Transcript
A (0:00)
Welcome to Criminally Obsessed. I'm Ann Emerson. Barbara Waldman was a dentist wife. She was a young mom with three kids living in the suburbs, Long Island, New York. She was so pretty and fun, and she had her whole life in front of her. Her youngest child had just started school, but at just 31 years old, she was found murdered on the second floor of her Oceanside home. She was next to the bed. Her hands were tied behind her back with a pair of pantyhose, a pillowcase stick stuffed in her mouth, and a gunshot to her head. She was found by her 5 year old son who had just gotten home from kindergarten. It was January 1974, and for decades, her case went unsolved. It was cold until a serial killer spoke up and Barbara's own relentless daughter went to work. But if you think it ends there, you're wrong.
B (0:48)
My baby brother, at five years old, got off a school bus and found his mother with a bullet in the head. So I am not going to stop what I'm doing.
A (0:56)
After hearing about this story, I thought it probably would never be solved. But it was 52 years later, and I got to talk to the daughter who during her research read two words, Be persistent. And she made that her mantra. Be sure to like and subscribe to Criminally obsessed. So you don't miss any conversations like this one. Okay, Marla, well, let's get started. Started, because there is so much I'd like to hear about this case. I mean, you help police solve your mother's murder after 50 years when it was cold and they said it was not even able to really reopen. It seems like you have accomplished the impossible, Marla.
B (1:43)
Thank you. I feel like I accomplished the impossible. It was many, many years of, of calling the police department and asking, you know, just, you know, can we open my mom's case? Even though I knew I wouldn't be able to. And so the. The main thing that we hear in this field of criminology and trying to open cases is that you. You need new evidence in order to open a case. And I get that, right, because there's probably thousands of cold cases sitting on shelves, and they can't just. They don't have the resources to just go in and take people off the shelf and open the boxes. And you're not guaranteed that there's going to be any viable DNA or anything, you know, substantial in the boxes. But it was my just way of kind of once a year checking in, like, you know, from my mom, can we open the case knowing it Was going to be a no.
A (2:48)
That's so interesting. Tim, let's go back. I want you to tell me about your mom. Everything we've seen of her, the pictures of her. She looks so beautiful. Marla, can you tell us a little bit about your mama?
