Deborah Roberts (2:42)

Mike, you and I, first of all, this is the first time you've done the podcast, so welcome here. You and I have worked on so many stories together and you're one of our star bookers. And when you think about this community and how shocked they were, and you've got a Veter firefighter, a first responder, people were really shocked. So when you started digging into this story, and of course we'll talk about the murder and how that all unfolded, but talk to me a little bit about the family and the community and when you arrived there and what you sort of learned from them. This had already happened a little time before that. But what'd you learn from the folks when you first got there about Robert Doar and his death?

Mike Repley (3:18)

I spoke to a lot of people in Evansville, a lot of people who knew Robert. Basically everyone in town knew of this guy. He had been a firefighter for 28 years. His father was a firefighter. It was sort of the. The family business.

Deborah Roberts (3:33)

They called him Robbie.

Mike Repley (3:34)

Robbie. Yes. So Robbie's how everyone refers to him. And Robbie was just like a beloved teddy bear type of guy. And he loved the job.

Deborah Roberts (3:44)

A true hero.

Mike Repley (3:45)

Yeah, a real hero. He famously rescued a baby from a burning building. And a photo of him carrying the child away from the building made the local papers.

Deborah Roberts (3:54)

That classic photo, right?

Mike Repley (3:55)

Yep. We had that in the show. And he. He just lived for the job. He lived to help other people. He just loved doing good and putting good into his community. And he didn't get rich off of this job. He had to take a second job in addition to being a firefighter. But he just really loved what he did.

Deborah Roberts (4:15)

Yeah, so that was why it was even more shocking, I think, because this was a guy who had such heart in what he was doing and to be gunned down in such horrible, vicious, tragic way. So let's go back to that night of the murder. He's arriving home at somewhere around seven or so in the evening. His wife, Elizabeth, who they refer to as Becky, is at home. He pulls up into the driveway. She would tell police that she heard gunshots. Later on, we would hear the 911 call. So these first responders, people who know him, are responding to his killing and learning in real time that it's one of their own. And what. Describe that scene a little bit, because we played that out in our episode too, on Friday.

Mike Repley (4:56)

Yeah. You see in real time, the first responders getting there, the members of the fire engine arriving, looking at the victim on the ground and realizing. Recognizing him as one of their own. And you just hear their disbelief and shock, realizing that it's Robby, their close friend, their colleague. And then we see one by one, his Loved ones and family arriving at the scene and just the. The look of absolute disbelief and panic on their face trying to get information, not really knowing what's happened yet, then realizing that. That he's.

Deborah Roberts (5:32)

He's dead, that he's gone.

Mike Repley (5:34)

He's dead on the. On the driveway. They. They heard he'd been shot and didn't necessarily realize that he had already passed away when they got there. And that is just heart wrenching.

Deborah Roberts (5:43)

One interesting thing, when the investigators got there, of course, they're always looking for DNA or something that's telling on the scene. They're not finding anything right away. They don't, you know, no security cameras. That's revealing someone who maybe snuck up on him. Ultimately, one of those bullets actually they're able to retrieve. And that becomes the one thing that's kind of telling in the story.

Mike Repley (6:05)

Right. So the bullet that he was killed with matches a gun called a Taurus Judge. It's a very unique.

Deborah Roberts (6:13)

I've never heard of that before.

Mike Repley (6:14)

Right. It's not a type of gun that you typically hear about. It's very rare type of gun, and it's unique because it can shoot both bullets and shotgun shells. So this is a great lead because it's a rare gun that, you know, in theory, police should be able to hopefully track down who owned that gun.

Mandy (6:31)

Yeah.

Mike Repley (6:31)

And they are able to learn that a local pawn shop had a tourist judge in stock that was recently stolen. They start digging more into this pawn shop, and they see that one of the employees is a man, young man, named Larry Richmond Jr. His father is intimately involved in this story and in this family. He's engaged to Becky's sister, and his

Deborah Roberts (6:53)

father had been to prison. So alarm bells are starting to go off because this is kind of connected to the family. This isn't just some random person who showed up. So where do they go from there?

Mike Repley (7:03)

Well, at that point, this web is starting to form, and they're starting to see, like, these cannot be coincidences, that the rare gun that's used to commit this murder is tied to someone connected to the family. So they start looking into Becky's phone calls and her most recent calls before. Right before the murder. And they see that there was a call minutes before her husband was shot dead in the driveway.

Deborah Roberts (7:28)

And that's the big twist here.

Mike Repley (7:30)

That becomes the big twist and what our show's named after. They end up going to the memorial service, and they pull in many members of this family, take them in for questioning, and put everyone in different rooms and try to Nail everyone down on their story and figure out what's happening here.

Deborah Roberts (7:50)

And we've done other stories before, too, where police or investigators wind up at a funeral or at a wake because a crime has just happened and they suspect somebody in the family might be involved. But that whole idea that there was a phone call between Becky and Larry Sr. Was really, really telling to the police. So they were convinced at that point that she had some involvement in this?

Mike Repley (8:15)

I think they were pretty convinced. I think the fact that when they did bring her in for questioning and asked her who called minutes before the murder that she didn't own up to it. They already knew at this point that she had had the phone call with Larry Richmond Sr. So the fact that she attempted to hide the call from them, I think really convinced them that she was hiding something new more than she was hiding.

Deborah Roberts (8:38)

If she's hiding that, what else is she hiding? Well, they are starting to look at Larry Sr. He's dating Mandy, Becky's sister. But are there other romantic invol? And this is a guy who just came out of prison, by the way we talked about. Does he have other romantic involvements? What are they finding out about him?

Mike Repley (8:53)

Yes. So Larry, as we come to find out, was seeing a number of women around town even though he was engaged to Mandy, Becky's sister. He was seeing many women. Several were interviewed by police. He had sort of irresistible charm, apparently, that drew people in.

Deborah Roberts (9:16)

Well, the plot thickens because we're going to look into his background and also how he wound up being connected to this case. So, Mike, don't go anywhere because now we've got an alleged affair, we've got a murder, a strong suspicion that Becky might have been hiding these secrets, as you say. So when we come back, we're going to unravel how police actually made an arrest and how finally, Robert's killer landed behind bars. And some exclusive family interviews that you're going to also hear about. So stay with us.

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Mike Repley (11:38)

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Deborah Roberts (12:11)

Welcome back to 2020 the After Show. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I am here with our editorial producer at 2020, Mike Repley, unraveling a case that we just featured on 2020. It is the murder case of Robert Doer, a veteran firefighter and a local hero in Evansville, Indiana. When we left off, Mike, you and I, we were talking about the fact that his wife, Becky, and her sister's fiance, Larry Sr. Were hiding a secret. And police, of course, were suspicious. They weren't quite sure, but there have been whispers around, I guess, the area, right, that. That Becky somehow might have been connected to Robert's murder. Even before police were absol certain. When she showed up at the fire station asking about his pension not long after, she just lost her husband. A lot of folks thought that was pretty strange.

Mike Repley (13:01)

Definitely. Even her own son really, really was concerned and disturbed by that. Why? Why that? Within a day of her husband's death, she was questioning the pension. Going to find out more about the pension at the fire station. And for her part, she says that so many people were asking her about his pension and her plans for it that she wanted to get more information because she didn't know anything.

Deborah Roberts (13:28)

Well, paint a picture, Mike, because you were there on the ground and you're, you know, getting a sense of this community. You're getting a sense of these people. Becky was his second wife. They both had children. She had grown, he had grown. Children talk about their relationship a little bit and what people thought of the two of them.

Mike Repley (13:45)

So Becky and Robby had actually known each other for years. They were colleagues at Taco John's local fast food joint. Robbie actually helped train Becky when she joined the store, and he apparently fell in love with her right away. He was kind of smitten with her from the start, but they were in the friend zone for many years. And then at one point, the timing was right where Becky was out of a relationship and their friendship developed into more. And before long before people even kind of realized that they were actually together, Robbie was proposing to her and they were getting married.

Deborah Roberts (14:25)

But meanwhile, they've got grown children and he's got a daughter, Lindsay. And she figures prominently into our piece. And we see the heartbreak that she's feeling after discovering the loss of her father. What about her and Becky? What did she think about her new stepmom?

Mike Repley (14:41)

So Lindsay was not a fan of Becky pretty much from the start. She found her, I think, something off putting about her. And she saw her dad suddenly indulging in a lifestyle that he never was interested in before. Buying a car for Becky, buying her nice Jewelry, nice gifts. And that concerned her.

Deborah Roberts (15:01)

After the murder, of course, police begin to drill down. The investigators are looking into this case in months and months are going by. And then something important comes to light. Nathan Guthrie, Becky's son, finds a little slip of paper in a sympathy card that turns out to be kind of a smoking gun in this case. Tell us all about it.

Mike Repley (15:22)

Yeah. So this is a really big twist in the story. Nathaniel, Becky's son, is gathering all the sympathy and condolence cards that came in after the funeral, and he picks up one, and a little slip of paper falls out. And it just says, we need to talk, signed by Larry with a phone number. He doesn't know what this is about. He's confused by it. It's inside a sympathy card from Becky's sister, Mandy. So Nathaniel goes to police, shows him the note, and from there, I think that connected the dots for police between the deleted phone call between Becky and Larry minutes before the murder and now after the murder, a secret note being passed in the condolence card saying, we need to talk, just seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Deborah Roberts (16:13)

Yeah, they know something's going on. And we should also talk about the fact that for the family members here, for Mandy, Becky's sister, and even for. For. For him, and, I mean, this was shocking stuff.

Mike Repley (16:24)

She is devastated for her. Larry was her everything, her whole world. She felt like she'd finally found someone who truly loved her and was gonna take care of her and be her partner. And so her world is completely destroyed by this.

Deborah Roberts (16:39)

How is it that they came to this conclusion that Robbie had to go, how. What was the collusion there between Larry and Becky? How did that happen?

Mike Repley (16:54)

So both of them still profess their innocence. So we. We only know based on what prosecutors and police claim and allege that their narrative of the story, from what we understand, they believe that an affair was happening between Becky and Larry that started at some point when the two couples were spending time together and going out on double dates. And that at some point during that affair, an idea was hatched to have Robbie killed to get him out of the picture. To get him out of the picture, you know, potentially for his pension, potentially to get her out of the marriage to be available. You know, prosecutors don't have to prove motive at trial. So we actually are still left with some. Some question marks about what exactly happened and how this all went down.

Deborah Roberts (17:49)

You know, that happens so often. You're absolutely right. Especially when they're professing their innocence. And we want to talk more about what you've learned. But it took a while, it took a few years before they were able to make a murder case against the two of them. And before they finally went to trial. Ultimately, Becky and Larry are convicted of Robert's murder. Becky's sentenced to 60 years in prison and an additional 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder. And Larry, of course, life without the possibility of parole. You know, he's, he's offended again. You know, this was something though. Even though they did this and they were able to make this case, it's still tearing at a family, tearing a family apart because you've got the two different sides of, you know, them professing their innocence and others being surprised that it happened and having a hard time coming to grips with it. Tell us, because we, you know, in the piece you get to see the heartbreak amongst the family members, but you're right there with them. That was real and difficult for them, wasn't it?

Mike Repley (18:47)

Absolutely. I think just watching that crime scene video of Robbie's daughter Lindsay arriving and the reality of what's happened washing over her face, seeing her father dead on the pavement, she just absolutely crumbles in grief. It's heartbreaking to watch. And she still feels that very strongly today.

Deborah Roberts (19:13)

I can imagine.

Mike Repley (19:14)

The pain is still just as strong today.

Deborah Roberts (19:15)

I can imagine. And then Larry Jr. Has to testify. He's a star witness, has to testify against his own father.

Mike Repley (19:23)

So many families were torn apart by this. And Larry Richmond Jr. Had to take the stand as the star witness against his own father, who he shares a name with, helping get that conviction. And that life sentence for him, I think just was absolutely devastating for him. He told me after that guilty verdict came down that he feels broken and he's now just trying to piece his life back together. He has a family of his own to raise and he's just trying to

Deborah Roberts (19:54)

move forward somehow and trying to do the right thing, which is what he was faced with. We talked about Mandy earlier and this had to just be shattering for her. On the one hand, this is her fiance, on the other hand, this is her sister. They're behind bars for the death of her brother in law. And she was the one really who brought Larry into the family. Why does she want to talk?

Mike Repley (20:16)

So I think for Mandy, sharing her story now was a way to try to reclaim ownership of her life. Her entire world was turned upside down seven years ago when this happened. Everything she thought she knew, everyone she thought she trusted, was completely shattered. And not only that, she received a lot of blame, a lot of People in the family and out in the world blamed her for bringing this man into everyone's lives. And of course, she is not accused of anything. She has been totally cleared by police. She was not involved in any way in the plot. And she's another innocent victim here. But she still, you know, gets. Gets a lot of, I think, blame and negativity her way.

Deborah Roberts (21:05)

You and John Quinones, of course, sat down with her and brought this story to us and we got to hear her side of the story on 2020. But there was more to Mandy's story that you didn't hear on 2020. So let's take a listen now.

Mike Repley (21:19)

To someone who doesn't know him, how would you describe Larry?

Deborah Roberts (21:25)

What kind of person is he?

Mandy (21:28)

To me, he is very kind and loving and he takes care of people like.

Deborah Roberts (21:37)

But he's also a killer.

Mandy (21:40)

I understand that goes in a box, sir.

Mike Repley (21:46)

You put it behind you, it goes in a box.

Mandy (21:50)

Cause I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do with it because I know it's supposed to do something to me. I know it's supposed to make me scared of him. I know it's supposed to make me hate him. I know it's supposed to make. I know what it's supposed to do, but it doesn't. He was never scary to me. He was my protector. He was showing up when I would get off work at 10:30 at night just to be there to make sure we got to our cars okay.

Deborah Roberts (22:19)

So she spoke so, you know, passionately about her relationship. What about her relationship with her sister Becky? That's gotta be kind of tricky.

Mike Repley (22:28)

It's definitely tricky. It's very touch and go, I think, still. But after our interview with Mandy, she and Becky did speak for the first time in years. And she describes it as a hopeful conversation. I think that Mandy told her that she will always love her and support her, but that she can't talk about what happened.

Deborah Roberts (22:54)

That makes sense.

Mike Repley (22:54)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's how she has to compartmentalize these conflicting feelings she has about people that she loves still very much, who she feels have done horrible things, have betrayed her.

Deborah Roberts (23:09)

I mean, she's got her sister in prison and she's got her fiance in prison for killing her brother in law. Well, I want to talk to you a little bit more about her and those exclusive interviews because that was really something else. When we come back, we're going to have more that you haven't heard from inside the prison, actually, where Becky spoke with Mike and you're going to hear about that conversation details that you did not hear on Friday night. So do not go anywhere. This show is sponsored by Bombus. It's finally spring and if you're like a lot of people, you may be ready to get moving again with more outdoor activities that just let you enjoy spring weather. If that sounds like you, well, do yourself a favor and bring a pair of Bombas sport socks along for the ride. Bombas sport socks are ultra comfortable. They're designed with sport specific tech for running, cycling, yoga, hiking, or whatever activity you may want to enjoy this spring. They're cushioned right where you need it and they don't slide down when you move so you can focus on your performance and not whether your socks can keep up. And don't forget some base layer clothing to go with them. Bombas T shirts are the most breathable and flexible shirts you'll ever own. Plus, for every item you purchase, an essential clothing item is donated to somebody facing housing insecurity. That's one purchased one donated with over 150 million donations and counting. Head over to bombas.com 20 and use code 20T W E N T Y for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M b-s.com 20 and the code Twent y at checkout. Welcome back to 20 20, the After Show. I'm sitting here with our 2020 producer, Mike R. Ripley, who was part of a pretty unforgettable story called One Last Call that just aired on 2020. Story that centers around Robert Dorr, a firefighter first responder who was killed and his wife Becky and her sister's fiance, Larry Sr. Were both convicted in his murder. And Mike, I've spent my time in prisons, my share of time in prison, sitting across from folks who are convicted of murder. And it's a fairly strange thing to do. And for our cameras to go into this prison and to get a chance to sit down and talk with Becky was pretty remarkable too. You know, the assumption at least a prosecutor certainly made the case that she was having an affair with Larry. They wanted Robert out of the picture. She sort of told a different story, of course, to us.

Mike Repley (25:49)

She did. She has stuck to her story pretty much from the start and that is that she has no idea what what happened. She was not involved in Robbie's murder and she doesn't know who did it.

Deborah Roberts (26:04)

Yeah. So she continues to claim her innocence, but yet she and her sister are sort of forming a relationship. How does she seem to be Adjusting to prison life, by the way.

Mike Repley (26:13)

You know, Becky sort of brought in this interview a calm and collected energy, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. But I think that she is in a place now where she's trying to find acceptance and make peace with the reality that she may die in prison.

Deborah Roberts (26:33)

She probably will, really, when you think about the amount of time that she has. Well, that conversation was quite revealing. And there were bits that you heard on 2020 and some that you didn't, but this took you inside the prison after Becky had served about a year and a half of her sentence. So let's take a listen.

Becky Doer (26:50)

I was able to watch part of the 2020 episode. I didn't know how people, you know, in the prison were going to react to it. You know, it was surprising when, you know, somebody's like, hey, isn't that you on the tv? So I just got up and went out and I'm like, well, if you guys are going to watch it, let's, you know, let's watch it together. I was upset and went to the bathroom and when I turned around, I had a bunch of girls all the way around me and they supported me. I thought they were going to beat me up, but they supported me. I'm innocent, basically. I didn't do this. I'm still innocent. And I don't know who has, who did this, but again, I'm. I still stand on that. I'm innocent. I mean, don't you think that I would want to have the person that killed Robbie brought to justice? It's not me, though.

Deborah Roberts (28:33)

As you said, she seems to be making peace with her situation. There's a little bit of a calmness there. Does she think that the family believes that she wasn't involved, or does she have a sense of what other people are thinking about her?

Mike Repley (28:47)

Robbie's family certainly steadfastly believe that she is guilty and got exactly what she deserved with that 90 year sentence. You know, her family, it's a little more nuanced, I would say. Her son Taylor, her youngest son, he is still standing behind her. He still supports her. And when it comes to her oldest son, Nathaniel, however, he was a star witness for the prosecution. He called her a murderer, he went to the police. He basically considers his relationship with his mother dead and he considers Robbie his father and that's who he mourns. There's a big range of emotions between the family. And as for Mandy, she acknowledges that the evidence points to Becky, Becky being involved and her having an affair. With Larry.

Deborah Roberts (29:41)

But.

Mike Repley (29:42)

But her heart tells her something different, and that's amazing. Her heart doesn't want to believe it. Her heart is still praying, I think, that they are innocent.

Deborah Roberts (29:52)

In spite of the evidence that she saw in court, she still connected to Larry. They're still, I guess, together as much as one can be together when he's in prison.

Mike Repley (30:00)

So they. They are still in contact. They still speak almost every day, according to Mandy. And she told us that she gets what she needs from him, that he checks up on her, he cares for her, he gives her the emotional support she needs. And she is fully aware of the contradiction here. And that this seem. Would seem completely insane to most people, that. That this man's destroyed her entire life, essentially, and taken a life out of her family, turned everyone's life upside down, and that she still loves him and still has feelings for him. She's working on that. I think she's working on moving forward and creating. Creating her own wife separate from this man. But it's easier said than done. Becky also swore to her that she and Larry never had an affair.

Deborah Roberts (30:52)

A convoluted story. As we said, it's hard to know what to take from this report in a way, because there is so much here that is so heartbreaking and so difficult. But then you do have the tenderness of family. I mean, Mandy determining that she can still try to connect with her sister. You know, I think it really just highlights the complications and shocking secrets that can happen behind closed doors in a family. But yet families still trying to go forth and make their way out of it.

Mike Repley (31:23)

Exactly. Exactly. And families are complicated, and they're not. It's not black and white. And no matter how much anger, heartbreak, there's still that bond. And you can't just shut off your love for someone else. And I think Mandy is the perfect encapsulation of that, that she's fully aware of how much she's been hurt by these people. And yet she can't turn off her heart and she can't turn off the memories she has and the love she has for these people.

Deborah Roberts (31:53)

But yet others in the family certainly have. Mike, it's a captivating story. Well done. Always, always a pleasure to work with you and good to have you here.

Mike Repley (32:01)

Thanks, Deborah.

Deborah Roberts (32:02)

Thank you all for being here with us and joining us for this episode. Of course, you can watch our latest 2020 episodes on Friday nights on ABC and you can make sure that you come back and stream episodes like this one anytime on Disney plus and Hulu. Hope you all have a good day.

Mike Repley (32:24)

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