Off Course (James "Skip" Scandirito)

Summary

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Homicide 360: "Off Course (James 'Skip' Scandarito)"

Podcast Date: June 16, 2026
Hosts: Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi & Scott Weinberger
Guest Interviewee: Emily Walters, former Palm Beach County prosecutor

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Overview

This episode of Homicide 360 delves into the shocking and tragic case of James “Skip” Scandarito, a retired Michigan judge whose disappearance in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2018 launched an intensive missing-person search that quickly transformed into a homicide investigation. The story unfolds through interviews, forensic findings, and intimate details about family dynamics, ultimately focusing on the chilling involvement of Skip’s son, Jimmy Scandarito. The episode explores the complexities of motive, circumstantial evidence, the challenge of securing a murder conviction without a body, and the lasting reverberations for the family.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Skip’s Retirement and Family Dynamics

• Skip Scandarito, a respected Michigan judge, retired with his wife Terry to Florida. Their only son, Jimmy, soon joined them. Skip was beloved in his new community, remaining active and sociable even after Terry died from lung cancer.
• Jimmy struggled financially and professionally, relying on his parents for support and failing to establish himself, working odd jobs including as a Lyft driver ([05:58]).

2. Weekend Plans and the Disappearance

• In late March 2018, Skip planned to host his best friend Gary Gooden and his son Jimmy for a Final Four basketball weekend. Skip unexpectedly fails to greet Gary on arrival ([07:14]), and Jimmy provides vague, shifting explanations about Skip’s whereabouts.
• Jimmy claims Skip went kayaking with a woman named Lorraine, but her existence cannot be verified ([12:44]).

3. Red Flags in the Investigation

• Immediate elements raised suspicion:
  • Skip’s unusual absence and missed communications
  • The dubious story about kayaking with an untraceable woman
  • Discovery that Skip was a novice kayaker ([13:57])
  • Overly neat explanations for every investigative hole ([14:46])
• Quote:
  • Scott: "Normal life is messy and made up stories. They tend to be pretty neat." ([14:46])

4. The Forensic Trail & Jimmy’s Behavior

• A crucial clue: A receipt for a gas can and a hand truck bought at Home Depot the morning Skip disappeared—purchased by Jimmy, not Skip ([17:08]).
• During a walkthrough, Jimmy becomes nervous in the garage, where investigators note a bleach smell and recent scrubbing ([19:54]).
• When asked about his father, Jimmy responds flatly: "He's at the bottom of the ocean." ([20:02])
  • Quote:
    • Emily: "Very cold, very callous, very direct. And it really struck a chord with detective Hanley." ([20:02])
• Police behaviorally and forensically shift from a missing-person to homicide investigation ([23:27]).

5. Descent Into Homicide

• Evidence mounts: blood droplets and a red dolly in the garage, matching items Jimmy bought ([25:57]); cadaver dogs alert to human remains in Skip’s car ([26:41]).
• Jimmy’s cooperation abruptly ends when police seize his cell phone for a search—he "has an absolute meltdown" ([24:41]).
• Surveillance tracks Jimmy as he retrieves and dumps an empty, blood-soaked suitcase from an abandoned golf course, and police shortly after discover Skip’s dismembered torso buried in sand traps ([30:09]).

6. Investigative & Forensic Challenges

• Only Skip’s torso is recovered, complicating forensic determination of the exact cause and manner of death ([34:04]).
• Without a head or limbs, traditional identification (dental, fingerprints) is impossible, but DNA matches the remains to Skip ([32:38]).
• Investigators also uncover financial motives: large money transfers, suspicious purchases (cleaning supplies, duct tape, garbage bags), and forged checks, all tied to Jimmy following Skip’s disappearance ([36:00]).

7. Timeline and Jimmy’s Motive

• Analysis suggests Skip died days before Jimmy reported him missing; someone (presumably Jimmy) sent texts and canceled plans on Skip’s behalf ([39:15]).
• Financial stress and dependency on his father are established as clear potential motives ([46:42]).

8. Apprehension and Legal Proceedings

• Jimmy is arrested while on the run; evidence found in his possession indicates plans to flee (passport, cash, foreign extradition research) ([42:26], [43:32]).
• At trial, the prosecution faces the uphill battle of an undetermined cause of death, relying entirely on circumstantial evidence ([48:48]).
• Jimmy takes the stand, giving a shocking version of events: he claims Skip died of natural causes while they were “partying” together, and he only dismembered his father’s body out of panic and a desire to protect his father’s reputation ([51:11]).
  • Quote:
    • Emily: "You're telling us that you sawed off your dad's head after you duct taped him to a hand trolley like a bag of trash? [...] because you didn't want people to think bad of him because he did some drugs in his 70s?" ([51:11])

9. Verdict and Aftermath

• The jury acquits Jimmy of murder but convicts him of abuse of a corpse ([52:57]). Maximum sentence is imposed, 15 years.
  • Quote:
    • Emily: "Count one, not guilty, count two, guilty. And we are stunned." ([53:43])
  • Reflections on the challenge of winning murder convictions without a known cause of death, especially when the defendant admits the lesser charge ([54:07]).
• Jimmy dies in prison of a heart attack in 2025, before serving the full sentence ([56:47]).

10. Lasting Impact & Reflections

• The Scandarito family focuses on honoring Skip’s memory over Jimmy’s actions, exemplifying resilience and grace ([58:14]).
  • Quote:
    • Emily: "All of his life up to that point is worth honoring. And they're happy that they get the opportunity to continue his legacy." ([59:14])
• Scott and Anna-Sigga close by emphasizing the family history, the tragedy, and the irrevocable loss caused by internal familial collapse ([59:14], [60:14]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (selected with timestamps)

• "You don't get from a death to dismemberment without a hatred...You don't put a saw to somebody's neck unless you literally despise them." – Emily Walters ([00:32]; echoed [45:15])
• "Normal life is messy and made up stories. They tend to be pretty neat." – Scott Weinberger ([14:46])
• When confronted in the garage: "He's at the bottom of the ocean, very cold, very callous, very direct." – Emily (relating Detective Hanley's reaction) ([20:02])
• "There are things that land with certain juries and things that don't. You have a body, you don't know exactly how that person died...Sometimes [juries] just can't get there." – Emily Walters ([54:07])
• "You want to yell into the ether. The reason why you don't have that answer is not because the prosecution can't give it to you. It's because Jimmy Scandarito tied the head in a garbage bag and put it in a construction dumpster." – Emily Walters ([55:37])
• "Is this any form of justice? He didn't get the freedom that he was hoping for at the end of his prison sentence… To me, I wouldn't say it gives comfort, but it certainly seems fair that Jimmy didn't get to live that life that he so desperately wanted to and was willing to kill for it." – Emily Walters ([57:34])
• "Skip and Jimmy were not distant. They were connected financially, emotionally, and in daily life. And when that relationship broke, there was no clean line between caretaker and controller, dependence and resentment." – Scott ([59:14])

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Timeline of Important Segments

• [03:32]–[04:59]: Background on Skip and his move to Florida
• [06:28]–[08:44]: The weekend Skip vanished; initial attempts to find him
• [12:44]–[15:18]: Doubts regarding 'Lorraine' and the kayaking story
• [16:14]–[19:54]: Forensics begin; discovery of receipt, scrutiny of Jimmy's story, behavioral cues
• [20:02]: The “bottom of the ocean” statement
• [24:41]–[27:58]: Jimmy's reaction to police search, discovery of blood, and decision to surveil him
• [28:46]–[31:48]: The suitcase, the golf course, and finding Skip's remains
• [34:04]–[35:03]: Forensic limitations and challenges in proving cause of death
• [39:15]–[41:05]: Texts and calls post-mortem suggest impersonation and timeline manipulation
• [46:42]: Motive and financial distress
• [47:28]–[49:28]: First trial, mistrial, trial strategies
• [51:11]–[52:38]: Jimmy's testimony and shocking defense on the stand
• [52:57]–[53:43]: Verdict reading
• [56:47]: News of Jimmy’s death in prison and family’s reaction
• [58:14]: Emphasis on honoring Skip’s memory

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Overall Tone & Language

The episode maintains a respectful yet gripping and sometimes disbelieving tone—particularly when discussing Jimmy’s actions and courtroom testimony. The hosts and guest express empathy for Skip’s surviving family while not shying away from the grisly forensic realities and the emotional bewilderment of a son implicated in his father’s shocking death and desecration.

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Conclusion

"Off Course (James 'Skip' Scandarito)" provides a comprehensive account of a complex, heartbreaking case, illustrating how even strong circumstantial evidence can sometimes fall short in American courts when crucial forensic facts are missing. It is also a testament to the profound collateral damage homicide inflicts on families, and the resilience required to honor a loved one in the aftermath of unfathomable loss.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

You don't get from a death to dismemberment without a hatred. A desire for death to cut up anybody physically is demanding. It's challenging, it's gruesome, it's absolutely horrific. You don't put a saw to somebody's neck unless you literally despise them.

[C]

I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

[D]

I'm Anna Sega Nicolazi, former New York City Homicide prosecutor.

[C]

And this is Homicide 360. Before we get started today, we'd like to ask something of you. If you're enjoying the podcast, please tell two friends about it and help spread the word that we are back. Or if they've never joined us before, that they should check out the show. Now onto the episode.

[D]

When someone goes missing, it is nearly impossible to not imagine the worst case scenario that the person might be hurt in mortal danger or worst of all, already dead.

[C]

So a search for a loved one is also a search for answers that what can seem like a string of never ending questions. Where were they last seen? Who were they with? And is there a reason to fear that their life may be at risk?

[D]

And while no one ever wants to assume the worst, it is critical for investigators to not overlook clues that a crime may have taken place, especially if those clues might point to murder.

[C]

For today's episode, we are returning to the sunny shores of South Florida and we're talking to someone who has always seen her career in criminal justice as not just a job, but a mission.

[B]

So I'm Emily Walters and I was a prosecutor at the Palm Beach County State attorney's office for 11 years. I think I had discovered actually earlier in my life and in high school really that I wanted to pursue justice and be a prosecutor. And I remember just this overwhelming sense when I was young that I wanted

[D]

to fight for victims, victims and survivors that as we know, can be young or old, rich or poor, and come from all different walks of life, something

[C]

74 year old James Scandarito knew all too well. The former district judge from Michigan was known by skip to his friends, had spent a long career in the courtroom before deciding it was finally time to hang up his robe and Say goodbye to those long Midwestern winters.

[B]

Skip came from a small town in Michigan, Mount Clemens, and he was a local judge there for many years. And in his retirement, him and his wife at the time, Terry, they decided they wanted to retire in Florida.

[D]

Skip and Terry set their sights on the retirees paradise of Boca Raton. What was even better, they didn't have to make the move alone, because less than a year later, they were joined by their only child, their son Jimmy, ensuring they would always have family close by.

[B]

Skip, when he moved down to Florida, became one of the most beloved neighbors in the community. We are from Michigan. We are the type of people that knock on our neighbor's door and introduce ourselves and wave as cars drive by in the neighborhood. And that's sometimes a rarity in South Florida, but that's the type of person that Skip was.

[C]

But from the sound of it, Skip was not ready to just put his feet up. He remained active in his community, playing sports and even working as a volunteer marshal at a local golf course.

[B]

He loved racquetball and golf and tennis, and in his retirement, always wanted to be doing something. So if he wasn't on the golf course, he was trying to meet his friends for lunch and racquetball and really leaned into that South Florida retirement lifestyle that he had earned through his long career as a judge in Michigan.

[D]

Sadly, shortly after their move to Florida, Skip's wife, Terry, lost her battle with lung cancer.

[B]

After his wife, Terry, had passed, unfortunately from cancer. I know that Skip took it pretty hard. He did eventually start to try to find a companion. I don't know that dating would be the right word, but he did go on, you know, lunch dates, and he spent a lot of time with his friends and neighbors, barbecuing, being active in golf, active in tennis, active in racquetball. He was volunteering at the golf course that he was working at and really just wanting to give back to the community at that stage of his life.

[C]

Unfortunately, their son Jimmy, was not having as much luck starting over in Florida.

[D]

He had a couple of business ventures that had not quite taken off. And as an only child, he had been leaning pretty heavily on his parents for financial support over the years.

[B]

He was living in a very affluent area of Fort Lauderdale with an expensive price tag on the rental property that he had. He was definitely still trying to find his footing, and it wasn't really working for Jimmy. He was still working as a Lyft driver, working different types of jobs like that to make extra money on the side while trying to develop multiple different real estate ventures that had not quite taken off.

[C]

But despite some of those tensions over Skip's support of his adult son, they did remain very close, playing golf on the weekends, watching sports, and generally looking after one another.

[D]

Which is why, over the last weekend in March 2018, Jimmy had planned to join his dad to watch some college basketball at his place in Boca, along with Skip's best friend, Gary, who was coming in from out of town.

[B]

He was from Michigan also. It was his closest friend. They had watched the Final Four. Whenever Michigan State was succeeding at basketball, they had watched those games together. They were both avid Michigan State basketball fans, and he invited his friend Gary Gooden from Michigan to come and stay with him for the weekend in Florida.

[C]

Gary arrived at Skip's house on the afternoon of March 31st. It was a Saturday. He was a little surprised that Skip wasn't there to greet him, but they were old friends, and he figured he'd be back soon.

[B]

Gary had received a text message earlier in the day, and it advised him, hey, I'm going to be out for a little bit. You know, feel free to let yourself in. Something to that effect of, you know, I won't be there right when you get there, but no need to worry. And at the time, Gary, he wasn't upset about it. He did think it was a little odd that Skip wasn't going to be there to greet him when he got there, but he figured that there was something else going on that he had to take care of.

[D]

Later in the evening, Jimmy arrived from his place in Fort Lauderdale. Skip still wasn't back, but Jimmy didn't seem that concerned and said that he thought all was well.

[B]

Jimmy actually showed up to the house and was like, oh, yeah, I think my dad was doing XYZ thing. You know, we'll all kind of hang out together here at the house and we'll watch the Final Four together tomorrow.

[C]

But when Gary went to bed that night, Skip still hadn't come home or checked in by phone.

[B]

And when he woke up in the morning and Skip still wasn't there, that's when the alarm bells sort of started to go off.

[D]

Jimmy kept trying to assure Gary that there was nothing to worry about, that his dad had said something about going kayaking with a woman he had just met and that maybe his dinner date had stretched into breakfast. But that just wasn't sitting well with his friend Gary.

[C]

And remember, Gary was not just a neighbor who stopped by. This was Skip's best friend who had flown in from Michigan. They had planned this weekend for weeks.

[B]

It was just so unlike skip to invite someone to come stay with him and not be there.

[D]

It also wasn't like him to not be in touch by phone. So Gary persuaded Jimmy to play it safe and let him call the boca raton police and report his dad missing.

[E]

Boca police and fire signs reported. Yeah, can we talk with the marine unit, please? What's the problem? Well, the problem is that a friend of mine went kayaking somewhere in the boca area yesterday and has not returned.

[C]

Skip was in good shape, but he was also 74 years old. You'd have to consider that maybe skip had experienced a health emergency.

[E]

We haven't heard anything. We tried calling the phone. The phone's dead. And he was supposed to be back for the final four yesterday at six o'. Clock.

[B]

Initially, when the police arrived, they had asked, you know, what do you think is going on? What do you think happened? And it was then that Jimmy advised that he believed. He recalled his dad saying something about going kayaking. That certainly raised a lot of concern with law enforcement, because anytime you have an elderly person in a waterway, the risk of something happening increases.

[D]

According to Jimmy, his dad was likely not alone, Telling police that his dad had recently met a woman named Lorraine

[C]

while golfing, which meant that there may actually be two people missing or in potential danger.

[B]

So they began their search to try to find what potential waterway he would have been in where he went kayaking. And they got the coast guard involved. They got boca raton police to have a helicopter really actively searching for skip scandarito in the waterways.

[D]

Within a couple hours, police discovered their first big clue to skip's whereabouts, Albeit a pretty ominous one.

[B]

They found skip scandarito's car parked at a. It's a place called knowles park. It's a place that you can sort of trailer in a boat or perhaps take a kayak or a paddle board out. And they found skip scandarito's car parked there. It definitely raised the concern that he had gone out into the waterway and really was missing, had drowned, or something had happened to him. Because they couldn't find him anywhere.

[C]

The coast guard ramped up their search of the nearby waters and. But there was no sign of skip or this woman named lorraine.

[B]

They get an emergency trace for skip's phone to see if they can see his last pinging location. Perhaps he brought the phone with him on this kayaking adventure. But what they find is that the phone is last pinged near that delray beach boat ramp that the vehicle was found but what was interesting was they never recovered the phone. So after that moment in time, that fateful morning that they had that last ping, there's activity on the phone whatsoever

[D]

which isn't necessarily a sign of anything nefarious. It could have meant all kinds of things, right? Maybe the battery died or the phone got wet in the water and stopped working. But still, the fact that the phone was missing and not relaying Skip's location did not help their search for the missing man.

[C]

Now, between Lake Boca and the Intercoastal Waterway, there was a lot of area to cover in this kind of search. But with the full resources of the Coast Guard being utilized, and it was surprising that they hadn't turned up any sign of Skip, his date, or either of their boats, which left them wondering if the couple had made it onto the water at all.

[B]

So police started to fan out and spread out. First they went to the golf course that they believed that Skip had maybe met this, this woman, and they tried to find who she was.

[D]

Plenty of people knew Skip at his local course, but strangely, none of the regulars could think of any female golfer named Lorraine.

[B]

They actually went through the golf course sign in sheet on the day that Jimmy said perhaps they had met at the golf range. And they did find somebody's name, Lorraine, possibly with a last name of Stemp or Stemper. But there's no contact information.

[C]

Investigators did track down one potential lead, an address linked to the name L. Stemper. But when they checked it out, no one by that name lived there. And from that moment on, every attempt to identify or even locate the woman Skip was supposedly kayaking, they came up empty.

[B]

And over time that they were looking for this person, Lorraine, they suspected that that person may not actually even exist. So the red flags initially for potentially this double drowning or individual drowning this person missing in the waterway in South Florida started to show shift just a little bit to questioning whether that was even a true story or not.

[D]

And police actually had other reasons to start doubting Jimmy's story as well.

[B]

As they started to interview neighbors, they felt intrigued by the fact that Skip Scandarito didn't really know how to kayak very well. He actually had a blow up kayak in his garage that he tried to use once in the pond that's behind this golf community. And some of the neighbors came out and were pointing and laughing because Skip really couldn't kayak very well. So the story of him meeting this woman at golf started to fall apart a little bit because they couldn't even find her. And Then also the story of him going on a kayaking date as a date at all really didn't sit well with some of the individuals that lived in the community that knew Skip really well. And the only person that was really positing that theory was Jimmy Scandarito.

[C]

So, Ana Sega, let me just add this. This is the first big red flag for investigators. It's a story that's doing too much work. And here's what I mean by that. Every time there's a gap where Skip is why no one has seen him, why his phone may be dead, there's an answer. A woman, a kayak, a spontaneous date. And as you know, we, when you're investigating a missing person, that is a red flag. Normal life is messy and made up stories. They tend to be pretty neat.

[D]

I don't know, I'm just thinking that while anything's possible, if you don't really know how to kayak well, is that where you're going to take a first date on someone you are presumably trying to impress? Like, again, anything is possible, but that one, it's not really sitting as a likely possibility to me.

[C]

So now two whole days have passed since Jimmy had reported his father missing. And you know, this is where as an investigator, you start to prepare for some of the worst case scenarios, right?

[D]

I mean, you might be keeping a straight face for the missing person's family, assuring them that you're doing everything obviously that you can to locate their person. But in your head, you're also starting to think that this person may not just be lost, but that they may have been the victim of a crime.

[C]

At that point, investigators had no choice but to shift gears and treat it like any other criminal investigation. Searching for clues, identifying any potential crime scenes, and looking closely at anyone who could be a suspect.

[D]

So on Tuesday after Skip's disappearance, forensic techs started going through Skip's car for potential evidence. And that's when they hit on a pretty big clue.

[B]

When they processed the car, something that they found on the front passenger floorboard was a crumpled up receipt from Home Depot. And it was time stamped around six in the morning Saturday, which was the

[C]

morning of his supposed date with Lorraine and the day before Jimmy reported his dad missing. So that's potentially a pretty good clue to one of the last places Skip would have been seen.

[B]

And so they thought, hey, that's a possible lead. Maybe somebody from Home Depot knows something. Or maybe he went to Home Depot early scene Saturday before he went out on his kayaking adventure. We need to go Investigate that.

[D]

Investigators pulled surveillance video from the Home Depot and queued up the date and time found on the receipt.

[B]

And it's so early in the morning that the individual that's on the surveillance is actually the first person to show up at the store as a customer. And on the video, it showed Jimmy Scandarito, not Skip Scandarito, standing outside the Home Depot, literally waiting for the garage gate to open up. And the video surveillance showed him going inside and coming out with a red gas can in one hand and a red hand dolly or hand truck in

[C]

the other, which must have felt a little strange, since Jimmy never had mentioned being at a Home Depot or in his dad's car on the day that he went missing.

[D]

And why those items, A hand truck, a gas can. I mean, they might have been questions that had perfectly reasonable answers, but they were questions that needed to be answered.

[B]

And they start to become suspicious that perhaps something had happened to Skip that was beyond a simple missing person.

[C]

So detectives from Boca Raton PD Headed back to Skip's home, where his son Jimmy and Skip's friend Gary, and still staying and coordinating that search for Skip.

[B]

Gary Gooden is completely distraught about his dearest friend being missing. And Jimmy is staying at the home because he's not going back to Fort Lauderdale, and he's actively involved in trying to help. In fact, he was printing out missing persons posters and going to Knowles park, where the vehicle had been recovered, and putting up missing persons posters for his father.

[D]

When detectives straight out asked Jimmy about his visit to the Home Depot, Jimmy had an explanation.

[B]

So they actually conducted a recorded interview with Jimmy, and they asked him about the hand truck, and he sort of flippantly said, oh, my gosh. You know, I bought that for pressure washing. I must have accidentally left the receipt in my dad's car when I was with him the other day.

[C]

But that meant he must have left the receipt in his dad's car sometime during the morning before Skip's supposed date. A morning during which Skip had not mentioned ever seeing his dad.

[D]

So at this point, the detective's antenna, it's really working overtime.

[B]

They ended up doing a walkthrough of the home. And when they did the walkthrough, Jimmy Scandarito did the walkthrough with them. So as they started to move through the home, Detective Hanley was paying close attention to Jimmy Scandarito's physical demeanor and behavior. And when they walked into the garage, there was a chill that came over detective Hanley. And he noticed that Jimmy Scandarito became Incredibly nervous and stiff, the garage floor

[C]

appeared to have been recently scrubbed clean. And in the air, investigators noticed a faint smell of bleach.

[B]

And it was at that moment that detective hanley actually turned to jimmy scandarito, who was sitting, standing in the garage. His back was pressed up against some shelving that they had. Behind him was rolls of duct tape and garbage bags. And jimmy was sort of standing in front of them. And detective hanley looked at him and very quickly said to jimmy scandarito, what do you think happened to your dad? And without missing a beat, jimmy scandarito said, he's at the bottom of the ocean, very cold, very callous, very direct. And it really struck a chord with detective hanley. He made a mental note that he was absolutely going to go back into that garage. He felt like there was something wrong. Something had happened inside that garage and he needed to investigate more.

[D]

Investigators in boca raton, florida, were starting to suspect that there was much more behind the story of skip scandarito's disappearance than they had been led to believe.

[C]

What started as a water search for a 74 year old former judge was taking the form of a homicide investigation, Especially after his son Jimmy's odd behavior

[D]

when talking to police at the bottom of the ocean. That was the answer. Jimmy, gay police, when asked where he thought his father might be. But was it an offhand comment, a kind of gallows humor about a possible kayak related drowning? Or was it some kind of flip and cold confession?

[B]

It was such an odd thing to say because oftentimes when law enforcement asks family members who are distraught over a missing person or something, and they say, what do you think happened to them? What they get in response is this panicked, I don't know, you tell me. Find my loved one. Find someone you know, do you think they could have drowned? Do you think someone hurt them? It's not often that they get this very cold, direct answer of like, he's at the bottom of the ocean. That left detective hanley with this feeling that I think skip scandarito might be dead. And I'm gonna find out how and I'm gonna find out why, and I'm gonna find out who. And his immediate senses going off that jimmy scandarito had something to do with it.

[C]

Or maybe he just meant that he had lost hope that his dad was still alive and was hard to know for sure. But it was the kind of moment that makes investigators pause and rethink their approach to an investigation.

[B]

Maybe jimmy scandarito is being pragmatic or matter of fact that if his dad had, you know, gone into the intercoastal, that perhaps he drowned and that's where he is. And you can't use a hunch in court. Of course not. But those hunches and those spidey senses sometimes lead them to do the most thorough investigation that they're capable of because they have this lingering feeling that something nefarious has occurred.

[D]

Either way, the next steps for detective hanley were clear. The investigation had to shift from a missing person's case to a potential homicide, and that meant trying to identify a crime scene.

[B]

They have a video of jimmy scandarito being the first person purchasing a gas can and a hand truck on the day of the disappearance. They have somebody who is not answering a phone. They have an abandoned vehicle. And now they really need to kind of dig in and find out if, you know, if they're coming up short with scanning the intercoastal waterway with dive teams and the coast guard, they're hopeful that they would have found a body by now, but they didn't. So now all of their efforts start to kind of turn towards, well, let's regroup and let's search this house and see. See if we can find any clues about maybe where skip's ganderita went.

[C]

Aside from his odd comment to detectives that his father was at the bottom of the ocean, Jimmy had largely been cooperative with police. He even took an active role in the search for his dad. But when investigators arrived at skip's home with a search warrant, that behavior, it shifted, and it quickly turned more strange

[B]

when they tell him that they're going to shut down the house and they're actually going to do a search warrant and look through the house. They tell jimmy that he has to leave his cell phone, and when they do, Jimmy has an absolute meltdown. He tries to grab the phone away from detective hanley, and detective hanley is trying to explain to him that this is normal protocol because everybody inside the home, nothing can leave, including the cell phones. And his reaction was so abrupt and so angry and so combative, they had to physically remove the phone from jimmy scandarito.

[D]

Safe to say, you wouldn't really expect the missing person's child not to cooperate with police. I mean, I can say that if it was me for sure, and my parent was gone, I would, of course, hand over my cell phone or anything they would need to try to help solve the disappearance.

[C]

You know, as investigators, we're trained to give some victims and loved ones, of course, the benefit of doubt, because they are often under a tremendous amount of stress and grief, and they're not always thinking straight. But this kind of behavior, that is a little bit more than hinky.

[B]

It's just another piece of the puzzle that's really starting to raise flags and

[D]

concerns, raising even more red flags. What they found in the garage.

[B]

What they find in the garage is that red dolly that they had seen Jimmy Scandarito standing in front of the home depot purchasing at 6 o' clock in the morning on the day of the disappearance. They see the red hand truck and what they find are blood droplets. So now there are suspicions that perhaps something nefarious had happened really starts to go through the roof because now they have blood. And so now law enforcement is really concerned that something has happened to him that isn't just a disappearance. That is really foul play.

[C]

Investigators immediately returned to Skip's truck, this time with dogs trained to alert on the scent of any blood of human remains.

[B]

What's interesting about that vehicle is initially they had no reason to run a cadaver dog or any other type of dog on the vehicle. But once they found blood droplets, they went back to that car. And when they did, the cadaver dog actually signaled that there was blood or some type of human material that was inside the car. And that was really, really, really, of course, concerning that. This is shifting almost instantaneously at different angles into some type of homicide investigation

[D]

and their person of interest, the victim's own son, Jimmy Scandarito.

[B]

The detectives make a critically important decision that changed the entire investigation. And based on Jimmy's behavior in trying to grab his cell phone, his answers of my dad is sitting at the bottom of the intercoastal and an inability to find Skip with these weird instances that are happening, like Jimmy purchasing a hand truck and a gas can, the garage looking clean. But now they actually have found blood. They decide to put a surveillance team on Jimmy Scandarito to follow him. And that's when the investigation really takes a turn.

[C]

A team of plainclothes officers trailed Jimmy from Boca Raton back to his apartment building in Fort Lauderdale, where they expected him to stay put at home.

[D]

But that wasn't what happened. As they were watching his home, they saw Jimmy leave.

[B]

All of a sudden he gets into his car and he drives and goes, picks up gas and is kind of looking around. The way that he's driving his car is somebody who potentially believes that they might be being followed. And so that starts to raise an alarm with the surveillance team, like, hey, like this guy's acting A little bit odd. Let's follow him and see where he goes. So when they do really early in the morning, it's still dark out. They see Jimmy Scandarito drive to the Boca Tika golf course.

[C]

This particular golf course had been closed for extensive repairs. Essentially, it was abandoned. So police knew this was not a case of Jimmy just catching an early round.

[D]

Team set with binoculars and night vision glasses watched Jimmy to see what he did next.

[B]

They watch him go onto the golf course that's been abandoned empty handed, and they see him leave the golf course with a large suitcase being dragged off.

[C]

Jimmy put the suitcase in the trunk of his car and pulled away. Then he stopped at a nearby dumpster and removed the suitcase from the trunk and then tossed it inside that dumpster.

[B]

He then gets back in his car and he starts driving.

[D]

One team headed straight for the dumpster to try to recover the suitcase, while the other one stayed close to Jimmy.

[B]

And just like out of him movie, they're following him with a helicopter. They're following him every different stage, trying to be as discreet as possible, and they lose him. And so they revert all of their energy back to the dumpster because they now know whatever is inside that suitcase, whatever's in that dumpster, is going to be something that we really need to see.

[C]

And unfortunately, I'm sure we can all imagine or know what exactly is going on here, right where this case is heading as the CSI team carefully retrieved the suitcase.

[B]

When the CSI team gets that suitcase out of the dumpster, they open it and the suitcase is empty, except there's blood matter all along inside soaked into the suitcase lining. And there's maggots. And whenever you have what looks like human blood and maggots, it means that there's a state of decomposition of some type of human material inside.

[D]

Investigators suspected that the suitcase at one point contained Skip's remains, but they wouldn't be sure until it was confirmed by a lab or they found his body. And we do want to warn you that what you're going to hear next is graphic and disturbing.

[B]

So they call in the troops. Cadaver dogs, search perimeter teams, dive teams. Sunlight's coming up. They're walking the perimeter to see what else may have been buried on the golf course. And one of the cadaver dogs alerts that perhaps there is human material and a human being remains, maybe inside the sand trap on the golf course. And as they dig, they uncover a garbage bag. And to their absolute horror, when they open up the garbage bag, there is half of a human Torso inside with the head cut off, the arms cut off, and it's cut a little bit underneath the rib cage. So it's the upper part of a human torso.

[C]

Cadaver dogs continue to alert and CSI technicians continue to dig until eventually they uncovered yet another garbage bag.

[B]

And in the second garbage bag is the lower half of the torso, cut a little bit where the hip bone is with the legs cut off.

[D]

Investigators reported that they had also detected the smell of gasoline and observed what appeared to be burn marks on the clothing that remained on the severed torso.

[B]

But they searched all through the sand trap. They searched all through the golf course. I mean, everywhere that they possibly could search. And they couldn't find the head. They couldn't find any of the limbs. And that was really, really concerning, of

[C]

course, to law enforcement, unfortunately. And obviously, without a head, there was no way to make a facial recognition, no way to use dental records, and without limbs, no way to compare fingerprints. But there was still some DNA.

[B]

They actually used skip Scandarito's toothbrush and did a rush DNA analysis. And they were able to determine that the dismembered torso that they found on the golf course was belonged to skip Scandarito.

[D]

It had been less than a week since Jimmy Scandarito had reported his father missing, and now he was the prime suspect in his murder.

[C]

But the investigation was far from over because police still didn't know how skip died or why, if his son was involved and did he act alone.

[D]

And there was now another complication as well, because now it was Jimmy Scandarito who disappeared.

[B]

He's gone. They were unable to track him. There was so much clutch cloud cover that night and early morning as he left the dumpster and the golf course that now the hunt is on for Jimmy Scantarito throughout the state of Florida.

[C]

Clearly, Jimmy Scantarito knew the jig was up and he was willing to take his chances on the run rather than face the consequences of his actions.

[D]

Or was there more to this story that police had yet to uncover? One way to know when a missing person's investigation has turned into a homicide investigation is when only part of that person remains missing.

[C]

The discovery of skip Scantarito's dismembered body confirmed that he had met a violent and gruesome end. But in a bizarre twist, the fact that his head and limbs were still missing complicated investigators ability to determine his exact manner and cause of death. And Anna Seger here, this is really where the forensic limitations really matter and why this case never had the kind of medical clarity that People expect an autopsy is only as good as the condition of the remains. Here investigators were working with skeletal and partial remains, which severely restricts what a medical examiner can say with confidence. If Skip had been poisoned, strangled or drowned, there are certain physiological or toxicological markers that might still be detectable even after time and decomposition. Those causes leave signatures that don't always disappear completely.

[D]

And look, just to make it simple and not to be graphic, but, but it's just. What we're talking about here is that, for example, if someone is shot in the heart and you don't have that portion of their body, well, of course the medical examiner can't tell you how they died. Right? And that's exactly the challenge they're facing here. And look, there's also this other thing that you have to think about too. There are multiple examples of cases where a dismembered body has been recovered, but with no cause of death. The suspect then claims that maybe they buried or even dismembered the body, but that the person was already dead right when they found them. And then they decided maybe to get rid of the body because they're scared or something. And the thing about that is it is a defense that has worked before. It's not the outcome that detectives are going to be okay with because of course, it is rarely, if ever, true. But even without the cause of death, one thing investigators could do was build a timeline, right, of both Skip and Jimmy's whereabouts and actions in the days leading up to and immediately after Skip's disappearance.

[B]

And so now they're looking backwards. What happened in the last few days of Skip's life before this dismembered torso is found? Where is he? What is he doing, doing? And in doing all of those things, they also set up alerts on Skip, scan Doritos bank accounts in case there's any type of weird activity or activity at all. And what they find is within the 24 hours of Skip's disappearance, there is a large transfer of money. Over $1,000 is being transferred.

[C]

There are also continued online pings and attempts to, to access Skip's bank accounts.

[B]

That money immediately starts moving. And what they notice is the money is moving to Jimmy's Ganderito, which could

[D]

again have an innocent explanation or at least an answer that doesn't equate to Jimmy being a murderer. It was no secret that Skip had been supporting Jimmy financially. And quite often adult children might be given access to their parents bank accounts. However, in this case, investigators also uncovered some very suspicious purchases on Skip's credit card.

[B]

And as they're going back, they find that Skip's Candorito's own credit card is used to purchase Clorox tub and tile scrubber, a bottle of Pine Sol, duct tape, garbage bags, which, of course, sounds

[C]

like exactly the kind of products someone would need to clean up and cover up a murder.

[D]

So this is pretty strong circumstantial evidence that Jimmy may have been involved in, at the very least, disposing of his father's body. But it's not necessarily proof that he had committed the murder itself, which logically

[C]

isn't a huge leap to make. But without definitive proof connecting Jimmy to his dad's murder, it was still a leap.

[D]

Now, investigators were also starting to uncover some evidence that was casting doubt on how long, long, exactly, Skip had been missing.

[B]

Well, it's interesting, because as they started to talk to people in the days prior to his disappearance, people would say things like, oh, I got a text message from Skip. Or, oh, I had a really brief conversation with Skip on the phone, and he was canceling plans, and he was acting a little weird, and he wasn't acting like himself. So one of those instances was Betty Butcher was a friend of Skip Scandarito's. She's an older woman, and her and Skip Scandarito actually had plans that Friday before Gary Gooden was coming to town to go to the US Open together. And abruptly and weirdly, Skip Scandarito had canceled the plans through a text message the morning that. That they were supposed to go. You know, that didn't feel great to Betty Butcher. She was kind of miffed by that, but didn't really think anything of it. She had briefly spoken to him on the phone, and he gave this explanation like, oh, you know, I can't go anymore, but I'll talk to you soon. And abruptly kind of cut it off. And that was what Betty Butcher reported to the police. Like, oh, well, I just spoke to Skip Scandarito. But he didn't really sound like a himself. He sounded really odd.

[C]

And there was a reason why it sounded off, because investigators had growing reason to believe it wasn't him at all, because by that point, they believed Skip Scandarito was already dead.

[B]

They had to wait until they had forensic analysis from those actual maggots that were recovered to have a much closer time and date of death based on that decomposition. But they suspected that as early as Wednesday or Thursday that Skip Scandarito of that week was deceased, which was now

[D]

four days before Jimmy Scanderito had reported his dad missing.

[B]

That Wednesday night, one of the last people to actually hear from Skip and speak to Skip and recognize his voice was Betty Butcher. Because the night before he canceled, old Skip Sandarito spoke to Betty about how excited he was confirming the plans to

[C]

go to the US Open and everything that came after. The short phone calls, canceling plans. The text messages to Gary pointed to the same conclusion. They were the actions of someone impersonating Skip using his phone. And that someone was his son, Jimmy.

[B]

We have to remember that during this time period, they are also connecting with the family members of Skip's ganderito, sharing this horrific news that not only is Skip deceased, but his body has been completely desecrated and the prime suspect is his son, who's your family member. And he's on the run. We don't know where he is.

[D]

And the obvious devastating impact impact on Skip's friends and extended family, including his brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews, it cannot be overlooked.

[B]

So all of his family members and extended family are starting to fly in from Michigan. So in that moment, all of those family members are feeling this grief of loss, confusion that their own cousin, that Skip's only son, could be involved somehow and not being able to get answers. Because they don't know in that moment how Skip died. They don't know in that moment where Jimmy is or what the explanation could possibly be for his involvement.

[C]

Meanwhile, CSI had confirmed the blood found in the garage belonged to Skip.

[B]

Well, at that point, they believe it's a murder, and they believe that it happened somewhere inside that house because of the blood droplets, because of the clear evidence of cleaning, the cleaning supplies, the finding of duct tape, the way that the garbage bags are sort of tied that are holding the pieces of the torso. They go back and they see that that is the same type of garbage bag that's found in Skip Scandarito's garage. And it's the same type of garbage bag that was purchased by Jimmy Scandarito just the days or two prior.

[D]

At this point, the circumstantial evidence was enough for authorities to secure an arrest warrant for Jimmy Scandarito.

[B]

They eventually track and trace him to the west coast of Florida. And they use multiple different covert means to surveil him and see where he's going. And they finally intercept his car and make an arrest of him. And inside the car, they find cash, they find a Brazilian passport, they find a knife that is sitting just plain on the seat, and Jimmy is taken into custody.

[C]

They also immediately performed a search of Jimmy's apartment in Fort Lauderdale in hopes of finding a murder weapon or the rest of Skip.

[B]

When they did the search of Jimmy's home, they kind of came up empty. There wasn't much there except for a notice on Jimmy Scandarito's door during the investigation of an eviction.

[D]

But that's now evidence that Jimmy Scandarito had been in some financial stress, which also spoke to a possible motive for killing his dad. As did the discovery of some forged checks written from Skip's bank account to his son.

[B]

One of the key things that law enforcement did is they did a search for Jimmy's computer and his devices. And in doing that, during the timeframe that they believe that Skip Scandarito was killed or died, they find searches on Jimmy's computer of locations that don't extradite to the United States. And that's happening within less than 24 hours after the suspected time of death.

[C]

So clearly he was already demonstrating both a consciousness of guilt and was plotting to avoid facing consequences for his actions.

[D]

So, Mortimer, it's looking like either Jimmy Scandarito killed his father or maybe he did it with somebody else or. Or at least knows who did and was now helping that person cover up and get away. Because as investigators kept digging into the possibility of there being anybody else that might have had the motive to hurt Skip, they didn't exactly come up empty handed.

[C]

While there was also some allegations involving Skip and his work as a judge in Michigan, and he had left that job under a bit of a cloud, and not only that, as a career judge, he certainly made. Made plenty of enemies, even some pretty powerful ones. So I guess anything was possible.

[B]

They're not leaving any possibility closed. They're keeping an open mind in the investigation. But they know one thing and one thing for sure, and that's Jimmy Scanderito is intimately involved in the death and dismemberment of Skip Scanderito.

[D]

So while police still didn't have definitive proof of Jimmy's role in his dad's murder, the fact that he participated in the dismemberment and attempt disposal of his body parts spoke volumes about his intentions.

[B]

You don't get from a death to dismemberment without a hatred, a desire for death. To cut up anybody physically is demanding. It's challenging, it's gruesome, it's absolutely horrific. The thought of a son doing that to his own father leaves you with one answer, which is he desperately hated him. He desperately wanted him dead. Because you don't put a saw to somebody's neck that has raised you your entire life unless you literally despise them.

[C]

Which brings us all back to the question of motive. Was it just money or was there a deeper hatred behind Jimmy Scandarito's plot to take his father's life?

[B]

There were items of circumstantial evidence that built such a clear cut case that Jimmy Scandarito wanted his father gone because Jimmy Scandarito needed access to those funds. After Terry Scandarito died, the person that held all of the coins that Jimmy Scandarito needed was his father.

[D]

Investigators theory, Skip and Terry's own child could not stand on his own. And after his mom's death, he resented his father's attempts to cut him off.

[B]

His son had tried to be a lawyer and wasn't really very successful. He tried to be in real estate and never really quite got off the ground. And he's working as a Lyft driver. He's driving his deceased mother's Prius. He's being evicted from his home in Fort Lauderdale. All of those signs really start to paint a picture of motive. And we can prove cases without a clear cut motive. It's not required under the law. But here, all of those circumstantial pieces of evidence really laid the groundwork to show a motive for why Skip would have been killed by his own son. He wanted him dead for the money, and he was going to do everything that he could to cover up exactly how he killed him.

[C]

Jimmy Scandarito was charged with first degree murder and the abuse of his father's corpse. Emily and her fellow prosecutors was still assembling evidence when he went to trial.

[B]

Typically, defense lawyers will waive their client's right to a speedy trial because it gives them more of an opportunity to take depositions to find flaws in the state's case. That was not the way that this case went to trial initially. The defense made a decision early on that they were not going to waive that right for speedy trial. And so this, this homicide and indictment happens in the spring of 2018, and we are picking a jury, our first jury in the case in September of 2018. In the homicide world, that is lightning

[D]

fast, especially when the prosecution team has such a vast amount of evidence, you know, that circumstantial evidence that they'd been collecting that they now have to parse out and organize.

[B]

We were working, you know, in overdrive and just making sure that all of our docs were in a row, keeping our possibilities open, that at any moment in time we could uncover a new piece of evidence. That could change the trajectory of the case because they were still investigating, they were still searching for the head, and

[C]

prosecutors were also still strategizing how to present their case. Without one critical piece of the puzzle, they still did not know the exact cause and manner of death.

[D]

In other words, they would have to rely on that circumstantial evidence to even prove that Skip had indeed been murdered.

[E]

The.

[D]

That can be a really tough hurdle for any prosecution.

[B]

But when you looked at all of the evidence on paper, and you looked at all of the evidence that we had, and the behavior of Jimmy Scandarito and his efforts to cover up the crime and flee the country and move the money and do all of these things, we felt strong going into that trial. We felt rushed, but we felt strong.

[C]

After just three days, an issue with a defense attorney forced the judge to declare a mistrial. A false start that would have consequences for both the prosecution and the accused.

[B]

It really cut us off at the knees to kind of have to start all over again. But we were up to the task. We were like, okay, we have more time now.

[D]

And so did Jimmy Scandarito's defense team. And when the new trial began about a year later, it was clear that it had been prepared now to take a different tact.

[B]

They had stopped crossing certain witnesses, and that was like a signal to us. And we realized, he's going to testify what he's going to testify to, Lord knows. But we felt like, you know, this rate may really be his one shot to try to get some sympathy from the jury. Because the physical evidence was overwhelming. The. The picture that is being painted because of the evidence that exists, exists is really just heinous and gruesome and overwhelming of a brutal murder and dismemberment. We were almost curious, like, what is he possibly going to say when he's on the stand? Absolutely nothing prepared us in that moment for what he got up on the stand and said. You could hear a pin drop. When Jimmy Scandarito took the stand and started testifying about what happened following his

[C]

arrest, Jimmy Scanarito had invoked his right to silence, and he had refused to speak to police. So this was the first time he was presenting his version of his father's murder. And safe to say, no one could have ever guessed what he was going to say.

[B]

He said that him and his dad had been partying and that they had done drugs together. And he went outside and he was relaxing or was, like, on his phone or on his laptop or iPad or something like that. And when he came Back in, his dad was leaned over on the couch and had died of natural causes. And in his drug fueled state, he was so panicked because he didn't want to get in trouble for doing drugs and he didn't want his dad's good name as being a former judge to be tarnished. And so he made the decision that he was going to move the body. Our jaws were like on the table. We just, we were sitting there listening to this and we're like, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're telling us that you sawed off your dad's head after you duct taped him to a hand trolley like a bag of trash? You're telling us that you did that because you didn't want people to think bad of him because you he did some drugs in his 70s. That's what you're telling us?

[D]

Scanderino had now claimed that his dad Skip's death was an accidental overdose while simultaneously admitting to the gruesome dismemberment and disposal of his dad's body.

[B]

The testimony itself was so gruesome and so shocking in our minds, we were like, there's no possible way anybody's going to believe this. And going into closing arguments, we still felt really confident.

[C]

After both sides rested their cases, the decision was sent to the jury.

[B]

Deliberations took a long time. So we knew they were fighting about something, something we didn't know what. So the jury comes out and they're about to read the verdict and, you know, the family's holding each other and hugging and crying and, you know, we were patiently waiting and listening. And they read, count one, not guilty, count two, guilty. And we are stunned. Count one was first degree murder, and count two was dismemberment of a body. We were just like, what did they, did they read that right? Oh, my gosh, like, what did we miss? What did, what went wrong? Like, how, you know, how is that possible?

[D]

Without a cause and manner of death? Coupled with Jimmy Scano's on the stand story, the jury was apparently not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Skip had been murdered.

[C]

Logic and your gut tells you that the person who dismembered a victim would also be responsible for his death. But legally, the jury was in their right not to make that leap.

[B]

There are things that land with certain juries and things that don't. There's physical evidence. You have a body, you don't know exactly how that person died. And when you ask juries to make that leap, sometimes of logical inferences, of circumstantial evidence, sometimes they Just can't get there, even if they know. And all of the evidence shows, you know, what happened.

[D]

I also think that defendant Jimmy Scandarito's strategy of admitting the dismemberment of his own dad in graphic detail. Look, he's basically admitting guilt to the lesser charge against him in this case. It seemed to have actually helped him.

[B]

I think the reality is when you have a defendant that testifies to something so heinous and saying, hey, I'll take responsibility. I'll take responsibility for doing this absolutely awful thing, and I'll try to show you remorse for this awful thing, but I didn't do this second thing. Sometimes that really lands with a jury where they're like, I mean, but what guy is going to get on this stand and in the a court of law for all to see live streaming on, you know, law and crime network? What guy is going to get up there and confess to chopping up his own father and. And then tell us that he didn't kill him? Unless he really didn't.

[C]

In the end, the jury just didn't have all the answers they needed to hand down a guilty verdict.

[B]

You want to yell into the ether. The reason why you don't have that answer is not because the prosecution can't give it to you. It's because Jimmy Scandarito tied the head in a garbage bag and put it in a construction dumpster. That's why you don't have that answer.

[D]

And that's exactly what this prosecution team believed had happened. But the jury had spoken differently with their verdict. And as we know, because of double jeopardy laws, once a defendant is acquitted, that's it. Game over. You can't retry someone on that same charge. But Skip's family could still look to the sentencing of that lesser charge for that delivery of at least some justice.

[B]

The judge, in reviewing all of the evidence and sitting through the entire trial, even though Jimmy Scandarito had never been convicted of an offense before, felt like the unbelievable amount of pain that Jimmy Scandarito caused. He sentenced him to the maximum sentence that he could, which was 15 years.

[C]

Skip's family also filed a civil lawsuit to prevent Jimmy from ever inheriting any portion of Skip's estate following his scheduled release from prison.

[D]

But as it turns out, that day would never come. In 2025, Jimmy Scandarito died in prison of a sudden heart attack. Emily spoke to Skip's family after getting news of Jimmy Scandarito's death.

[B]

I asked them how they felt about it, and they said, you know, relief Sadness, a sense of closure. I think there was always a fear that they had about, you know, that Jimmy was going to get out of prison in 10 years or 12 years with game time and good behavior, and would just go on to live this fabulous life while the uncle and brother that they knew and loved didn't even have a final resting place because Jimmy did that to him.

[C]

Is this any form of justice?

[B]

He didn't get the freedom that he was hoping for at the end of his prison sentence. All he wanted to do was have pretty women and lots of money and live this lifestyle that he couldn't quite get to. To me, I wouldn't say it gives comfort, but it certainly seems fair that Jimmy didn't get to live that life that he so desperately wanted to and was willing to kill for it.

[D]

As for Skip's family, they chose not to focus on Jimmy Scandarito's actions and the fairness of his punishment and instead chose to focus on Skip's life and his legacy.

[B]

Even though I never got to know Skip, I sort of get to know him through his family. And they're just such warm, loving, wonderful people. There are plenty of victims, families that are out there where they don't get the outcome that they want and they don't have that grace and they don't have that ability to give gratitude to the people who fought for justice because they're so heartbroken that they didn't get that outcome. Not the Scandarito family. They are so kind and so generous and grateful and just happy that even now we have an opportunity to talk about what a great person Skip Scandarito was. And, you know, even though the end of his life was nothing that anyone could have ever written in a horror novel, all of his life up to that point is worth honoring. And they're happy that they get the opportunity to continue his legacy.

[C]

For me, this case is case isn't just about evidence or verdicts. It's about a father and son whose lives were completely entwined. Skip and Jimmy were not distant. They were connected financially, emotionally, and in daily life. And when that relationship broke, there was no clean line between caretaker and controller dependence and resentment. We may never know exactly how Skip died. The evidence couldn't give us that. But we do know what Jimmy did after his father was gone. And those actions didn't come from a stranger. They came from a son who knew his father's routines, his contacts, his phone, and his life. This wasn't a random crime. It was a private collapse played out behind closed doors and in the end, it left a jury trying to separate love from control, care from deception, and a son from the consequences of what he did.

[D]

It was never declared in a court of law that Skip Scandarito was murdered. But the evidence, I think, makes at least that much pretty clear to us all. And even without a murder conviction on the books against the son, the tragedy and brutality in the act of dismembering your own parent and then literally throwing them away like trash is horrendous and horrible enough. Skip Scandarita was down in Florida trying to enjoy his retirement years. He and his wife had been financially helping their child at that point for many years. I think it's those acts of kindness, the responsibility and the giving nature of both Skip and his wife is what we should leave off with today, not with how he died. Instead, the dad that Skip was who was trying to help his only child succeed and navigate his own life in the best ways Skip knew how. That is how we'll leave off thinking about Skip. Tune in next week for another new episode of Homicide360.

[C]

Homicide360 is created and produced by for SETI Media and Weinberger Media.

[D]

Supervising producer is Walker Lamond. Managing editor is Kate Mack. Sabrina Sarai is production manager. Edited by Ali Sierrawa and Phil Jean Grande. Original theme music by Trey Anderson.

[C]

This episode was researched by Jephthah Storm.