MURDERED: Mary Yoder Part 2

Summary

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Crime Junkie — "MURDERED: Mary Yoder Part 2"

Date: March 23, 2026
Hosts: Ashley Flowers & Britt Prawat

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Overview

This gripping part two episode continues the complicated and emotionally charged story of Mary Yoder's 2015 poisoning death in upstate New York. Hosts Ashley Flowers and Britt Prawat follow the labyrinthine investigation, hone in on the twisting forensic and circumstantial evidence, recount two dramatic trials, and trace a legal saga still unresolved more than a decade later. The episode explores who really killed Mary — her husband Bill, her son Adam, or the beloved office manager and ex-girlfriend of Adam, Kaitlyn “Katie” Conley — and just how closely sinister acts can hide among the people one loves.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap of Part One & The Initial Suspicion

• Mary Yoder falls violently ill and dies within 48 hours; toxicology reveals colchicine poisoning.
• Initial suspicion falls on husband Bill, who started dating Mary’s own sister, Kathleen, just two months after her death.
  • “It all seemed a little too perfect for Oneida County Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Nelson and investigator Mark Van Amy.” (Ashley, 03:34)
• Investigators soon receive an anonymous letter pointing blame at son Adam.
• The bottle of colchicine is found in Adam’s Jeep, shockingly with digital evidence pointing back to him.

2. Enter Katie Conley

• Katie is Adam’s ex-girlfriend and longtime office manager at the Yoders’ practice, “more of a family member than an employee.” (Ashley, 04:25)
• “The more she talked, the more convinced they became that Katie sounded a lot like their anonymous letter writer.” (Ashley, 04:57)
• Police now turn suspicions on Katie, driven by digital forensics.

3. The Digital Forensics Trail ([05:34]–[18:16])

• Colchicine was ordered online under Adam’s name to the practice, signed for by Katie; the email (“mradamyoder1990”) was accessed from Katie’s home and deleted from her phone.
• Katie at first denies knowledge but later admits to deleting the account and being the anonymous letter-writer.
• Forensic details:
  • Katie’s searches for poisons and for “how much to kill someone by weight” are found on the office computer and her phone. ([13:13])
  • Scanned fraudulent documents, created and sent with Katie’s phone, match the colchicine order.
  • DNA evidence points to Katie as a major contributor on the colchicine bottle and letter stamp; Adam’s DNA does not appear.
• Notable quote:

  “Guys don’t hang on to the murder weapon because that’s why they get caught.” — Investigator Van Amy ([11:11]) “Guys also don’t use poison. They say it’s a lady’s weapon.” — Katie Conley ([11:33])

4. Investigative Theories & Motivation ([25:37])

• Prosecutors come to believe Katie’s motive is romantic obsession or revenge over her breakup with Adam.
• Historical precedent: Katie previously faked a medical emergency to win Adam back.
  • “Either revenge on Adam or some kind of twisted attempt to pull him back after he dumped her, supposedly for cheating on him.” (Ashley, 25:38)

5. The Community Divides & Trial #1 ([27:52]–[35:48])

• Despite mounting evidence, Mary’s sisters and parts of the community remain suspicious of Bill.
• Defense suggests Bill’s possible motive: troubled marriage, financial windfall, and affair with Kathleen.
• Physical and digital evidence is dissected; prosecution and defense trade attacks over computer forensics, reliability of DNA, and access to office devices.
• Questions about method: Whether Mary drank a protein shake or ate something else, and whether she could have been poisoned at the hospital.
• Jury is deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal; a mistrial is declared after five days of deliberation.

6. Trial #2 and New Evidence ([35:48]–[46:21])

• A backup of Katie’s iPhone is found on Adam’s laptop, showing extensive poison research starting in 2014, screenshots, and documents related to colchicine.
• Defense pivots: New attorney argues Adam could have manipulated evidence, given his technical skills and access to Katie’s devices.
• Katie’s complicated relationship with Adam is further scrutinized: allegations of abuse, a “toxic” dynamic, possible financial and emotional motives for both.

  “If that thought even crosses your mind when you’re in a relationship, run, get out.” — Co-host/Commentator ([45:01])

• Prosecution braces for all-or-nothing outcome, so second-degree manslaughter is added as a lesser charge for the jury.

7. Verdict and Aftermath ([46:30]–[54:51])

• Jury convicts Katie Conley of first-degree manslaughter; she is sentenced to 23 years.
  • Adam and Mary’s family express pain and lingering guilt; Katie and her family maintain innocence.
• Appeals attorney Melissa Swartz challenges the admissibility of digital evidence extracted from Katie’s phone.
• In January 2025, conviction overturned — due to improper search warrants covering the phone’s full data contents.
• Sealing of court records blocks DA from access, creating a legal stalemate and complicating any possible retrial or new indictment.

8. Current Status & Lingering Mysteries ([54:51]–end)

• Katie is released on appeal, but the case remains open, severely hampered by missing and now legally inaccessible evidence.
• Neither Bill nor Adam can be prosecuted for Mary’s death (received immunity during grand jury proceedings).
• Mary’s sisters remain divided; those who pushed for investigation now believe Katie is innocent and fight for her release. Adam blames himself for ever introducing Katie to his family.
• The case remains devastatingly unresolved, with a tight-knit family and community permanently fractured, and no legal closure for Mary Yoder’s death.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Poison is a lady’s weapon.” — Katie Conley to investigators ([11:35])
• “So even in the best case scenario for prosecutors, that backup is nowhere near as powerful without the phone to back it up.” — Ashley ([53:27])
• “Welcome to my world. I’m honestly not sure anyone has a straight answer on all of the letter stuff.” — Ashley ([56:55])
• “Mary wasn’t killed by a stranger. She was killed by someone she loved, someone she trusted, and someone that she never saw coming.” — Ashley ([57:40])

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• [02:06]–[05:01]: Recap of part one & introduction to Katie Conley’s involvement.
• [05:34]–[18:16]: The unraveling of digital and physical evidence linking Katie.
• [25:37]: Summary of prosecutors’ theory and Katie/Adam’s rocky relationship.
• [27:52]–[35:46]: The first trial and community response.
• [35:48]–[46:21]: Second trial, new digital evidence, shifting defense strategies.
• [46:30]–[54:51]: Verdict, sentence, and details of the successful appeal.
• [54:51]–[57:40]: Where the case stands now—unresolved and divided.

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Conclusion

The Mary Yoder poisoning case, as chronicled by Crime Junkie, remains a tangled web of circumstantial evidence, fractured relationships, and lingering doubt. Despite digital breadcrumbs pointing to Katie Conley, two juries proved unable to wholly agree, and a stunning legal technicality has thrown the entire case into limbo. The courts, the families, and the community remain divided, perhaps permanently. As Ashley puts it, the only certainty is that Mary was betrayed by someone intimately close to her—a crueler truth than anyone could have imagined.

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For all source material and further information, visit crimejunkie.com.
Follow the show on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast.

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Transcript

[Ashley Flowers]

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[Ashley Flowers]

Hi crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers.

[Britt]

And I'm Britt.

[Ashley Flowers]

Last episode I walked you through the first five months following the death of Mary Yoder. 60 year old Mary was happy, healthy and beloved by her friends, family and patients near Utica in central New York where she and her husband Bill were chiropractors with their own practice. But out of nowhere one Monday afternoon in July 2015, Mary became violently ill. Her son had been sick with the same symptoms a few months before and it took him a while to heal, but he had. So initially she she and her husband thought that this was the same thing Some kind of stomach bug. But in less than 48 hours, Mary was dead. And when toxicology results came back, they revealed something no one knew. While she was alive, Mary had lethal levels of a drug called colchicine in her system. A gout medication that she had no reason to be taking. As it became clear that Mary was poisoned, suspicion fell on her husband Bill, who had started a relationship with one of Mary' own sisters just two months after his wife's death. But just as detectives were getting started, an anonymous letter arrived at their office pointing the finger at someone else entirely. The tipster claimed that Bill and Mary's 25 year old son Adam had killed her and that there was proof. The colchicine bottle was still in Adam's jeep, the letter said. And sure enough, when police went looking, there it was with the receipt of Purchase emailed to mradamyoder1990mail.com it all seemed a little too perfect for Oneida County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Nelson and investigator Mark Van Amy. An anonymous letter that just happened to lead them right to the evidence. They had to wonder, was someone trying to frame Adam? And if so, who? His own father? Police clearly didn't have a full picture of this family yet. So they brought in one person who knew all of these players. 22 year old Caitlin Conley. Katie had dated Adam on and off for years, and she was the office manager at Bill and Mary's practice. But she was more than an employee Mary considered her family. She was even mentioned in Mary's obituary. And soft spoken Katie didn't point the finger at Bill. Instead, she told detectives how suspicious she was of Adam. But the more she talked, the more convinced they became that Katie sounded a lot like their anonymous letter writer. So after that first meeting with her in mid December 2015, detectives walked away with a new question. Not did Adam do it? But who is Caitlin Conley and what have we been missing? It turns out a lot. Are you ready to dive back in, Britt?

[Britt]

Let's go.

[Ashley Flowers]

As soon as detectives found the colchicine with the receipt in Adam's car, they began trying to trace where it came from and who it was shipped to. What they found is that the 1 gram bottle of powder was mailed from a company in California to the Yoder's chiropractic office in February 2015 addressed to Adam. But the person who signed for it was the office manager, Katie Conley. Which isn't unusual, right? She signed for most packages at the practice. What is unusual is her connection to the Email address that ordered it. Google records show that the email used to buy the colchicine that Mr. Adam Yoder 1990. It was accessed from the Conley's home IP address where Katie lives with her family. Then in late November, that entire Gmail account was deleted using her phone. So just a few days after they spoke with Katie, Investigator van Amy and Lt. Nelson asked her to come back in, and they confront her with what they found. You say you've Never heard of Mr. Adam Yoder 1990 email address, but it was deleted from your phone. How do you explain that? At first, Katie suggests maybe Adam accessed it using her cell at some point,

[Co-host/Commentator]

like, logged in or deleted it.

[Ashley Flowers]

Logged in. Which you get it. It doesn't explain the thing investigators are actually asking about.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Right.

[Ashley Flowers]

So eventually, she admits that she is the one who deleted the account, but only after she just stumbled across it. The thing is, even that doesn't really make sense, because when you delete a Gmail account, you know what you need? The password. Yeah. So detectives push her. You knew the password at some point, Katie. What was it? She says she can't remember. Now, they humor her, not going super hard, because they can tell that she's building towards something. And finally, she comes out with it. Adam confessed to her and told her that he ordered the colchicine, had it shipped to the office, poisoned his mother, then stashed the bottle in his Jeep. She says Adam regrets it, that she thinks he killed Mary by accident, mostly because she doesn't understand why he'd want to hurt her. But she also claims that he asked her about colchicine about a year before Mary died, wanting to know how to get his hands on some.

[Katie Conley]

Mmm.

[Co-host/Commentator]

How do you accidentally plan something for like, a year?

[Ashley Flowers]

It's not adding up.

[Co-host/Commentator]

It also sounds a heck of a lot like the anonymous letter that they got, like, word for word, he regrets it.

[Britt]

He stashed the bottle in his Jeep.

[Ashley Flowers]

Bingo. And remember, they don't just think that this letter came from a tipster trying to do the right thing before they ever can tie anyone to it. They felt pretty confident that the letter was written or the letters. There was two of them. They were written by Mary's real killer to throw off suspicion. So they press her on it. You wrote it, didn't you? And once Katie admits it, Investigator Van Amy starts recording. In the footage, Katie is sitting at the side of a desk in a small office. She's quiet as she waits for Van Amy to come back into the room.

[Investigator Van Amy]

We've been chatting for quite A while today about a lot of things. Okay. I want to ask you some more specifics. I really appreciate you helping us out and pointing us in the right direction with a letter into Adam. Okay. You follow me then?

[Katie Conley]

Yeah.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Okay. Why are you so upset? Have I been anything less than nice to you?

[Katie Conley]

I've been really nice. I'm just. I'm afraid because Adam's really smart.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Okay? And you've said that to me a couple times, that Adam's really smart. He's not gonna let anything come back to him. I understand that, but myself and my friends in the other room, the investigators on this case are really good at what we do, okay? And we always get to the truth. I believe you about what you're telling me with Adam. You know, I just need your help to help me prove it's Adam.

[Katie Conley]

Okay, you can't prove it's Adam.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Okay, well, that falls on me.

[Lieutenant Nelson]

Who do you.

[Katie Conley]

Yeah, but if you can't prove it's

[Investigator Van Amy]

Adam, who am I gonna prove it is then, right? Who did he make this look like it is?

[Katie Conley]

I'm afraid he put it back on me.

[Investigator Van Amy]

You're afraid Adam did?

[Katie Conley]

Yeah.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Why?

[Katie Conley]

I don't know. So that I can't. I can't go to you for help.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Do you know that he did that? Do you know that he's trying to

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point the finger at you?

[Katie Conley]

Probably at the office. He said that if anyone was gonna get in trouble, it's gonna be me.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Okay. Why would he keep the container? Why would he keep something that's gonna link him to the crime that he just committed? You know what I mean?

[Katie Conley]

Yeah.

[Investigator Van Amy]

You could drop that in any garbage can and nobody would have been the wiser. He could put that in a soda cup or a soda bottle, put it in that garbage. He could have thrown it out in here, would have never known.

[Katie Conley]

Right.

[Investigator Van Amy]

You can get rid of it anywhere. Why do you think Adam held onto

[Katie Conley]

that I would keep it for so long?

[Investigator Van Amy]

I'm gonna ask you a straight up question. Every time I ask these, I already know the answer. Is it possible that somebody made it look like Adam did this?

[Katie Conley]

Yes, but I don't think so.

[Investigator Van Amy]

It is possible that somebody planted that on them, because I can tell you right now, in the FBI's studies and everything that we went back on, guys don't hang on to the murder weapon because that's why they get caught.

[Katie Conley]

Right? But guys also don't use poison. They say it's a lady's weapon.

[Investigator Van Amy]

They say it's a lady's weapon?

[Katie Conley]

Yeah.

[Ashley Flowers]

Now, Van Amy has clearly been playing good copy. We believe you. We're gonna find the truth and help you. But Katie's got her shovel, and she just keeps digging herself deeper.

[Co-host/Commentator]

No kidding. I mean, poison is a lady's weapon. Like, does she. Does she hear herself?

[Ashley Flowers]

I know. It is looking worse and worse for Katie. So that's when Van Amy and Lieutenant Nelson swap out, and he gets a little more direct with the questions.

[Lieutenant Nelson]

Here's some issues I still have. You gotta look at it from our point of view. We're looking at one of three people here. This husband, Adam.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Are you.

[Lieutenant Nelson]

You're gonna have to help us. If you're telling us you have nothing to do with this, you're gonna have to help us rule you out, just like we gotta Adam or Bill, whoever, is not responsible for this. Because right now, there's a lot of things unanswered questions that we have, right? The Gmail account and some other things. And like I said, those don't point to Adam. They point to that phone. I know you need to help us clear you.

[Ashley Flowers]

Katie has gone from witness to suspect, but investigators aren't ready to arrest her yet. They want to be able to directly tie her to the culture scene in a way that she can't, like, wiggle out of. So they start digging into the digital trail to piece everything together. And there is a lot to unpack here. So just bear with me. What they find is that the Mr. Adam Yoder 1990 email account was created back in September 2014 using the IP address at the Yoder's office. That same month, someone opened a credit card in Mary's name, but the contact number on that account, Katie's cell. Then a couple of months later, in December, a prepaid credit card was used to try and buy colchicine online. But that order failed because the supplier required paperwork that the buyer didn't have. In early January 2015, someone tried again with a second prepaid card from the same store. This time, it went through, and they bought a gram of colchicine from that company in California. Now, to complete the order, the buyer submitted a letter of intent explaining who they were, why they needed the drug. Now, the letter was supposedly signed by Adam and Mary, and it listed Adam as the buyer and claimed that he needed the colchicine to manipulate plant genetics. And it also named him as the manager at the clinic, even though, again, he had not worked there in years. Meanwhile, on the front office computer, which Katie used more than anyone, there were searches for various poisons, including colchicine and how much it would take to kill someone based on their body weight. One investigator even told ABC News that someone took Mary's exact body weight and plugged it into a formula to calculate the fatal dose. Although we couldn't find that detail in the records that we have. And what's interesting is some of those searches happened about a week after Adam went to the ER with the same symptoms that Mary would later have.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Wait, is colchicine what made him sick, too?

[Ashley Flowers]

Well, at the time, they just thought it was a stomach bug. I mean, they ran blood work, they did scans, noted mild inflammation in his intestines, gave him medicine, sick, sent him home. Never tied to colchicine, because why would you do that kind of thing unless, again, you're doing an autopsy? Anyway, that same office computer had been used to access the Gmail account tied to the colchicine order.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So the office computer she uses the most has the Gmail account on it. The Mr. Adamutter 1990, which was also pulled up from her home IP address. And eventually the account gets deleted altogether. But from her phone.

[Ashley Flowers]

Correct. But just staying with the office computer for one sec. In November 2015. So this is around the time that the anonymous letters were sent. Someone installed software on it to mask IP addresses. A way to hide, like, what sites had been visited. But it didn't work. The clinic's antivirus program logged the activity anyway. And what it recorded was that someone on that computer during business hours was downloading the masking software first, then using a private browser to log into that same Gmail account. So whoever did this took steps to cover their tracks before they ever pulled it up.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Was trying to hide it in the first place.

[Ashley Flowers]

And listen, there's also a typewriter at the office. And the ink ribbon still had faint impressions of what had been typed, which matched the anonymous letters sent to the M.E. in the Sheriff's office. Then, on Katie's phone, investigators found a deleted note with lines that read 1990 G and capital A is gay. They figured that this was shorthand for the email address that's at the center of this whole thing. Mradamyoder1990mail.com and maybe its password, which turned out to be Adam, is gay. Now, that same email and password were also used to set up a document scanning app on Katie's phone, too. The app had been deleted by the time they got to it, but the cloud storage was still accessible. And in it were scanned copies of every document sent to the supplier. The order forms, the letter of intent, all of it. There was also a letter of recommendation that Mary had written for Katie with Mary's signature on it, implication being that that could have been used to forge the other documents. And there were other notes on Katie's phone that suggested she had been like workshopping how to frame Adam, drafting the language for the letter, even references to legal standards, like what police need from an informant's tip before they can use it to get a warrant. Now, contrary to the mountain of evidence they find on Katie's phone, when they search Adam's devices, those all come up clean. No poison research, no suspicious searches, no sign that he ever tried to buy colchicine. And the physical evidence tells a similar story. Katie's DNA is consistent with being a major contributor to on the colchicine bottle, on the colchicine bottle's wrapper and under the stamp on the letter sent to the medical examiner. Adam's DNA doesn't show up anywhere. So on February 5th, police bring Katie back in and investigator Van Amy confronts her with something major.

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when

[Ashley Flowers]

Katie comes back into the sheriff's office in February, Van Amy doesn't just hit her with all the digital forensic evidence like he's got her on that. What he wants is to tie her to the actual prepaid cards that were used to buy the drug. So he bluffs. He tells Katie that police have surveillance footage of her buying the prepaid credit

[Investigator Van Amy]

cards if you purchased them. You're involved in this. I'm telling you, Kitty, there's no way around it. Okay? I've let you sit here. That's why I asked if I could show you this. Okay? I let you tell me. I don't know how that got on my phone. Okay? We're at a crossroad now, okay? Because I know all along. I don't ask a question I don't know the answer to. Okay? You purchased those credit cards, didn't you?

[Katie Conley]

Yes.

[Ashley Flowers]

So she admits to buying the cards, but she still insists that she didn't actually buy the colchicine. And the only explanation she can offer is that somehow Adam must have used them. Even though, according to investigators, cell records show that Adam was nowhere near Katie on the day that she scanned the documents needed to make the purchase.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Those documents were scanned in your phone. I know that. And you were in possession of your phone. We're at a crossroad right now, Katie, and I'm gonna be honest with you. You lied to me earlier when you said you don't know how those were scanned. I know for a fact that you were in possession of your phone when they were scanned,

[Katie Conley]

yes.

[Investigator Van Amy]

You're saying you purchased this credit card and it was immediately used for the payment within a day. Who did you give that credit card to then? If that's the road we're gonna go down, let's keep rolling the snowball.

[Ashley Flowers]

That's not the only hole in her story. You see, investigators had found a draft of the anonymous letter saved on the Google Drive connected to that Gmail account. It had been edited in November right before it was sent. So now if Katie admits to writing that letter, she is also admitting that she had access to the Gmail account. And if she was the one using the account, she is the one who ordered the poison.

[Co-host/Commentator]

But what do you mean, if she admits to writing the letter? I thought she already admitted to writing it.

[Ashley Flowers]

She did, but now she's saying that she didn't write this letter, the one that was drafted in November.

[Co-host/Commentator]

What?

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, she claims she sent a different letter to police, like, back in September.

[Investigator Van Amy]

We can prove without a doubt that it's typed in November. Okay, okay, we. We know that. That's not even. That's not even a question, okay? I'm telling you in the one. One of the last times I talked to you, you told me about sending the letter in November.

[Katie Conley]

No, in September.

[Investigator Van Amy]

You. Katie, I'm telling you, you didn't. There's no way you sent that letter in September.

[Katie Conley]

That's when you told me you didn't

[Investigator Van Amy]

send the letter in September.

[Lieutenant Nelson]

You're the one saying Adam told you that he did this. So nobody else is involved in that.

[Investigator Van Amy]

Your letter.

[Lieutenant Nelson]

Nobody else sent us a letter. We got one letter. You said you sent us a letter. That's your letter.

[Ashley Flowers]

I'm confused the way my brain almost exploded as I tried to, like, untangle this. I mean, basically, if she wrote the letter, she owns the suspicious Gmail account, and if she owns the account, that's it.

[Co-host/Commentator]

I mean, did police get a letter in September? No.

[Ashley Flowers]

The only letters anyone received were the two in November. One to the sheriff's office, one to the M.E. so investigators are starting to develop a pretty clear picture of what they think happened, including a firmer timeline. Colchicine poisoning typically shows symptoms within eight hours, but a large dose can hit a lot faster. Their theory is that Katie laced Mary's afternoon protein shake around 1 to 1:30 ish on July 20 while they were both at the office.

[Britt]

But why?

[Ashley Flowers]

Well, prosecutors theorize that it all goes back to Katie's tumultuous relationship with Adam. In their view, Katie is a scorned ex and Mary is just collateral damage. Either revenge on Adam or some kind of twisted attempt to pull him back after he dumped her, supposedly for cheating on him. Either way, basically like an if I can't have him, I'll hurt him, or I'll be the shoulder that he cries on after, like if I secretly create a tragedy. They also say that this wouldn't be the first time that Katie did something dramatic to win Adam back. That she once faked an ectopic pregnancy. She said that she required a medically necessary abortion, which led to them rekindling their romance. And according to prosecutors, it worked again. This time because after Mary died, Adam leaned on Katie, and that's when they briefly got back together. It's a compelling narrative with compelling evidence to back it up. Which is why nearly a year after Mary's death, on June 13, 2016, Katie gets indicted by a grand jury on charges of second degree murder, falsifying business records, second degree forgery, and petty larceny. The falsifying accounts are for the documents that she allegedly created to make it look like Adam bought the colchicine. And the other charges came out of the investigation. I guess the forgery is for a parking ticket that she supposedly signed with Bill's name. And then the larceny is for about 90 bucks that the investigators say she stole from the office. Now, the assistant DA knows that most of the evidence that they have is just circumstantial, but she still Firmly believes that the case is really strong. Except not everyone is convinced. According to ABC News, Katie's arrest sends shockwaves through their small community. The Yoders and the Conleys are both well known families, and this case creates this real divide. In fact, some of Mary's own sisters side with Katie. They are still much more suspicious of

[Co-host/Commentator]

Bill, even after all of this comes out.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yep.

[Co-host/Commentator]

I'm presuming not including the one dating him.

[Ashley Flowers]

Oh, no. Yeah. So the ones who are suspicious are still the same trio that I mentioned before. Jeanine, Sharon, and Sally. And even though authorities say that there's no evidence implicating Bill, that is exactly the argument that the defense makes when Katie's first trial begins in Oneida county court in April 2017. Katie's attorney, Christopher Pelly, says that Bill had something that Katie didn't have. Real motives. A troubled marriage, money problems that went away when Mary died, and possibly an affair with Mary's own sister starting with the marriage. Pelly says that it wasn't as solid as Bill claimed before they even tied the knot. I guess Bill had suggested keeping things open, which they decided against. And Bill says that he never cheated on Mary, but at some point, he started disappearing to hotels on various weekends, those solo trips I talked about, supposedly to write. And so they kind of pose this question, like, was that really the only reason he would take these trips? And then there's the Kathleen of it all. What kind of guy takes up with his dead wife's sister at all, let alone two months after your wife dies? And how do we know they even waited that long? I mean, sure, Kathleen and Bill say it all began in September, But a neighbor of Kathleen's testifies that she saw them on Kathleen's front porch, all snuggled up, looking very much like a couple the week before Mary died. And don't forget about the money. True, Mary didn't have any life insurance, But Bill had recently inherited that close to half a million bucks from his dad. And after Mary died, he told one of his daughters, Tamron, that while it wasn't enough for two people to retire on, it was for just one. And what's up with Bill's behavior after Mary died? Why did he ever cremated before anyone knew what the heck was going on? Why wasn't he more curious about what killed her? Why didn't he push investigators for answers?

[Co-host/Commentator]

Because it sounds like he was moving on and was in love with someone else.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, and it seems to be the thing that people have a problem with. There is also a strong possible Link to the poison. Maybe Mary ordered it for gardening and Bill then used it against her. Or maybe he bought it. Either way, he would potentially know what to do with it. I mean, remember how Mary's sister mentioned that Bill had experimented with growing marijuana back in the 80s? Actually, the letter of intent to the supplier to get the colchicine was all about manipulating plant genetics. Right, and that was Bill's world, not Katie's. So the defense is saying that she didn't know anything about that.

[Co-host/Commentator]

I mean, sure, maybe she didn't, but how do they explain away all of the digital stuff tying Katie to the colchicine? Like there's so much her.

[Ashley Flowers]

Defense attorney, Pelly, he goes after that, too. He says that the state's forensic expert is unqualified, uncertified. A college student who cherry picked data to fit his theory. And he argues that the digital trail isn't as solid as it looks. I guess the Conley's home WI fi which Adam actually set up, wasn't password protected. So anyone nearby could have used the IP address.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So theoretically, they're saying someone could have been outside the Conleys house and connected

[Britt]

to their WI fi?

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, if the range was wide enough. Or somebody who would've been over at their house.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Oh, but didn't they check all of Bill's devices to see if he did anything like that?

[Ashley Flowers]

Eventually. I mean, they had his phone records pretty quickly. But here's the thing. When that Adam letter came, and then they started looking at Katie for some reason, checking Bill's devices got put way on the back burner, which I think comes back to bite them during this trial. Because apparently, right after Mary died, Bill told his daughter Tamryn, like, not to touch either of their home computers because they had viruses. But investigators didn't collect any of this until September 2016. And then some data couldn't be recovered at all. Plus, Bill was apparently no stranger to computers. He managed the network that connected all the chiropractic office computers for years. And a lot of the stuff was done on the office computer and with office supplies. Right. Typewriter envelopes. Yeah, sure. Katie used all of that the most. But the defense points out that it was Bill's office after all. Like, he could use any of the equipment he wanted, including envelopes that Katie had pre stamped. So they're trying to argue that even though her DNA was found under one of the stamps, that she could have

[Co-host/Commentator]

done that at any random time.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, and he just, like, grabbed one.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Is there any physical evidence pointing to Bill?

[Ashley Flowers]

Uh, so DNA results on the colchicine bottle were inconclusive, so the science could not rule him in or out.

[Co-host/Commentator]

I thought the DNA on the bottle was Katie's.

[Ashley Flowers]

It was, but there was actually at least three profiles. So Katie was the only one, like, or the only match that could be, like, fully identified. And they were able to completely rule Adam out, but for some reason, not Bill, just based on, I guess, the sample people they had or whatever. And listen, there is also a problem with the prosecution's theory that Katie poisoned Mary's protein shake. Mary's medical records from when she was admitted to the hospital say that she had a protein bar and grilled chicken that day. There was nothing in there about a shake.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Okay, but where's that coming from? Like, did she tell them during intake?

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, this isn't like, stomach contents or anything. She comes into the hospital, Mary's telling them herself, she was still like, coherent when she comes to the hospital. And. Sure, right. Like, she's in like the worst position or like the worst spot. She's so sick. Maybe she misspoke. Maybe she had both. Maybe someone wrote it down wrong. But Pelly offers another idea, that maybe Bill could have slipped the colchicine into Mary's food on the morning of July 20th and possibly given her a second dose while she was still at the hospital.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So they're saying she was poisoned twice?

[Ashley Flowers]

Well, the experts can't rule it out. Apparently there's no way to know exactly how much colchicine Mary ingested, but the fact that it was in her stomach fluid during the autopsy indicates that it got into her system orally rather than through, like inhalation or injection. And keep in mind, this was after two days of vomiting. So the pathologist says that the levels in her system were actually rising when she died, like her body was still absorbing it. Now, the prosecution has an explanation for that. They say it has to do with the way that drugs can shift around in the body after death. And their toxicologist says a second dose would have triggered a fresh round of symptoms, which did not happen. But the defense pushes back. Mary was on anti nausea medication at the hospital. So they are saying that could have maybe masked new symptoms. And so it's just like this ping pong back and forth at trial.

[Co-host/Commentator]

But you said in part one that Katie was at the hospital with Mary and the family. So if there was a second dose, who's to say who actually gave it to her? Like, what about it is tying Bill to this theory and not Katie?

[Ashley Flowers]

Well, because Katie wasn't There at the hospital until Wednesday. Like closer to the time that Mary died, Bill was the only one there with Mary on Tuesday before she took a turn for the worse. And Mary wasn't supposed to eat or drink or anything while she was hospitalized. But Bill admitted that he brought her cough drops and an inhaler from home when she asked. So either one could have theoretically been laced. But it's not clear if those things were ever tested, Although as far as I can tell, they weren't.

[Co-host/Commentator]

My head is spinning.

[Ashley Flowers]

I know you're not the only one. This trial stretches on for over 33 weeks with dozens of witnesses. The jury goes on to deliberate for nearly 24 hours over five days, but they are hopelessly deadlocked, reportedly 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. So on May 18, 2017, the judge declares a mistrial. No verdict, no closure. Katie is in legal limbo, still charged with with murder. And prosecutors aren't about to let things go. Five months later, in October, they bring Katie to trial again. Now the theory is the same, but this time, the prosecution has a new ace in the hole. As they prepped for round two, investigators reexamined Adam's laptop. And they realized that one of the phone backups on it wasn't from Adam's device. It was from Katie's in August 2015. So just weeks after Mary died, Katie had plugged her iPhone into Adam's laptop. And without meaning to, she triggers a full backup, preserving everything on that phone at the time, including stuff that she later deleted. What they found painted a picture of someone doing their homework. In the fall of 2014, Katie started researching different poisons and screenshotting articles about how deadly each one was. By December, she seemed to land on colchicine. She was researching chemical suppliers, looked up the prognosis and treatment of colchicine poisoning, and then ordered it using those fake documents that she'd scanned with her phone. To prosecutors, this is a smoking gun, and they're feeling good as everyone crowds back into the courtroom. But I don't think they are expecting the curveball that Katie's new lawyer is about to throw at them.

[Britt]

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[Ashley Flowers]

Katie's defense attorney for trial number two is a guy named Frank Pollicelli. And he has a whole new approach. Instead of accusing, Bill, Policelli lays the blame on Adam. This time, the defense says that Katie actually tried to help investigators see what was really going on. But they were so focused on her, they dismissed everything she told them, including her claim that Adam had confessed to her. According to Policielli, here's what really happened. Adam was desperate, volatile, and had a strained relationship with his mother. And when he couldn't hold on to Katie, he concocted a plan to poison Mary in a way that would make sure Katie took the fall. Think about it from this angle. Adam actually studied computer science in college, and he had way more digital know how than Katie. He had used her devices in the past. Was it really a coincidence that her damning phone backup was on his laptop?

[Co-host/Commentator]

I mean, you gotta find a way to explain that new evidence.

[Ashley Flowers]

In Bolicelli's view, Adam could have planted or manipulated any incriminating data. He had access to the Yoder's office, too, even had his own key, which he claims he lost. And when police searched his Jeep, they found goggles and gloves and a face mask. The kind of stuff that you would want if you were handling something toxic. But investigators never collected those things, let alone tested them. And yes, the relationship between him and Katie was toxic. No one disputes that. But Policielli says that Adam was the problem, not Katie. She had moved on. She had a new boyfriend, and she was making plans for a future while Adam couldn't let go. Apparently, over the years, she had lent him thousands of dollars that he never paid back. And she was scared of him. By his own admission, he had gotten physical with her, said that he slept, slapped her in the face a few times at a party in 2013. If he's willing to do that in front of people, you know what's happening when no one's watching. And then there's the sexual assault allegation from 2014 that Katie told the detectives about in their first meeting. Remember that? Now, Adam denies it, but he also admits that he was so drunk that night, he doesn't remember anything.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So how can you deny something you don't even remember?

[Ashley Flowers]

Well, here's the thing. Prosecutors actually don't even believe Katie about it either. She had given police photos of injuries that she said came from the assault. But when investigators pulled the data capture, times told a different story. Some were taken nearly a year before the night in question. Others were months after. None of them matched up with when she said, like they were supposed to have happened. And so, just like this, for almost every argument the defense tries to make, the prosecution comes back with a one, two punch. And they insist via expert witnesses who did the data extractions, that there was no digital tampering or modification and nothing pointing to Adam at all except for Katie's word. They are confident that the right person is on trial. But they do start to worry that some jurors might believe Katie didn't intend to kill Mary, just make her sick. Like the way Adam got sick before from who knows what. Which, by the way, even back then, like when he got sick, he made sort of a joke that Katie poisoned him. Cause he said that he got sick right after taking some supplements that she had given him.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Can I just say that if that thought even crosses your mind when you're in a relationship, run, get out.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah, but that half joking, did she poison me thing, that's something that we know from Katie's original interview with detectives and messages that she and Adam exchanged. And at trial, the defense actually brings up Adam's illness, too. But they suggest that Adam poisoned himself for attention and then later did the same to Mary. Or maybe he bought the colchicine to grow marijuana and then got sick while handling it. But either way, this ends up backfiring. Like I said, the prosecution's getting a little nervous, so they go and ask the judge, listen, instead of just guilty or not guilty for second degree murder, can we give the jury an option? Can we add first degree manslaughter? That way it won't be an all or nothing on second degree murder. Now, the defense tries to keep the lesser charge off the table, but they can't. Because by floating the theory that Adam poisoned himself and then Mary, they'd basically open the legal door and the state just walks right in. If Katie was behind both poisonings, maybe she just expected Mary to get better since Adam had gotten better.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So was it ever confirmed that Adam had colchicine in his system, or could he have just been really sick?

[Ashley Flowers]

Unrelated, we don't know. Investigators tested the supplements from, like, the ones he was taking when Adam got sick. Those came back clean, but they don't even know for sure if they were from the same bottle that Katie gave him. So, like, it's. That part is all just still a big mystery. Either way, the question of intent is now in the jury's hands. And in early November, they start deliberating. At one point, it looks like they won't even be able to agree. And everyone's kind of, like, holding their breath, wondering if this is, like, going to be another mistrial. But they're able to work through it. And after two days of hashing it out, the verdict comes in. Not guilty of second degree murder, but guilty of first degree manslaughter. According to observer dispatch reporter Jolene Crew Cleaver, Katie's bail is revoked and she is taken into custody. Even after two trials, some of Mary's sisters still don't believe that Katie did this. When she is sentenced in January 2018, they ask the judge for leniency. And on the other side is Bill with his and Mary's children, who all stand by the conviction. To them, Katie took Mary's love and repaid it with poor poison. And Adam's voice, you can hear it break as he talks about the guilt that he carries for bringing Katie into his family, a family who welcomed her because he once loved her, but not anymore. He tells the court he hates her for what she's done, but Katie maintains that she didn't do anything and that the system got it wrong. Though the judge isn't moved, the fact is Mary died in agony, never understanding what was happening to her. And so he sentences Katie to 23 years. That was in 2018. So, realistically, she could have been in jail until, like, 2041. But then an attorney named Melissa Swartz takes on her appeal, and she zeroes in on the warrant that police use to search Katie's phone. Law enforcement had permission to take the phone, but apparently they didn't have permission to dig through all the data inside of it. Swartz argues that Katie's trial attorneys should have fought to get that evidence thrown out. They didn't, and that failure cost Katie her freedom. And so Just last year, the appellate court agreed. In late January 2025, Katie's conviction was. Was overturned. And a few days later, she walked out of prison, free for the first time in seven years. Now, you know this overturned doesn't mean exonerated prosecutors can try again. And they're planning to do exactly that. But almost immediately, they shoot themselves in the foot. You see, when Katie was released, her attorney asked the judge to seal the case records, which Swartz told us is pretty standard for a conviction that gets tossed. What's unusual is that the DA's office didn't object. And so now all of the evidence, police reports, witness statements, digital records, all of it is locked away. Not just from the public, but from prosecutors, too.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Why wouldn't they push back on that?

[Ashley Flowers]

Dude, I don't get it. Maybe they figured that the seal only covered the conviction conviction and not the actual evidence, which, like, not true.

[Co-host/Commentator]

And they should have known.

[Ashley Flowers]

So even though they got like a whole nother grand jury to do the whole song and dance again, even get to the point where they call Swartz to schedule Katie's arraignment because they expect a new indictment soon, they get blocked because it's at that point when Swartz is like, wait, did you unseal the case first?

[Katie Conley]

Right.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Because, like, what are you even going to bring to this grand jury? Because it's all tucked away.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yeah. And that's when the DA's office has this, like, oh, moment. They had been using evidence that they had no right to touch. The judge orders them to stop, and now they're just stuck. They can't even ask to unseal the records themselves because only law enforcement can do that. And they can only do that if there's an active investigation. But police have admitted that no one is currently working on Mary's case. So from there, it just spirals. The DA's office tries to get the judge removed, accusing the judge of bias, claiming that at some point she said that she thought Bill killed Mary. The judge denies it, refuses to step aside. Then the DA files multiple appeals. All of this back and forth over months. Which brings me to right now.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Oh, she's still out.

[Ashley Flowers]

Oh, yeah, this is active and ongoing. There is actually a hearing coming up in April. But Swartz says that the state has been fighting the wrong battles, that they have been focused on whether the judge was wrong when she ordered them to stop using the sealed evidence. But again, even if they win that everything is.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Everything is still sealed. Yes.

[Ashley Flowers]

It's like arguing you shouldn't be able to stay out of a room that you, like, cannot get into in the first place.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So they're not even getting at the real issue here?

[Ashley Flowers]

No. Plus, even if they do get the records unsealed, most of the evidence might

[Co-host/Commentator]

be worthless because of the.

[Ashley Flowers]

The appeals court decided that the search of Katie's phone was illegal.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Right. They shouldn't. The evidence that's there shouldn't even be there?

[Ashley Flowers]

Essentially, yeah. Anything that came from it, including the backup on Adam's laptop, the secret statement that Katie made based on what Cobbs found, all of it can be tossed.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Wait, why the laptop backup? Didn't they have a warrant for his devices?

[Ashley Flowers]

They did, but there are a few problems with it. Like, for one, the only reason they even knew to look at it was because they had Katie's phone first.

[Co-host/Commentator]

So the fruit of the forbidden tree.

[Ashley Flowers]

Exactly. On top of that, there's a question of whether Adam should have even had the backup on his computer. But even if prosecutors can use it, it's weaker now. I mean, at trial, they verified the backup by comparing it against the physical phone. Basically, like, matching digital fingerprints to, like, prove nobody had tampered with it. With the phone suppressed, now they can't.

[Co-host/Commentator]

They can't have that.

[Ashley Flowers]

They can't even do that anymore. So you're left with, like, a backup file that they can't independently verify just sitting on Adam's laptop. And think about what the defense argued at Katie's second trial. Adam is tech savvy. Adam had possession of the laptop. Adam had every opportunity to manipulate what was on it. Without the phone to prove that those searches also existed on Katie's actual device, the defense can say that the only place this incriminating evidence lives is on the computer belonging to the guy that they think did it.

[Britt]

Yep.

[Ashley Flowers]

So even in the best case scenario for prosecutors, that backup is nowhere near as powerful without the phone to back it up. For a lack of a better term, actually, it could even hurt their case. But no matter what the path they want to take is, the clock is ticking. Because unlike murder, manslaughter has a time limit. Swartz says that prosecutors have maybe three more years. And if they can't retry Katie before then, it's over. I mean, she got acquitted on the second degree murder. Right. They cannot go back without. All they have is that manslaughter charge. And even if investigators wanted to take another look at Bill or at Adam, which they seemingly don't, they're out of luck because they both got immunity when they testified before the grand jury.

[Sponsor Voice (Noble)]

What?

[Ashley Flowers]

I had the same reaction. Apparently, in New York, that's routine.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Routine.

[Ashley Flowers]

It doesn't protect you from perjury if you lie. But it does mean that neither of them can ever be prosecuted for Mary's death, which, as it stands, there doesn't appear to be any evidence for. Anyway, as of right now, the case is officially unsolved, but only on paper. Police are sure that they arrested the right person. Prosecutors are sure that the right person was on trial.

[Co-host/Commentator]

And what does Katie say?

[Ashley Flowers]

You know, she actually did an interview within the last couple of years with ABC News for that docuseries I mentioned in the first episode. And I will say her attorney told us that she feels that when it came out, it lacked important context in how some of it was presented. But the way it was presented, there were parts that I found kind of odd. Like producers ask her if she ever searched for lethal poisons on her phone, and instead of just saying no, she told them that she doesn't even have a reason to search for poisons because she's not the type of person who could do something like that. And her parents, who were also interviewed, said that when they asked her straight up, did you kill Mary? Again, the answer is not no. She basically told them, you know, I want a family someday, so why would I jeopardize my future? Which, again, not a denial like no is right there. I know. But to answer your question, Katie says that she goes back and forth sometimes. She thinks it was Bill, maybe Bill and Adam. She just knows it wasn't her.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Okay, I'm still confused about the anonymous letters.

[Ashley Flowers]

Like, oh, my God. That's like. It's like, the murkiest part to me.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Does she admit that she wrote them or not?

[Ashley Flowers]

Some people think that her initial confession to police about writing those letters was coerced and that she didn't actually write them at all.

[Co-host/Commentator]

Okay.

[Ashley Flowers]

But during her second trial, Policielli said that Katie did admit to writing it, but then when ABC News asked her about it, Swartz stopped her from answering. So you've got these, like, competing claims. Either Katie wrote the November letters, which ties her to the Gmail account and the colchicine order, or she wrote the letters, but somehow the digital trail leading to the colchicine isn't as airtight as investigators claimed, or she wrote a different letter entirely that just never got to police. Or she didn't write any letters at all and her confession was coerced.

[Co-host/Commentator]

That clears up absolutely nothing.

[Ashley Flowers]

Welcome to my world. I'm honestly not sure anyone has a straight answer on all of the letter stuff. I mean, so much about this case is still up in the air. And our reporter Nina reached out to Bill and Adam, but we never heard back. What we do know though, is that Mary's loved ones still feel her absence every day and the divide between them may never heal. I don't know if Bill and Kathleen are still together, but Mary's other sisters that we've mentioned have remained some of Katie's biggest supporters. They even teamed up with the Conleys to fight for her release. But they live with the guilt of being the ones who pushed for an investigation in the first place, never dreaming that it would lead to a woman that they now think is innocent. Of course, the Yoders have their own burdens. Tamron told ABC News that she struggles with the fact that she once even suspected her own father. And she said that Adam, who didn't participate in the show, may never stop blaming himself for bringing Katie into the family in the first place. No matter what you believe happened, one thing is certain, and it's really the most devastating part of all. Mary wasn't killed by a stranger. She was killed by someone she loved, someone she trusted, and someone that she never saw coming. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkie.com

[Co-host/Commentator]

and you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.

[Ashley Flowers]

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an audio check production I think Chuck would approve.

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[Ashley Flowers]

oh no, my coffee. Brawny here. New Brawny 3 ply is now more absorbent. Wow. Got a clean shirt. Do you wear plaid?

[Investigator Van Amy]

Summon the strongest.