not commit this sort of crime usually we would be talking about an
idiot teenage boy calling in one of these to get some laughs from his nitwit friends yeah or he'd you know yeah he's
not ready for a test or something yeah or he has to climb the rope and gym class where now the boys are showering
and so he he doesn't want to take showers with the boys so he calls him the bomb threat well yeah here we have a
man in his early 40s and an upper level Attorney At what maybe not all but a good many would consider a successful
Law Firm being indicted for this sort of thing the details of this thing are pretty simple Moore called in three he
he called in three bomb threats to the first one well I'm sorry not the first one but the last one he called in bomb
threats to three Domestic Relations Court employees at the Cuyahoga County Court this being in July of 2012. in
this the caller stated that a bomb was set and was about to explode in a specific courtroom the crazy thing here
was later later as you said he's charged with two more of these same offenses allegedly he called in bomb threats to a
guy uh Gallego County courthouse and a Lake County Courthouse the first was in January of 2012 the second in May of
2012 and the last one was that one in July of 2012. so the courtrooms were evacuated no explosives were found of
course but now get this all of the courtrooms receiving these threats was just like you said Gregory
Moore was due to appear in those courtrooms with clients on those particular days right and here's what I
wonder captain if he did this once and he got away with it is this the same thought as what we
discussed regarding the 9-1-1 calls that were going on at the Sherman House and what I mean by that is once you've
crossed that threshold does it just make it that much easier to do it again and again does this become this like it
seems like it became his go-to like oh I'm no longer I'm not prepared to to enter this court case my job could be on
the line my my license to practice law could be on the line I'm going to I'm going to call on a bomb
threat oops it worked once that's what I do from now on oops it worked oops it worked
um well I say I say oops it worked because this is destructive Behavior this is destructive Behavior yeah
this is the definition of destructive Behavior now this guy is incompetent you know it'd be it'd be like me you know
hey I'm not prepared to talk about the case today so uh let me call a bomb threat into the garage that's what it
was I mean this guy was somehow you know he got over his head you know he he didn't do
the work and and and and we saw this you know um think about uh Lisa's statements saying that she was
calling the attorney and he wasn't calling her back and just little things like that
he he had to find a way out now we have this case where we're going to trial and this is a
pretty big divorce process I mean this is a wealthy family and there's a lot of twists and turns
here we have this separate account that you know she claimed she didn't know anything about he needed to be ready
whether it's on that Monday or that Tuesday he needed to be ready so basically what we're getting at is that
would be his motive because if she is injured or obviously dead then there is no hearing right they
can't proceed and the funny sorry I I keep laughing because when I think about this I'm like well the court system
already has something in place for this particular setup when you're not prepared and you need more time it's
called you file a motion for continuance right but but he had already done that so many times that this was to the point
where the judge is like nope there will be no more continuances we have to proceed with this and I'm sure that's
what took place that's Elisa's case I'm sure that's what took place in these other cases as well and he panics
mm-hmm with the old go-to bomb threat right and I think maybe um he knew it wouldn't work in this case
maybe you know if he's responsible then that I I'm guessing that's what his thinking was because the whole bomb
threat uh trick is not going to work this time well I want to shift gears here just for
a little bit okay because we have a lot of suspicious Behavior here um we have the obvious motive making
Elisa's husband Samford a good suspect we have some very very odd behavior uh check that very times three odd behavior
criminal behavior from elise's attorney Gregory Moore plus because his appointment with her would have
it he would have been there or been in that area at the time also making him a very good suspect but I also wonder
who were those five unnamed persons in Jennifer Sherman's lawsuit the five unnamed persons that conspired with
Samford to set up that secret account that ended up worth two million dollars you know I wonder
who that is so there's so much to think about and and I and we have to jump back
to that lawsuit itself because there's also some very interesting information that will come
out as a matter of depositions and testimony in that lawsuit brought forth by Jennifer Sherman against her father
now we talked about the account obviously the account was in Elisa's name however
there was a power of attorney that gave Samford control of the account and of course access to the funds Eliza had
said she never signed the power of attorney in fact she added why would she why would she sign this power of
attorney Samford claimed that Eliza had in fact signed the power of attorney he claimed this in his depositions now
through the course of this in these proceedings we have three witnesses that will give statements regarding that
specific power of attorney these are three names on that specific document other than elise's name and Sanford's
name the first was an employee of samford's the next was a Merrill Lynch employee
signed as a witness and the last was the notary who was a different employee of Merrill Lynch none of these three
persons could recall if Eliza was actually present during any of the processes of signing that document
witnessing or notarizing that document none of them could recall if she was actually there well right first of all
if you're the witness and she's not there then you don't sign it second of all if you're the notary that's your job
your job is to witness the signature and so you have the you have at least two people that basically are like well I
don't know what happened I don't remember you didn't do your job right and I I mean I understand that these
these Court proceedings are taking place 17 years after the fact but like you said if these people are doing their job
it's a very simple answer the answer is yet it was 17 years ago however I can tell you that of course
she was there because as a witness and I've witnessed many of these documents and signed my name to it I have never
signed my name when a person has not been present right I have never notarized a document when the when
assigning individual when a signee was not present for me to notarize that that that document furthermore a forensic
document examiner hired by Jennifer Sherman corroborated her claim that it was highly likely that the signature on
the power of attorney did not match samples of Elisa's handwriting so according to the forensic accountant
his reports state that remember some of this money was moved it was eventually moved from this account of Eliza's to
Sanford's individual accounts and he could do this because of that power of attorney well according to the
forensic accountants reports eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars in Damages were incurred by the
transferring of funds from elise's account into samford's individual account some other strange stuff and
some other possibly incriminating things to look at regarding Samford are the court papers in connection with the
daughter's civil suit over her mother's estate show Eliza wrote to a family friend stating I am really afraid he is
going to have me killed obviously referring to Sanford stating I am afraid of him and what he will do
Jennifer also claims that she the daughter lives in fear of her father and is even afraid to go to a deposition
because she may experience physical harm on her way to or from the deposition right I
mean that's you know because she's speculating that maybe her father had something to do with the death of her
mother and we saw what happened there Samford testified that from roughly 2006 to 2010 he had been having an affair
with a woman who lived in New York and Florida and that he had made several trips to visit her other testimony by
some of samford's closest Friends Revealed that Samford had been at the end of his rope and was emotionally
distressed in the time leading up to Eliza's filing for a divorce now remember she filed for divorce at the
end of I believe it was 2011 because remember this these proceedings were extremely drawn out but it's like I said
I mean when she's beating up the car that's the signs that she knew that she was you know married to cheater cheater
pumpkin eater right so you know I I think this guy uh he tends to be a selfish individual I
mean he's gonna have a four year affair with some lady that lives in New York and Florida
so now how much money are you spending they could go to your family and you're doing this for selfish reasons
and then you don't want a divorce why you know that's that's the easy thing right you're in love with this lady
you're going to New York and Florida um why wouldn't you just get a divorce cut the money in half say hey it didn't
work out we tried we had some kids together you take this part of the money I'll take this part of money we'll both
live good lives but he don't want to do that because he's selfish no is that true though
because as we discussed in in episode two he he did he asked his friends in in elise's friends to speak with her and
try to convince her into settling the divorce that they that they just proceed with it right but she filed first and
then he filed course I think is hilarious when people are like oh you it doesn't take two people to file for
divorce you just one person files but again what we said uh in in the last episode is
he he wasn't necessarily trying to get his buddies to convince her to settle a 50 50 deal
that we know of all we know is that he was telling people around her possibly to manipulate her Hey get her
to agree get her to settle right what is that settle see what I'm saying right no I guess what was the deal on
the table that he was trying to get people to convince her of and for all we know that it was not in favor of her at
all and hey you you dated a you know well you married a guy that's verbally abusive
and he's calling you names and he's cheating on you and he's taken money and hiding it from you and you find this out
before why would you settle you should you know she had every right to go in there and try to get everything
every penny that she felt she was worth or or every penny that she thought she deserved
well Sanford and his friends they claim in their depositions that Eliza may have
worn recording devices to instruct uh per instruction from her attorney and that she had tried to provoke Samford
into arguments so she could capture them on tape now there's more of this and the worst part I find this to be the
most damning of the evidence that is coming out against Samford this really does nothing for the lawsuit against
Samford but this should be a huge red flag with a spotlight on it regarding the murder of Elisa Sherman okay this
was taken from another deposition one of those same friends in their deposition claimed in more than one occasion
Samford inquired how someone could get away with committing a perfect murder at least one of these conversations
occurred during a walk on a Cleveland Beach the friend said that the friend Samford asked this of he was uh worked
in law enforcement or the law enforcement field and when asked how the friend responded to such a question the
friend said he gave Samford this scenario don't use your car or don't let your car
be seen don't use a gun because it can be heard don't use your street clothes use
something that would cover up your entire body your face your hands well right this is super chilling because
it's describing what we see on the surveillance footage we see we see a person fleeing the murder scene with no
vehicle at no point do we see a vehicle we see this person dressed head to toe and clothing that is covering the entire
body just as he said the face the hands according to Sanford's deposition he said he probably had conversations about
Elisa but could not recall the nature of those conversations or where they occurred during samford's deposition he
was not asked directly about the perfect murder conversation Samford Sherman has
never been named as a suspect in Elisa's murder the bizarre twists continue captain in this case this twist takes us
back to Gregory Moore elise's attorney bomb threats you know remember he had the bomb threats but there would be okay
I forget there would be hey you remember this guy he's a bomb it's the bomb threat guy but he would later be
indicted on more charges Gregory Moore was indicted on one count of tampering with evidence one count of obstructing
official business one count of falsification one count of telecommune telecommunications fraud and two counts
of forgery yeah this guy's a scumbag yeah but I think the the key thing here is a lot of
these indictments have to do with Eliza Sherman right when when Gregory Moore was indicted when the indictment was
announced the then prosecutor said in a statement we believe that this indictment and the evidence behind it
takes us one step closer to Bringing Eliza Sherman's killer to Justice right so make no buts about it this this has
to do with her murder with her case now Gregory Moore has denied these allegations originally he pled not
guilty uh he was scheduled to appear in court in May of this year on unrelated charges those were from the the bomb
threat charges uh inducing panic inducing laughter he was pleading not guilty to those charges as well
now let's talk about these new charges because according to prosecutors Gregory Moore never met with Eliza that day
they claim that he initially provided a statement to investigators that he was waiting in his office during the time of
the attack but but data retrieved one year later with the help of the FBI the old cell
phone ping they used this from a downtown cell tower this suggested that he allegedly
lied about his location and misled Elisa okay that's important information on that one sentence right there okay he
allegedly lied about his location this means where he told police he was during the time of the attack
but they also follow that up with misled Elisa meaning he's telling her stuff in
communication that is not true as well so he's lying he's lying to the victim minutes
before she's killed right and then later the next day lying to the police when questioned about
where he was and what he was doing right but then you mess with the [ __ ] FBI and they caught you so so let's I mean
to make this really clear he is telling her come down for a meeting on a Sunday which offices are normally not open
right so he's telling her come down he's telling her that he is there he is not there
he is somewhere else so he is basically putting her in place as that door is she able to get into the
building for safety no so he knows that wherever she parks that she's going to have to walk
and remember she like texts him or something because she didn't wanna uh she wanted to meet him down there
because she don't want to stay in the cold because it was pretty cold out so he knew that she had to walk from her car
to the office building but once she got to that office building the door was going to be locked so she's a Sitting
Duck right that's basically what he set up would she have known that the door would
have been locked that's here here's the reason why I questioned that because I've seen some
of the communication back and forth between them and it almost appears to me like the the door being locked was a
surprise to her and here's here's why I think that that might be accurate you know when I used to work in downtown
buildings it was very typical that we would have front doors that would automatically lock at certain times and
automatically unlock it certain times right so if you're expecting a lot of people in and out it's very tough for
somebody to have their finger on that button and control the locking mechanism to let people in and out during normal
business hours Monday through Friday when you're expecting a lot of people coming and going but we also didn't want
people just randomly showing up into the buildings so typically at a certain hour
let's say seven o'clock at night Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday the door would automatically lock and then
someone had to control it somebody had to use a key card or a security Personnel had to actually unlock that
door physically to let someone in here's what I'm getting at I wonder I'm guessing that if this is how they chose
to do their meetings that she had been to this office on several occasions most of these occasions probably took place
between Monday and Friday during typical business hours right my guess is the door was locked at a certain time on
Friday 5 6 p.m and it was not unlocked until the start of business on Monday now people that worked in the building
people that had caused to be there still have access but they have to use a key card to enter or possibly even exit the
building and this is part of the the problem with Gregory Moore's story is that the
I'm sure that the police found this before the FBI ever got to it I think the FBI probably helped them with the
self out with the cell tower situation but this is pretty simple information to get here
I think they had a record because there was this was a key card system for this front door and they probably had a
record of Gregory Moore coming and going that day a little more insight into the
communication between Eliza and Gregory Moore it's my understanding that they were actually supposed to meet on the
Saturday not on the Sunday they were scheduled to meet on that Saturday I'm a little confused if that
meeting actually took place well no I think he called in the bomb threat so they didn't have to have the meeting
well what I mean by that is at some point he has asked her to go to the office on Sunday and what I mean by that
is I don't know does that mean that the meeting went longer than scheduled and he said hey let's finish this up
tomorrow or did he not show up to the meeting or did he reach out to her and say hey can't do this today let's do it
tomorrow right for whatever reason they end up meeting on that Sunday this is unscheduled in
advance the most this could be scheduled in advance was at some point on Saturday
and then on Sunday more than once from my understanding they didn't go I do not have the
specific wording on this information which was traded back and forth via text from Gregory Moore to Elisa Sherman
but at more than one occasion he pushed back that meeting on Sunday as well so again
but like I said I mean he basically created a scenario that she's gonna no matter what time they meet you know no
matter if she knows if the door is locked or if she doesn't know it's locked that's I mean neither here nor
there for me what he's doing is she he's putting her in a situation where you know she's going to be like I said
the Sitting Duck especially if she has to sit there at a locked door that she didn't anticipate
for it to be locked that's just slowing her down on returning to her vehicle or getting into the the building
um in in the text messages that they Exchange she is telling him hey you know I'm down
here the door's locked right he says okay I'm on my way down to unlock the door he's on the fifth floor of this
building but he's not well he's supposed to be his office is on the fifth floor so she's going to sit there and wait for
a while for him to come down and unlock the door eventually he never comes down there and
she texts him back and says look it's cold outside I'm returning to my car so not only does he he I want to be very
clear he set up this meeting this was not a Lisa scheduling this meeting he scheduled this meeting and then via text
pretends to be in the location where he said he would be right to the point where she eventually says
look it's cold out here I'm walking back to my car right well and this is a guy that doesn't return your calls doesn't
return your emails you've had to have a continuance after continuance because he's not ready
I mean you know she had a good lawyer before that she was happy with and now she has this guy and she doesn't want
this lawyer anymore but it's too late in you know late in the game so to be clear prosecutors allege that
Gregory Moore sent Elisa text messages stating that he was in his office at the time she was attacked but phone records
electronic key card data and witness statements show that Gregory Moore left his his office one hour before Elisa's
Eliza was murdered and didn't return until one hour after police found her bleeding outside when
investigators attempted to follow up with Gregory Moore regarding his whereabouts he refused to cooperate he
started refusing to cooperate after they presented this information to him saying
hey look you told us a story before a made-up story before we want the real deal this time
Moore has denied that he lied to Elisa or the police right but we have it on record that he
lied to her and one investigator said that uh in referring to Gregory Moore said he's got some questions to answer
and hopefully that will come out in court he's not talking to us but if you don't have anything to hide why wouldn't
you talk to us yeah but this guy seems like a weasel so I I really think if they hold his feet to the fire they're
going to get some more information so clearly these are the two that are the main suspects in the eyes of the public
and I think rightfully so I mean there's there's a lot on both of these guys and
what I think is starting to show through and shine through a little bit here is that it looks to me like police and law
enforcement are awfully suspicious about Gregory Moore in particular so there's there's also there's so much to think
about here and we have a lot more to get to and it looks like we'll have to get to that in episode four
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The Murder of Aliza Sherman /// Part 3 /// 169

Part 3 of 4 - The Suspects

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Cleveland, Ohio - Sunday, March 24, 2013- Aliza Sherman a 53 year old mother of four stepped out into the cold to run some errands. She promised her youngest sons she would not be gone very long and she would return home with dinner. Hours and hours went by. Jeremy tried calling his mother's cell but she did not answer. Then he called his older sister Jennifer. Jeremy explained to Jennifer that their mother had been gone too long and he could not reach her. Jennifer tried many times to get her mother on the phone to no avail. Jennifer decided to take the search to the streets and look for her mother. Before she could locate Aliza the Cleveland Police Department notified Jennifer that they would like to speak with the Sherman family. It was then that detectives notified the family that Aliza Sherman had been killed in downtown Cleveland in broad daylight.

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Brief Summary

Elisa Sherman was murdered days before her divorce trial, with financial motives and suspicious behavior from her husband and attorney under investigation.

Key points

Elisa Sherman's Tragic Murder. Elisa Sherman was stabbed just days before her divorce trial, leaving her family devastated.
Justice for Eliza Movement. Eliza's daughter, Jennifer, leads a movement to find her mother's killer, offering rewards for information.
Suspicious Behavior of Samford. Samford's lack of cooperation raises eyebrows as he becomes a prime suspect in Elisa's murder.
Gregory Moore's Bomb Threats. Elisa's attorney, Gregory Moore, faces indictment for calling in bomb threats to delay court proceedings.
Elisa's Fears. Elisa expressed fears for her life, suspecting her husband Samford of potential harm.
Samford's Chilling Inquiry. Samford's questions about committing the perfect murder raise serious concerns about his involvement.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Elisa Sherman was stabbed outside her lawyer's office in Cleveland Ohio.

4:55WatchNov 27, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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