Bloody Plot Twists - Minden, Nevada

Summary

Small Town Murder – "Bloody Plot Twists: Minden, Nevada"

Podcast: Small Town Murder
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Episode Date: December 27, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into a bizarre and tragic murder in Minden, Nevada. The hosts analyze what makes the small town tick, then unravel the intricately tangled murder of Benjamin “Ben” Oxley, a beloved local, with their signature blend of thorough research, jaw-dropping details, and sharp comedic wit. Through deep family dysfunction, legal twists, failed alibis, and a truly shocking immunity deal, James and Jimmie walk listeners through a real-life small town crime that brims with wild turns—scandal, murder-for-hire gossip, a devoted stepmother, and generational cycles of tragedy.

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Setting the Scene: Minden, Nevada (04:51–10:24)

• Location & Demographics
  • Minden: western Nevada, near California border, 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe, 50 minutes to Reno.
  • Population: 3,335 – “Very small.” (05:47)
  • Median home price: $649,700, thanks to proximity to Tahoe.
• Town History
  • Founded 1906 by Heinrich Dangberg, named after his German hometown.
  • Had a sundown siren (from 1917–2021) with a racist history: “[It] signaled that members of the Washoe Indian tribe were required to leave town or face jail time.” (07:04)
• Cultural Flavor
  • Town praised for “country” sensibility, “safe place to live,” and farming roots.
  • Hometown festival includes the Carson Valley Days and the Rubber Duck Derby.
  • Not much diversity in food or events: “Can we have a Chinese food place here, please?” (08:22)

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Meet the Victim: Ben Oxley and His Family (10:24–19:27)

Ben Oxley: The Man

• Background: Born 1972, West Covina, CA; moved to Hawaii at age 10; loves beach life, has many siblings including twin brother Bill (“What is up with all the twins lately on this goddamn show?” – James, 11:10).
• Athletics: Played football (barefoot kicker!) and soccer (12:03–12:44).
• Personality: Social, outdoorsy, worked at Penielo Country Inn before moving to mainland.

Ben’s Relationships

• First wife: Dawn Leanne Mitchell
  • Married 1999, divorced 2004, one daughter together – Alyssa.
  • “This is a pretty rocky relationship … not doing well together.” (14:56)
  • Ugly custody battle; Dawn described as unstable, in and out of legal trouble, substance abuse issues.
• Second wife: Melissa
  • Met online, early bonding over Ben’s daughter: “Look, if you’re going to be with me, you gotta be with my daughter too—dating us both.” (16:07)
  • Early resistance from Alyssa: “Don’t talk to my dad.” (16:52)
  • Melissa wins Alyssa over with compassion and a “family of three” mentality; Melissa legally becomes Alyssa’s full-time guardian after Dawn loses custody (17:55–19:27).
  • Melissa’s teenage brother, Craig, also lives with them.

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The Murder: A Night of Blood and Confusion (19:27–27:30)

Events of February 21, 2008

• Melissa’s 911 Call (~3:30 AM): "It's really, really bad ... there's blood everywhere." (21:10)
• Her Account to Police:
  • Woke up hearing a noise and smelling gun smoke.
  • Saw the front door wide open.
  • Tried to wake Ben, discovered him shot in the head.
  • Grabbed Alyssa and locked themselves in Alyssa’s room before calling 911.
  • "She didn't realize, she said, that the sound that woke her up was a shotgun blast ... which is fucking loud." (22:58)

First on Scene

• Police find teenage Craig in his bedroom, confused, having slept through the gunshot and police shouts (24:00–24:50).
• Melissa and Alyssa: found in the hallway, Melissa covered in blood and in shock.
• Ben: found dead, killed by shotgun blast to the back of the head while sleeping.
• No signs of forced entry; police describe it as "one of the most horrific crime scenes [I’ve] ever seen." (25:46)

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A Web of Suspicion (27:30–35:26)

Suspicion Swirls

• Police puzzled by Melissa claiming not to hear the shotgun:
  • “That’s sound as fuck, man…if you blasted a shotgun a foot from my fucking head, I’d probably wake up.” (27:49)
• Craig’s bedroom: shotgun shells found, plus family shotguns in garage.
• Police interrogate both Melissa and Craig; both deny involvement and claim to be sound sleepers. Gunshot residue tests NEGATIVE for both.

Early Suspects

• Melissa suggests Dawn’s ex-boyfriend, but:
  • He was out of town at the time.
• Dawn’s new boyfriend: James Kenneth Matleen (b. 1986, 15 years younger than Dawn), multiple felonies before age 19.
  • Alibi initially holds: “We were sitting here drinking and watching movies all night together.” (38:03)
  • Police verify with show/movie times.
• Dead ends: focus shifts back to Melissa, rumors swirl in small town.

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Shocking Motives and Legal Snarls (39:03–56:30)

Insurance and Rumor

• Melissa is revealed as the beneficiary of Ben’s $400,000 life insurance, which she claims she didn't know about and never tried to claim (39:03–41:39).
• Town gossips escalate, targeting her as a “money hungry murderer.”
• Police, unsatisfied, circle back to Dawn.

The Real Web: Dawn’s Dysfunction

• Dawn: history of neglect, drug abuse, child endangerment, unstable relationships, and criminal record.
• Friends and relatives recall kids being abandoned, asking for food.
• Police, lacking physical evidence, painstakingly review surveillance footage from local stores.
  • Breakthrough: 7-Eleven footage shows James Matleen making purchases the night of the murder, contradicting his alibi (44:00).
• Six months of police surveillance and intimidation tactics.

The Break in the Case

• Dawn's Drunken Confession: Calls police while drunk and says, “I never asked James to kill him.” (45:43)
• Not admissible due to inebriation.
• Later, Dawn arrested for DUI (46:36), and her teenage son, Devin, comes forward:
  • Testifies he overheard Dawn and James speaking openly about wanting Ben dead the night before the murder, hoping to regain custody and avoid child support ($250/month). (47:42)
  • “What $250/month is worth murder?” (47:42)
  • James stated at the time that Dawn wanted Ben to “just die in a random spontaneous burst of flames. Or for James to just go out and kill him.” (48:03–48:29)
• Deal with the Devil: Dawn given immunity for testifying against James (“It was like making a deal with the devil.” – Ben’s brother, 49:19)

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The Murder and (Im)morality Play (56:30–65:43)

How It Went Down: James’ Confession

• Dawn and James spent the night drinking and taking mushrooms, discussing the murder in detail.
• “Dawn kept saying she wanted Ben dead. I told her I would do it.” (56:10)
• Dawn urged the killing of both Ben and Melissa, even drew a diagram of the house.
• James: “I shot Ben and got so afraid, I ran out the front door. I couldn’t shoot Melissa.” (56:30)
• Dawn almost took Alyssa with her, but James talked her out of it.
• Aftermath: destroyed the murder weapon, agreed on a fake alibi.
• Dawn remains legally untouchable due to complete immunity.

Fallout for Dawn

• As her son Devin testifies, her parental negligence surfaces in court:
  • Used own 15-year-old daughter for drug deals (63:17).
  • Judge: “I want you to sit there and tell her this is all mom’s fault. You did nothing wrong.” (63:07)
  • Receives 90 months in prison.

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The Sentencing and Aftermath (65:58–74:50)

James Matleen’s Fate

• DA does not seek death penalty, as facts don't meet statutory aggravators. Life without parole.
• In a display of maturity and compassion, 10-year-old Alyssa asks to see James:
  • “I told him that I decided to forgive him and I wanted him to have hope.” (68:16)
  • James: “I am taking full responsibility for what I did. Dawn needs to take full responsibility for what she did.” (69:00)
• Melissa and Alyssa become inseparable; Melissa emerges as a guardian angel, not only to Alyssa but eventually to Alyssa’s half-sister Brandi (taken in due to Dawn’s continued dysfunction).

Notable Quotes

• “You, Melissa, get the like, murder story Participant of the Year award from our show.” (74:21)
• “She poured sugar in the gas tank of her life, and you’re going through it with a fucking strainer.” (73:12)

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Memorable Moments and Quotes With Timestamps

• On the odds of twins in murder:
  “What is up with all the twins lately on this goddamn show?” – James (11:10)

• On the life insurance theory:
  “Melissa claimed to not know the policy existed.” (39:07)

• On Dawn’s logic:
  “I didn’t say I wanted Ben dead. I said I wanted him to fall off the face of the earth...Is he alive if he’s out in the atmosphere? Probably not.” – James, summarizing Dawn (50:16)

• On Alyssa’s strength:
  “I told him that I decided to forgive him and I wanted him to have hope.” – Alyssa to her father’s killer (68:16)

• On Melissa’s heroism:
  “Melissa, you...you get the, like, murder story Participant of the Year award.” (74:21)
  “You’re fixing Dawn’s life one child at a time...going through it with a strainer, trying to get it all out, putting a new motor in it." (73:07)

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Segment Timestamps

• [04:51] – Deep dive into Minden’s demographics and history
• [10:24] – Introduction of Ben and family dynamics
• [19:27] – The night of the murder and initial investigation
• [27:30] – Police probe Melissa & Craig, suspicion and confusion
• [39:03] – Life insurance and shifting suspicion
• [43:30] – Surveillance breakthrough, targeting Dawn and James
• [47:42] – Key witness Devin reveals murder plot
• [56:10] – James’s confession, events of the murder night
• [63:07] – Court’s view of Dawn’s generational dysfunction
• [65:58] – James’s sentencing and Alyssa’s forgiveness
• [72:32] – Melissa adopts Brandi, the cycle of rescue continues
• [74:21] – Hosts praise Melissa, close out episode

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Tone and Takeaways

• Comedic, irreverent banter blends with sobering analysis.
• Hosts repeatedly express awe at Melissa's compassion and the sheer dysfunction of the Oxley/Mitchell/Mattleen family web.
• Deep empathy for Alyssa and praise for her poise and forgiveness.

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Conclusion

“Bloody Plot Twists: Minden, Nevada” chronicles a truly wild small town murder—replete with heinous family drama, a murder-for-money allegation, an immunity deal more outrageous than fiction, and some of the most selfless acts of love you’ll find on any true crime podcast. The hosts’ blend of humor, outrage, and sincerity ensures every shocking turn lands with impact. Melissa, for her decency and resilience, becomes the story’s true hero.

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For more: visit shutupandgivememurder.com or listen to Small Town Murder for bonus content, live show tickets, and more mayhem with James and Jimmie.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Wissman]

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[James Petregallo]

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[James Petregallo]

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[James Petregallo]

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay and choo choo.

[James Petregallo]

Oh yeah indeed Jimmy. Yes, Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us on this post. Christmas spectacular here. Hope everybody enjoyed the holiday and had a good time and all that kind of stuff here. We're going to ruin your good time with some murder. But we won't ruin it because it's a crazy story and it's so much fun and it's a wild time. So we're going to get into all of this and more. First of all, head over to shutupandgivememurder.com get your merchandise, get your tickets for live shows. They're all for sale for 2026 everything right now at shutupandgivemerder.com kicking off with February 21st in Nashville. Get those tickets because Nashville is a fast selling city. So get those then I'll go from there. Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix. Again we have one small town murder and One you stupid opinions. It's a comedy club. It's our smallest venue. We only play it because that's where we started out. So there you go. So get there. They go fast. Salt Lake City, Denver, Buffalo, Royal Oak, Michigan, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown and Boston. So get your tickets right now. We are excited for those shows. Thank you for everyone who came out to shows this year. We had a blast.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Unbelievable. Thanks for selling them on.

[James Petregallo]

So much fun. Thank you. Shut up and give me murder.com. get yourself Patreon as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Do yourself a favor. This holiday season, patreon.com crimeinsports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before immediately upon subscription. Then you get new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get it all. For small town murders this week we're going to give you a choice. We're going to do a poll on Patreon. Either the there's a mall collapse that killed a bunch of people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Or old timey crimes, which is always requested. So much for more of those. Everybody loves those. So you take your choice. That is patreon.com crimeinsports P A T R E O N is Patreon, by the way. That said, I think it's time. Oh, wait. You also get everything ad free and you get a shout out at the end of the show as well. So Patreon's what you want there. That said, I think it's time everybody to sit back. What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs here and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay, let's go on a trip, shall we? All right. We are going to head west this week. We've been doing a lot of east coast stuff lately. Not on purpose. It's just kind of the way it worked out. But we're going to go west and go to Nevada this week. Oh, it's been a long time since we've been in Nevada. Honestly. Nevada's a difficult state for murders because most of the murders take place in the two cities, either Reno or Vegas. So it's very hard to find the middle of nowhere because like 97% of the population lives in those two cities. So it's difficult.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then across the bridge is parks, I've heard.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. I consider that the Reno area, though. That's all that area so this is Minden, Nevada. M I N D E N Mind. Minden, Nevada. It's in far western Nevada, near the California border. Over there, it's about 30 minutes to Lake Tahoe. Just outside of there, about 50 minutes to Reno. So it's in that area of the Mountainee kind of area. About 45 minutes to incline Village, Nevada. Our last Nevada episode, episode 562. So about 100 episodes ago. It was January when we did it last January, that was Murder on Slide Mountain. Remember the car went off the hill and the guy was like hanging by the branches and all that stuff? That was a crazy case. Nevada's always nuts too. This is in Douglas county. Area code 775. Population here, 3335. Not a lot of people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Very small.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, very small. Median household income a bit above the national average. $78,375. It's 69,000 in the rest of the country. Median home cost here is, wow, $649,700.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Median home cost.

[James Petregallo]

Median home cost here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why?

[James Petregallo]

Because it's outside the Tahoe area. It's that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow, 30 minutes outside. Yeah, it's that.

[James Petregallo]

Nice house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tahoe did this.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. 649. That is expensive. Little bit of history. It was founded in 1906 by Heinrich Frederick Dangberg Jr. Who named it after his town of Minden in Germany. Of course, Shocker that Heinrich is German, so that's fucking funny. A large share of the first people here were Germans as well in this area. It was founded on land of the Dangburg Home Ranch. And they. The Dangburg Commission most of the town's early buildings. They got a post office in 1906. Yeah, this is the craziest shit. They used to have a sundown siren at 6pm every night from 1917 until 2021.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And I don't know what this signaled in the modern times, but back in the day, apparently it signaled that that was the time when the members of the Washoe Indian tribe were required to leave town or face jail time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petregallo]

So you gotta go back to where you're from is what they did. So they finally. They repealed its Sundown ordinance in the mid-1970s. And then in 2021, the state of Nevada passed a law that prohibits communities from sounding signals associated with a passed law which required persons of a particular race, ethnicity, ancestry or national origin to leave the town by a certain time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hurry up and get out of here.

[James Petregallo]

2021, that take place.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Reviews of this town here we Go. Five stars. Here we are. It's the best place to live if you want to have a good look at what it's like to farm. Okay, good look. You want to have a. Get a good look up a cow's ass. That's where you get it. Butcher's ass.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. I just asked the butcher. People here are very country and really care about how our children are raised. I have moved to other places, and they never seem to feel like how Minden does for me. So that's your hometown, babe. There you go. Five stars. I love Minden.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I love it.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. It's a safe place to live and just have fun. There are many fun activities around, and I love how little but not too little it is. There's 3,300 people. It's little. And then finally, two stars. I would like to see more diversity in the culture here, in the restaurants. Just in the restaurants and activities. Yes. Can we have a Chinese food place here, please? That's all I want. Just one Chinese place. Maybe some Mexican food, something. Diversity of restaurants, things to do here. Carson Valley Days. Oh, it says. A summer tradition over a century in the making. Wow. This year's parade theme is Jurassic Valley. Yeah. Okay, so your best dinosaur costumes and come on out there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There were dinosaurs here, right?

[James Petregallo]

I think so, yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. I think they found dinosaur shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, like, North Dakota and Idaho, all that kind of Western out there. Join us for the event. Activities and attractions will include free live music at the park on Friday and Saturday night. No mention of bands, just free live music. The famous parade that will run from downtown Minden to Gardnerville on Saturday morning at 9pm and a raffle drawing at 3pm at Lampke park on Saturday. Lampe Park. There will be carnival rides for all ages, craft fair vendors, food vendors, face painting, children's games, a horseshoe tournament, a basketball tournament, a cornhole tournament. And the crowning event of it is. It's the Rubber Duck derby, everybody. We all know that. Yeah, it's the Rubber Duck Derby is happening right now. So this is like a little, like, for kids kind of a theme. You know, have a weekend. It's dumb parades and. Yeah. Bring the kids out, walk up and down the street, eat some fried dough and go home. That's all. That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let's do it.

[James Petregallo]

I think we're ready for this. Okay, let's start out with talking about a man here. Talk about a dude. This is Benjamin Robert Oxley. O X L E Y Oxley goes by Ben, but he calls him Ben. He's born January 20, 1972, here. So he is born in West Covina, California, but he ends up growing up in Hawaii.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, what a nice place.

[James Petregallo]

Right? He has a shitload of siblings. He's like 8. Like so many siblings, including a twin named Bill. Oh, so he's a twin. What is up with all the twins lately on this goddamn show? It's a. It's a. What's. What's the percentage of people that are twins?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Twins?

[James Petregallo]

It's very low, right? It's gotta be under 1%. And then what's the percentage of like, people involved in any way in murders? Victim, perpetrator. That's got to be super low too. So the two of them together has to be astronomical. And it happens constantly on the show all the time. I don't understand it. So Ben moved to the big island of Hawaii at age 10. So he went from West Covina, California, which not bad either. And then he goes to Hawaii and he fucking loves Hawaii. Loves.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Can't imagine. Yeah, sounds great.

[James Petregallo]

He loves the beach. That's what he's all about. I mean, he loves water stuff, surfing, jet skiing, all that kind of shit. He loves it. He played Pop Warner football also and played high school soccer and football in football. He was a kicker. He's a soccer player. And he kicked barefoot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, really?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, like old school. Like rich carless from the Broncos. Barefoot kicker. I used. They used to trip me out. Not even. Because kicking the ball, I would always think. Now they're running with a bunch of guys with cleats on and they have no shoe on. That's crazy. What if you have to make a tackle?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, have you. You kicked a ball barefoot before? Right? That stings so fucking bad. You never tried it?

[James Petregallo]

No, why would I try that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Get the fucking threads on the bridge of your foot and see if you ever want to do that shit again.

[James Petregallo]

I imagine you'd have to. It hurts, like son of a lot. Yeah, yeah. No, I generally put shoes on when I go outside, so I never tried it before. But it looks like it hurts. I always saw it, especially when it was like in Denver in the cold.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, God, that ball is cold, man. You gotta fucking thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, you're kicking an ice cube with an ice cube.

[James Petregallo]

Lord, that's gotta hurt. So anyway, that's what he's into. He plays. He is a barefoot kicker. He graduated from. Oh, wow. Hanukkah Hanoka. H O N O K A A Hawaii name. Hanukah High School in 1990, worked at the. For the Peniello Country Inn in. Oh, my God. Some Hawaiian place. The Hawaiian names are the worst thing. I can't say them. I don't know why Native is tough.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In the first place, but island native is so much harder.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Like, I can do the east coast ones by me, like, Northeast, all that, but the Hawaii can't do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And I can do Southwest stuff with New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, anything west of the Mississippi. I got them.

[James Petregallo]

I got it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If they say them, I get it. And I can stick with these. Even if you pronounce them for me, I'll never understand it.

[James Petregallo]

I'll never stick it Hanukkah. And you're like, huh?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Even Hawaii. I'm saying that wrong.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, we're not saying it right. It's all wrong.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he finally, after a few years of working for the inn and doing all this, he decided to move to the mainland. All right. To experience life. He wanted just to see what was.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Out there back in the States. Huh.

[James Petregallo]

I could see that. If you're on an island that's kind of in the middle of nowhere, you might go, wow, there's a lot happening in that big place. I might want to go there. So he's married, I guess, and divorced at some point in here. And then he ends up finding in 1997, a woman named Dawn Leanne Mitchell. Dawn is born in October 1972, so the same age. And they get together, and after two years, in 1999, they get married. Yeah, this is a pretty rocky relationship kind of from the start with Dawn. Yeah. Him and dawn are like oil and water, it seems, not doing well together. They don't mix very well. They have a daughter named Alyssa that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mixed well for a little while, obviously.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Their juice is mixed, but the rest of them doesn't.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Struggling.

[James Petregallo]

In 2004, they get divorced. And it is not an amicable divorce. They are fighting and pissed off with each other, and it's kind of an ugly divorce. So that's not good. Now Ben ends up moving on and finding another woman here. And she finds other guys, too, as we'll talk about. But he finds a woman named Melissa. Now, Melissa, I guess they really liked each other. They hit it off very instantly, he and Melissa did. I guess they started talking online because they didn't meet in person until after they had talked a bunch. So they finally planned to meet in person. And part of this is the fact that he is going to bring his daughter Alyssa on this date. Oh, she's like five years old at this point. All right, almost six years old or whatever. And so there his whole thing is, look, if you're going to be with me, you got to be with my daughter too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dating us both.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So you're basically dating us both, which I don't think is a great decision. I don't think you should introduce someone to someone until you're very serious with them and you know they're not gonna go away. It's weird when you bring people into kids lives and they disappear and another one comes in. That's instability. It's hard for a kid. I know this because that was done with me. Introduce me to everybody. Stop introducing me to people. Stop. You're not gonna be with this person in six months. Stop fucking introducing me. Don't use me as some weird little prop. I don't wanna do that. It's strange. And I knew that was happening at 5, know what I'm saying? So. But this one, apparently on the first date, Alyssa did not like Melissa.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

Daughter did not like date fair. More about jealousy of you're hanging, you're talking to my dad and he could be talking to me type of thing. She actually said, don't talk to my dad. Oh my God. Don't talk to him. So that's fucking funny. She. She said, I remember meeting. This is Alyssa later said, I remember meeting her. I didn't really like her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

I didn't really like Melissa at first, though. She was taken aback by this. She didn't get upset. And she's like, I'll win her over. I get it. She said, yeah. She said, you know, I get it. It was kind of a. She said she kind of found it to be like, adorable, this childish jealousy. She's a kid who wants to hang out with her dad. It's kind of cute, actually.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay. You're taking time. My time from my dad.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. That's kind of cute. This is the reason why, you know, she doesn't hate me because she doesn't like the college I went to or something. She's like, Michigan State. Fuck you, Michigan bitch. Like, none of that happens.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She doesn't like her at all.

[James Petregallo]

No. So they decide to get married, Melissa and Ben.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh. Despite Alyssa's.

[James Petregallo]

Well, after a while, she comes around. This is the first date she didn't want her around. But after that, she wins her over. And by the time they get married here, Melissa, who's like 5 years old at this point, they had a special little ceremony with her being the Flower girl. And during the wedding, Melissa bends down to have the little girl put a bracelet on her that was engraved with the promise that they'll always love each other and be family. All right, so she basically marries both of them. Both of them?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That's kind of. Which is cute. They did a nice little thing. So he's trying to. Trying to make it so look. Yeah, you're not on the outside looking in. You're in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You're part of all of us together.

[James Petregallo]

Unit of three here. You know what I mean? That seems to be what they're trying to get across here. So shortly after the wedding, Ben and Melissa end up being granted full custody of Alyssa. Oh, before this, it was joint custody with Dawn. We'll find out about Dawn. Dawn has some fucking problems. Dawn gets arrested a whole bunch. She's kind of not real stable all the time. She's got a bunch of different boyfriends coming and going, and he's, like, married in a home with more stability. So it makes sense here. And especially with Dawn's legal problems that we'll get into now, in addition to this. So they have the three of them living there. It's Melissa, Ben and Alyssa. There is also Melissa's teenage brother Craig, also lives with the couple.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

They took him in, too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And how old is Alyssa at this point?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you know, she's five, six, something like that. Five ish. Six ish. When they get the custody. So that makes sense. Now, Ben. Ben and dawn, even though they've been divorced for years, still have problems and fight. Divorced for three years in June of 2007. According to police reports here, Ben has no criminal record. By the way, Don has quite a lengthy criminal record. But I guess the police were contacted in June of 2007 about a domestic battery investigation involving Ben and Dawn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

So this must have been during a kid exchange or some shit, because they don't even do anything. I don't even live together. But the incident was classified as, quote, mutual domestic battery. So no charges were filed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Couple of swings apiece, and we call it good.

[James Petregallo]

I can't assume that law hasn't changed since then, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Get your licks in. He got his in.

[James Petregallo]

We go, yeah, you got a black guy, but I looked at him. He's got a fat lip. So what are we talking about? You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fascinating.

[James Petregallo]

Neither of you won the fight, so I'm going to call it even. We're going to call it a draw. You just go your separate ways and we'll be Done. Wow. And that's what they did. No charges were filed as long as both parties agreed to, quote, leave each other alone. Which I guess is easier to do if they don't live together. Yeah. If you leave, you can't leave them in the house together. But if he says, okay, I'll go home and won't come back, and she'll say, I'll go in my house and won't go out, then I guess that's a little bit better than if they were like in the same house together. But still, I can't imagine that loss. Same now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a fascinating loss.

[James Petregallo]

As long as everybody gets their shots and it's fine. That's wild. So February 21, 2008, everything's going great for Melissa and Ben and Melissa and Craig. That household is thriving and everybody's doing fine. That morning, Melissa calls 911-OH and said it's one of the quotes is it's really, really bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is?

[James Petregallo]

Okay, she said there's blood everywhere. That's what she said. Blood everywhere. Blood all over the place. Can't wake Ben up. No, it's really, really bad. Come over here. Okay. Now her story is when the cops get there is that I remember hearing a noise is what she said. This is in their home. She said my ears were ringing. I thought I was dreaming. She said I smelled gun, gun smoke. I tried to wake Ben. I nudged him and said, honey, there's something to check on. And he didn't respond. So she's like, this fucking guy won't wake up. So Melissa said she got up, walked down the hallway and saw the front door to the home was open. Wide open, Wide open. So she said she ran back to wake Ben up. But when she tried to wake him up, this time being a little more awake, she said she realized that he'd been shot in the head and there was blood everywhere and he was certainly not waking up. So she then raced, she said to the 6 year old to Alyssa's room, closed the door and called 911. Yeah, this was about 3:30am so yeah, she didn't realize, she said, that the sound that woke her up was a shotgun blast.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Gunshot. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Not just a gunshot. A fucking shotgun blast. Which is fucking loud. A shotgun blast is way louder than a regular gunshot that is just so loud. So Ben is dead on the bed. And her story is I didn't hear, I didn't wake up from a gunshot. I woke up and went. And the door was open. And then here he is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Petregallo]

And I came back to the bed, and then I realized he was dead. That's her story. So the cops get there and they're like, that's interesting. That doesn't sound quite right. Something's wrong here. So when they get there, the cops, they've been called 911 and they've just been told it's really bad. And also the front door is open, so they don't have any idea what they're walking into. There could be someone with a shotgun sitting in the living room. This could be an ambush. This could be anything. So they said they walked into the empty foyer area and it was pitch black. All the lights are off and they don't hear shit. So the one cop said, I was thinking, am I gonna see a deceased person or am I gonna encounter someone pointing a gun at me? Yeah, what's gonna happen here? So they make their way through the house quietly, the cops, and they head to the first bedroom. As they peek inside, they see a dark figure. Cause it's dark. A figure lying in bed, covered by blankets and not moving. Okay, you know, sleeping. What normally people do at fucking 4 o' clock in the morning, he said. And we're yelling, sheriff's office, show us your hands. Multiple times. And we're getting no response from the subject that's in the bed under the covers. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, like, popping up, like, what the fuck? You know? And you wake up terrified. A young man. It's Craig, the teenage brother. Oh, he pops up from under the blankets like he came out of a deep sleep, like, what? What? What's going on? What do you want? And he raises his hair ends in the air, and he tells the police that they said, who are you? He's. My Name's Craig. I'm 17 years old. I'm a younger brother, I live here. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, so then the cop said, from that point, my attention got drawn back out to the hallway and I saw Melissa. So he said, okay, that kid, he's not injured, and he doesn't seem to be a threat at the moment. So moving to Melissa, he said, she's standing there, she's got blood on her clothing. And just in shock was her face. He said, melissa's standing in the hallway holding a phone in one hand and Alyssa in the other hand, just like, what the fuck? So police go and clear the house. Number one, to see if anybody else is in here. And there's nobody in here. They do find Ben's body in the Master bedroom, in bed with a shotgun wound to the back of his skull.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yikes.

[James Petregallo]

The cop said, I could tell that there was a shotgun wound to the back of the skull. It appeared, when I did my initial investigation, it appeared that he was asleep when he was killed. There was also no signs of a break in. No shattered windows, no forced in doors. So what's up with that? Yeah, he said it was one of the most horrific crime scenes I've ever seen. So horrible, horrible shit. And that's the Douglas County Sheriff, John Stork. He said that. So as police are searching the home now, they're going through everything because they have to. When they get to Craig's bedroom, they find shotgun ammo in there. They find fucking shells in his dresser, in his nightstand. And they're like, not good. Don't like that. Yeah, that he's got shotgun shells in his. In his bedroom. And then they went in the garage and found guns. Oh, including a shotgun. And they're like, okay, looks like he got shot with a shotgun. Shotguns in the garage. Shotgun shells in his fucking drawer. Yeah, we got to talk to Craig. Yeah, we gotta fucking talk to Craig and we gotta talk to Melissa, who's Craig's brother or Craig's sister about. How did you not hear any of this shit?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, what the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

Everything seems mad shady. So they were like, listen, this is. There's a lot of questions. They said, how could Melissa claim to have not heard a thing considering she was inches away from a shotgun blast right there? Inches. Didn't hear a fucking thing. Never said, I never heard a shotgun blast. She said, never heard it. And then the. Whoever did this ran to the front door and got out of the house before you woke up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's amazing.

[James Petregallo]

That's wild. So they're like, you're coming down for an interrogation. You and bring your fucking brother with you, by the way. So when questioned by police, they are suspicious of her. Hard. She explains that she was. I'm a very sound sleeper.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's sound as fuck, man.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, the one cops like. Listen, sweetheart, I'm a sound sleeper too, but if you blasted a shotgun a foot from my fucking head, I'd probably wake up. I'm thinking maybe, you know, that's amazing. Yeah. You, you know, you've been around children like, you know, to wake up. That's crazy. So they were like, they thought it was real strange that a man is killed while she's unharmed too. So they came in, killed him right next to you and said, I don't want to kill her, though, only him, and then leave.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That would be mean.

[James Petregallo]

That seems odd. They said. And you didn't see him. You didn't even see the guy running away. You can't even give me a description of the back of. Somebody saw nothing. Nothing. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you how to dress a little better with Fabletics.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fabletics.com Absolutely.

[James Petregallo]

We love Fabletics. We've ordered a bunch from Fabletics. Excellent, comfortable, stylish stuff. As a matter of fact, Jimmy wore his Fabletic suit on stage at a live show in Washington, D.C. you know, the clothes are good if you can. When you go on stage in front of 900 people, you need confidence. You have to look good. Yeah, you need. You need confidence too. You need to. I feel good and I look good and I'm comfortable. Otherwise you're not going to be as funny. So that's the best endorsement we could give you is we'd wear it on stage. It is such good stuff. And if you like, if you live in like activewear, you know, it's hard because the good stuff is way too expensive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

That's why you need to get into Fabletics and that's why we love Fabletics. It feels just as premium as those expensive brands without making your wallet weep. It's good stuff. Sign up like I did as a VIP. We got 80% off everything. And the quality is. It's going to surprise you for the price. The pieces feel like high end activewear you'd pay 200 bucks for. I got this jacket. It feels like that and it's way less than that. It's awesome. You're going to get that level of quality at a fraction of the price. That makes the membership feel like it pays for itself. Right there. The fit and feel, they are right. Waistbands don't roll down. Joggers actually keep their shape. Jackets that are warm without the bulk. I love my jacket for that exact reason. It solves the usual issues that you're going to have with activewear while still being soft, breathable and durable enough for workouts, travel, everyday wear or a comedy show. You bet. Great stuff. It also helps knowing that Fabletics has built a community of over 2 million VIP members, more than 100 retail stores, which makes us feel like we're joining something that people already love and are already into and rely upon. We ordered it. You should order it. It is amazing stuff. Fabletics already has amazing deals, but right now they're running their biggest sale of the year. On top of that. And we've got an exclusive offer just for you. 80% off everything when you sign up as a VIP. Can't beat that. Head to Fabletics.com Smalltown Murder and sign up as a VIP to get 80% off everything. This is only available through our link, so go to fabletics.com smalltownmurder to sign up as a VIP and get 80% off fabletics.com smalltown murder now back to the show. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you about our new movie, Primate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Primate. It's coming out. I can't wait.

[James Petregallo]

In theaters January 9th. You've seen the trailer for this. It looks wild. In Primate here, Ben is a beloved and docile pet chimpanzee and suddenly turns against the family that raised him. It is a wild story, by the way. Yeah, they taught him to the theater. Oh, you want to see it in the theater? That's one of those. You want to hear other people's reactions to the thrills and all and the chills. They're so good. And Ben's family, they taught him to communicate, and now he's using what he has learned against them. More of a human than an animal. Real smart, but a smart chimpanzee. They're powerful, they're dangerous. They'll rip your arms off, those things.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Amazing.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Once in a generation we get a horror movie with the right mix of scares and jaw dropping moments that creates the unforgettable fun experience of watching it in a theater with others, which is what you want to do on January 9th. This is a movie you must see with an audience. Prime 8 premiered to rave reviews at festivals around the world and is currently at 92% on rotten tomatoes. You have to go see this movie in the theater. Go see Primate in theaters January 9th.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

They said, okay. They said, well, they figured out whoever pulled the trigger was standing right next to the bed right there. And they said, well, why didn't this person kill you too?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And she said, I don't know. Suspicious of you as this is going on, she just breaks down and cries and tears. And I didn't do anything and I wouldn't hurt him and I'm innocent. She's saying she's innocent. She's breaking down in tears. And they're like, all right, yeah, okay, sure, lady. All right. They're not sure they buy it from her quite yet. So Craig is in another interrogation room because he's the one who had shotgun shells, too. They're like, listen, Craig. And he's 17, so maybe we can crack him. So they're grilling him and they're like, dude, you had two shotgun shell shells, not even in. On your nightstand. Yeah. Within arm's reach of your fucking bed. You could have grabbed those. Ammo is his. And you're the only person in your family that gives a fuck about guns. The guns are yours. We found that out because Melissa told them the guns are all Craigs. He's the one who likes to. Who likes to go duck hunting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petregallo]

So he's like, you have all the weaponry here. It's all you, buddy. And, you know, he said, you're a hunter. You know, firearms, you know, all this shit. He was shot with a shotgun, which, you know, doesn't leave any ballistical. Any ballistics for us to train, which a gun person would know that shit. So you're looking pretty. Pretty bad, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not good. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And. But despite the two shotgun shells and all this stuff, he says, I was sleeping until you woke me up. I didn't wake up at all. Didn't wake up from a shotgun. Didn't wake up from you guys yelling at me. You had to yell at me for 30 seconds before I woke up and said, what's going on? Wow. That's what he said. So they said, we're going to figure this out right fucking now. Gunshot residue tests, the both of you, let's fucking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stick your hands out.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, stick your hands out. So they said, there's too much evidence. They couldn't let. They said there's too much evidence to release them. They had to get something definitive. Not enough to charge them, but not enough to release. They couldn't release them either. So they were given residue tests that would show. The tests came up negative for both of them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petregallo]

So now they're like. I mean, someone could have wore gloves. Yeah, there's ways to get around that, obviously. So they're like, but this is not good. Our main suspects are cleaned from gunshot residue, but they're still not convinced by Craig's story. But they said he's got no gunpowder residue on his hands. There's no evidence he fired the weapon. We gotta let them go for now and figure it out. Now, Melissa, who, for some reason, she is, like, keeping an eye on Alyssa for now. Even though she's got a mother, she allows the police to question her. Really? Alyssa? Now, Alyssa said that she heard a door creak and saw a figure in her house, but didn't know if it was a man or a woman.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

But saw like a dark outline of a figure of somebody, but just couldn't tell who it was because it was dark, so she couldn't tell. She said she didn't think it was Craig or Melissa or her dad. All right, Somebody. And she heard a door creak. Now, Melissa says, I have an idea on suspects, if that'll help.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

I was like, well, sure, I bet you do, lady. You know? She said, okay, his ex wife, dawn, has a former boyfriend. They're not still together, but that former boyfriend hates Ben. So his ex wife's ex boyfriend is going to come kill him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

As her before Ben.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. No, no, no. His ex wife's boyfriend after Ben. It's been like six years.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But she's broke. But she's broken up with him since then.

[James Petregallo]

Since then, yeah. Yeah. His ex wife's ex boyfriend.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Is gonna kill Ben. Yeah. Dawn's ex had a record, criminal record, and was said to be very upset with Ben about the way he was treating Dawn.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pissed off about it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Which would make sense if they were together. But if they're not together, what the fuck? Who gives a shit? Yeah. Care if you argue with your ex husband, that's your problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good for you. Hope it gets worse.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Dawn told the newspaper in an interview the day that Ben's body was found that she hadn't seen him in weeks. Dawn said that their only contact had been to arrange visitation with their daughter. And that's it. They had no relationship otherwise. She said, quote, I try to avoid him. He's my ex husband, and we didn't have a wonderful life together.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Heard of the plague?

[James Petregallo]

So they determined that the ex boyfriend of the ex wife was out of town at the time of the murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Terrible step back to square one.

[James Petregallo]

Great alibi. He's gone, they said, but Don does have a new boyfriend. Let's check him out. Yeah, this is James Kenneth Mattleen. Mattleen. M A T L E A N. So, Mattleen, born December 1986. Almost 15 years younger than her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, that's her new boyfriend. That's who she's hanging with now. He has had several law enforcement, we'll call them contacts up till this point, including three felony convictions by age 19.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nice work, sir.

[James Petregallo]

So this kid is a jerk off.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Three felonies by 19.

[James Petregallo]

By 19. Jerk off with the highest daughter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

In 2004, he was kicked out of a regimental discipline program for young offenders and sentenced to 26 or 12 to 36 months in Nevada State Prison. For grand larceny of a motor vehicle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn.

[James Petregallo]

So they gave him a deferment program, and he fucked up in that. So they sent him to prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right?

[James Petregallo]

He's an idiot. He's just a jackass.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He stole a car, and he still doesn't know how to fix his life. And fucked up after that.

[James Petregallo]

All right. Fucked up after that. So police go to Dawn's house to talk with her about the murder and see where he was that night. And she said, we were sitting here drinking and watching movies all night together. Yeah, that's all. We're drinking, watching movies. And they had movies that they were watching that corresponded with shit that was on. Sure. So those alibis look pretty good. All right, let's go back to Melissa, because that's a dead end. So they go back to. Now they go watching Melissa. At this point, Alyssa is back with dawn, the kid. Melissa is kept under constant observation. Three months after this murder. Ben's in the ground for three months, no arrests made. They still have nothing. The investigators now learn that she was the beneficiary of a $400,000 life insurance policy that Ben had. Perfect. Melissa was. So now they're like, okay, now we got a motive, because we had no motive before. Really. Now we have a motive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Lots of money. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Melissa claimed to not know the policy existed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, there's a policy for me.

[James Petregallo]

I just went out to the mailbox one day and there's 400 grand in there. That's pretty great. So. But the cops are like, you're fucking ass. You don't know about the policy. Ben's family were like, oh, hell no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She knows.

[James Petregallo]

She knows and she fucking did it. So they're really pressuring the cops to arrest fucking Melissa already. Just arrest her and figure it out. They don't even care. The whole town rumors are swirling. This is a 3300 person town. And they're like, this fucking lady killed this nice guy, took his insurance money, and now she's gonna go scot free. This is fucked up, man. And she's the. I mean, those spouses are always the prime suspects. Oh, yeah, this makes sense. And they figure out just three months later, not only does she get her 400 grand, she's already dating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

And they're like, this doesn't look like she's mourning. But then also, they ended up talking to the insurance company, and they said that Melissa never inquired about the insurance money. She never called and asked about it. She never filled it. She acted like she didn't know it Existed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never tried to get it. Huh?

[James Petregallo]

She never tried to get it. She never called the insurance company and even said, does my husband have a policy? Nothing. Nothing at all. So that's interesting. So they didn't know what to do after that. They're like, okay, she's dating, but, I mean, she didn't even know about the insurance. And they asked her about seeing other men, and she said that she saw men shortly after Ben's death because despite everything, she wanted a normal life. She said, okay. She said that if she felt like if she didn't try to pick up the pieces right then, that she probably never would have, and she would have turned into a hermit. So she was trying to get. Force herself to go back out there. And that might be. I mean, a therapist might have told her to do that. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Otherwise, I'm just gonna sit at home and never. And then I'm gonna be in need of a man when I'm in my.

[James Petregallo]

80S, and then I'm not gonna. Yeah, it's gonna be harder to find one because they're all dead by then. Yeah. So it's at this point that they go, we don't think she did this. No, they said. No, they said she. I mean, they said. I mean, she's dating, but she never inquired about the life insurance. The whole motive is the life insurance. In every other murder case, they inquire pretty quick about life insurance.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's usually the day after this.

[James Petregallo]

Three months went by. She didn't say shit until they came to her and said, we got to pay you out for this. And she was like, there's life insurance.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

So they're like, I don't know what to do. Let's take another look at Dawn. I guess five months after the murder, this is. They turn their attention back to dawn, obviously, because they found out that after the divorce, when she lost custody of Alyssa, she was also forced to pay him child support because he's the primary caregiver.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So they were.

[James Petregallo]

She was paying $250 a month in child support.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

For medical insurance and shit like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So they're like, that might have pissed her off. So they look deeper at dawn and James Matleen, and they discover that dawn is not a great mother, first of all. In fact, she has a history of neglect and of not providing for her daughter. They said she would meet a guy and just stay the night at his house and leave her kids alone. Shit like that. She also has two kids from a previous marriage that are older than Alyssa, including a teenage son named Devin, who will be involved in this whole thing as well. So they said when her kids are calling up saying, we don't have any food in the house. Can you come bring us food? There's a problem. Because they found out from relatives that happened sometimes. And the kids would say, we don't know where mom is, and there's no food. Can you bring us food? That looks bad. So they started to uncover her history. In and out of jail for drug addiction.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Which appears to be, based on the ruling in court, the reason why she lost custody of Alyssa was drugs. She was getting arrested for drugs and had a drug problem and wouldn't get help, I guess they were saying, I think. Anyway, so they're trying to figure out. Trying to break this alibi because James, he's got multiple felonies. This broad's got felonies. But they're like they said, they're home all night watching movies. How do you break that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

Unless you have proof otherwise, there's no way to break that. Then, just on a random whim, they started going around to the stores around them and asking for surveillance footage from that day, if they still had it, just in case. You never know. Maybe they stopped somewhere. There's a 711 nearby. And surveillance footage from the 711 shows James in the store making purchases at the time where they said they were home drinking and never left the house.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

James.

[James Petregallo]

So they're like, we don't like that at all. He could have just gotten drunk and went for some beef jerky, but still, you never know. So now they follow Don and James around the cops. Now they trail them for six months. And they're not hiding.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

They're in plain sight, waving at him. How's it going? Trying to crack them, basically. Trying to make them crazy. So James continues to get arrested for things, too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, because he's a dipshit.

[James Petregallo]

He's a dipshit. He's 23. He's a dummy. He gets arrested for stealing cigarettes at one point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. And they try to. Every time he gets arrested for something else, they don't even ask him about that. They sit him down. They're like, the night of Ben's murder now, blah, blah, blah. Now that we can talk to you, because you're in here. But he never. Crazy. Oh. He said, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I'm home drinking, watching movies. Leave me alone. I stole cigarettes, but I didn't do that. Yeah, but then dawn one night, shit faced, hammer, drunk, fucked up, fucked up drunk. She called the police and said, I'm coming to talk to you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Uh, oh, she.

[James Petregallo]

This is Dawn. You've been following me?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Good morning.

[James Petregallo]

I'm gonna come there. It's okay. Wait for get snacks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hi, this is Dawn. You guys want to hang out?

[James Petregallo]

So she came to talk and she admitted that she had anger about her relationship with her ex husband. But out of nowhere she says, I never asked James to kill him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. That's interesting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Cool.

[James Petregallo]

That's good. I'm glad that you didn't. That's excellent. I've never asked anyone to kill anyone either. Excellent. She said her ex husband, I was paying him $250 a month for child support and medical benefits and it's bullshit and blah blah, blah. But I didn't tell James to kill him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay?

[James Petregallo]

I didn't. And they said the fact that she's shit faced means none of this is usable or they can't do anything with it. I mean, if they have a murder suspect and they go pick him up to talk to him, they ask him a million times if they look like they've smoked.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Are you under coke?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. They will not talk to you because it won't hold up. They'll get thrown right out of court. So they said, fuck, she's shit faced and she's probably unreliable and who knows what she's talking about. So they had to let her go. November 2009 comes around. Been years now. Dawn gets a Dewey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petregallo]

Dawn gets arrested for a dui.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And she's been in jail for two weeks. No booze, no drugs, no cigarettes, no nothing. Now at the same time, this is going on, her son from a previous marriage, Devin, who's 17 at this point, or 16, when he comes forward, he comes forward and tells investigators he needs to talk to them. Oh, he said he heard his mother tell James that she wanted Ben dead. He said, yeah. So he's telling all of this and wow. They said basically, if not for him coming in, they have nothing. And he comes in, he said he heard his mother and James drunkenly discussing killing him on February 20, the day before 2008. They said that? Yeah. Devin said that the night before the shooting they were shit faced and talking about killing Ben so she could regain custody of their daughter and stop paying child support. What 250 bucks a month is worth murder?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

What?

[James Petregallo]

What the fuck?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

So Devin said that they wanted him dead. She wanted James Matleen to go out and kill him they were talking about the custody when they get drunk. They went way overboard and they were both under the influence.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Petregallo]

He also said that his mother had tells James she wants Ben to just die in a random spontaneous burst of flames. Or for James to just go out and kill him. You know, one or the other.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Just a fireball. Or my boyfriend goes over and shoots him while he sleeps. You know, something less nebulous than that hit by a meteor.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fantastic.

[James Petregallo]

Or we just plan to shoot him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

Mitchell also said, this is the kid, Devin Mitchell. He said he went to bed between 11pm and midnight and when he got up the next morning, quote, the cops were at our door and said Ben was dead and had been murdered. So Devin said it left me speechless. The next morning he turns out to actually be dead. It was not how I was expecting my day to go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

So he hears, we should kill him, we should kill him, we should kill him. Next morning he wakes up to he's dead.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's hard to refute that. Right.

[James Petregallo]

What do you. Yeah. So the prosecutors, they think if it's them, James is the one who did it. Yeah. So they said to dawn, if you tell us everything against James, you get immunity. Which is crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

Because he definitely doesn't kill that guy unless she encourages it. So you do not get her immunity for shit. I would think Ben's brother said it was like making a deal with the devil. Now dawn claims that she was not referring to Ben when she said my ex. She was referring to an ex boyfriend named Rick. Totally different guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's just so many exes. It's hard.

[James Petregallo]

You know, I date a lot. But this was Rick, not James or not Ben. And she said that she and James were irritated about that. And that's the discussion turned to Ben about Ben because that's another person that irritates her. She said, I didn't say I wanted Ben dead. I said I wanted him to fall off the face of the earth. Well that's the. Is he alive? If he's out in the atmosphere? Probably not. I didn't want him to die. I just wanted him to completely disappear and cease to exist. Is that something?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She is really not making a case for her.

[James Petregallo]

I holy shit. When informed of. Because they get all this out of her and then they go, okay, because your son came in.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Uh huh.

[James Petregallo]

And told us A, B and C. And she said, she said that she didn't want to believe that her son would think of her like that. And then they said you had no active involvement in Ben's death. And she said, no, absolutely not. None. She said she became intimate with Matt Lean in January 2008, about six weeks before the death, and continued their until August 2009. They were living together immediately, too. So they said for 17 months after you learned, quote, it had been done, you maintained a romantic relationship. Why would you make love with the man that killed your husband?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Great question.

[James Petregallo]

Her answer, because I did. Oh, hold on, let me write that down. Wait a second. You said, because I did. Okay, I want to get that all down in my notes because that's going to be very important for posterity's purposes, you know. So shortly after the relationship, she admitted that she called the sheriff's investigator and said, quote, if I confessed to the murder of my ex husband, would you put me in prison? I don't care how drunk you are. I think you probably know the answer to that question. Probably. She said that wasn't an admission of guilt, though. No, no. She said, I told him I wanted it over with. I was drinking myself to death. Meaning she told James that I was drinking myself to death. I couldn't take it anymore. And the knowing and not telling. They said, don't you think you should go to prison for your involvement in your husband's death?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

And she said, no, I do not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why not?

[James Petregallo]

She said, James never admitted directly that he even shot Ben. So she never knew for sure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I couldn't be even there.

[James Petregallo]

He said, it's been done. And then the cop showed up and said he was dead. But I can't make those two things concrete together, you know, I can't do that. She said, I asked him if he set foot in that house. And I got three different stories. I do not know if James pulled that trigger or not.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

She said, though, shortly before midnight, February 20th, she and. And James started talking about Ben. She said, then James was on the phone with somebody and he asked me if I really wanted Ben killed. I told him, no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

We'd been drinking a lot that night. In my mind, it was definitely not real. I knew my daughter was over there. Basically, I said, whatever. It wasn't really happening. We were drunk. It wasn't real. I told him no more than once. I sat down on the couch, the TV was on or the lights. He was on the phone, standing at the edge of the kitchen counter. I passed out on the couch. The next thing I know, James is waking me up and saying, quote, it was done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's done.

[James Petregallo]

It was done. He said he led she said, he led me to believe Ben was dead. She said she then took James his truck to his mother's house and then returned home. I don't know why that I asked him if he's serious. Is it real? Is this really happening? Happening? And he said, yes. She said they agreed to tell the cops they'd been home all night watching movies. That'll be the best course of action here. We were drunk. Let's pretend it didn't happen. So she said, I asked him what happened. He explained to me. He whispered in Ben's ear, He said, this is for lying about Dawn. And then he was killed. So she also said that James told her he used her bank of America card at the Riverview 711 ATM machine to withdraw $40, which he spent at Walmart in North Douglas county for, quote, duct tape, shoes, shotgun shells, gloves and towels. It's a good bargain if you can get all that for 40 bucks.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, not bad.

[James Petregallo]

Talk about low prices. Jesus. So they go to arrest James. The fun part is it's easy because he's already in jail. Is he for something else? He's serving an eight month sentence for stealing four cartons of cigarettes from a convenience store in April 2009. You are trash. You, sir, are trash. That is, Dexter Manley would say that is trash. Are you joking? So the police said the investigation's been going on for some time. A lot of people may have thought we weren't diligently working on it. There was a lack of evidence. But the investigation never went away. A minimum of two investigators were assigned to the case at all times while working on other cases. So in other words, the back of their mind. But they moved on. At one point, there was a secret witness reward of up to $33,000 for the arrest of the killer. As time passed, the amount dwindled to 2,500. They said, we made sure we were doing anything we could to solve the case. It's been a major agenda in this department. The investigators put their heart and soul into it. And then he created the detectives and said, it's been hard on them. We liked to have a resolution faster, but we never gave up. And it paid off. Now, what does James have to say about dawn throwing him under the bus?

[Jimmy Wissman]

What's he got to say?

[James Petregallo]

He said, let me tell you what dawn did.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here's what she did.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, really? Let me throw it back on her.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said that we drank and took mushrooms on February 28th. He said we were eating mushrooms and drinking Southern Comfort, which is A what? A weird combination that is. Southern Comfort and stealing cigarettes. You are the trashiest trash that's ever trashed. That is such trash. He said dawn came home early from work. She was very angry, and she kept drinking. She kept saying she wanted Ben dead. I told her I would do it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

He claimed that dawn talked about wanting Ben dead because she wasn't happy with the child support that she had to pay. And he said, I told her I would do it. So dawn said, kill Ben and Melissa. Kill them both. Yeah. You know, I don't like her either. She drew a diagram of the house and showed me where to go.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

I shot Ben and got so afraid, I ran out the front door. I couldn't shoot Melissa. He said, he stood there, he turned the gun to her for a second, but he's like, I don't even know this fucking lady. I can't do it. I can't shoot a. Even if it's 1% of a moral to shoot a sleeping woman, it's crazy. You have to hear your grandfather going, you pussy. You're gonna shoot a sleeping woman? You have to hear something like that in your head. What are you doing? You can't do that. So he said that in addition to that, they said, well, where was dawn during all this? And he said, with me at the house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

She was there. And they were like, what? And she goes, yeah. He said I had to convince her not to take Alyssa from the house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my.

[James Petregallo]

She wanted to grab Alyssa on the way out. And I said, they're gonna fucking know it's us if we have the kid. Jesus Christ.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Are you out of your fucking mind?

[James Petregallo]

He said that? Yeah. Dawn said, did you kill Melissa? But he said he just couldn't pull the trigger again after he did it the first time. He says Don accompanied him to Walmart where he purchased the shells for the 12 gauge that he owned. When they arrived at the residence, he said they tried to enter through the front door, but it was locked. So they went through a sliding glass door. And dawn showed him where the bedroom was located. They were asleep. He said, quote, I shot the gun at the back of Ben's head. Dawn went to Alyssa's bedroom and wanted to take her. I told her no. I told her to wait in the truck. She came back in the house, and we both ran out of the house, got in the trunk and left. And he said he hid the shotgun for two days and then destroyed it and threw it wherever the fucking different dumpsters. So that's gone. So dawn has immunity though. None of this matters. Yeah, she's got full immunity to this. Literally cannot be charged in this murder at all. So she served six months in Douglas County Jail. In October 2009 after her probation was revoked for, for a second conviction of driving under the influence. She told the judge that she'd been using alcohol as an escape since her ex husband's murder. She's real broken up about it. Wow. So James goes to court, he appears by himself there and everything. And so he's waiving his preliminary, right. And they said you're hearing rights. They said you're waiving your right to a preliminary hearing within 15, 15 days. Is that what you want to do? He says, yes, sir. They said, without seeking the advice of counsel. And he said, yes, sir. All right. So they go, okay, we acknowledge your waiver. And the, the prosecutor says it forces both parties to keep on track and not have delays. And James said, okay, we'll have a hearing Wednesday. He also said, James says, I want to say I'm challenging the jurisdiction in this case. Case?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's where he got killed. What are you talking about? And they said, well, you should get a lawyer and tell him about that because you can't do that. You're not pro se at this point. You can't do it. So Melissa, poor Melissa, she got followed around for months. Ben's whole, I don't know if it's the whole family, but a good portion of his family thought she was a fucking murderer. The whole town thought she was a scumbag and a money hungry murderer. And she's just sad. This poor woman, she attended the hearing with a dozen family members and she said, I'm glad this is going somewhere. I want to give a very big thank you to the detectives who worked on this constantly and to the community and Western Nevada Supply for their constant support, both emotional and financial. I think that's where he worked. So everyone deserves to be connected. That's why T Mobile and US Cellular are joining forces. Switch to T Mobile and save up to 20% versus Verizon by getting built in benefits they leave out. Check the math@t mobile.com switch and now T mobile is in US cellular stores. Savings versus Comparable Verizon plans plus the cost of optional benefits. Plan features and taxes and fees vary. Savings with three plus lines include third line free via monthly bill credits. Credit stop if you cancel any lines. Qualifying credit required. James says he's James. Dad says he's innocent even though he completely admitted to doing this and Confessed fully. He says he didn't fucking do this. Are you kidding me? It's his dad, David. He said he did not attend the hearing. He said his son is being prosecuted because of a multi million dollar lawsuit that him. David, the father filed against the county. Forced them to say my son's a murderer.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said, In February 2009, I filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against Douglas county justice of the Peace Jim N. Earl, who is the judge in this case, by the way, District Attorney Mark Jackson and Sheriff Ronald Pierini for violations of constitutional law. He said the county and public officials were required to file bonds with the county clerk's office before executing their official duties and had not. Oh, so they don't have their bond. There's a bond thing that you do? Yeah, that's a thing. So he said nothing they did mattered. The county contests the liability. Bonds are in place as required by Nevada statutes. So David says, so what happens when you back the officials in a corner? They go after your family?

[Jimmy Wissman]

They do, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

They know they don't have any bonds. So they go after my family. My son James did not murder anyone. The county's just coming after my family because of the lawsuit I filed against them.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

This whole family sounds fucking wacky. So. March 2011, dawn is immune to murder charges. She's not immune to drug charges.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

Especially when she is caught here with her. This better not be Alyssa. No, too young, too old to be Alyssa. Her she's arrested for involving her 15 year old daughter. Previous of Ben.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

In multiple drug transactions.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, for heavens say scum.

[James Petregallo]

They allege that they could. Investigators conducted three separate controlled purchases of prescription meds from the subjects, totaling more than 70 pills and tablets. They said that she needs to stay in jail until she has arranged a visit with her daughter. The judge said there's many results from the crime that you committed that just don't harm you or the community. But members of your family. I can't allow myself to forget the actual facts of the case. You used your daughter as the instrumentality to commit felonies. As long as you shake your head and deny the truth, you will remain where you are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You're a scumbag.

[James Petregallo]

And he said you need to meet with your daughter to tell her it's not her fucking fault. Make sure she knows that. I want you to sit there and tell her this is all mom's fault. You did nothing wrong.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I did.

[James Petregallo]

It's not her fault. Yeah. She's only 15. So at sentencing for her, she had Little to say until they made. The judge made a reference to a presentence investigation report. And he said, in case you haven't noticed, this is exactly what your father did to you. Now we're getting. This is how dawn was raised. That's why dawn is like this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. If the judge said, this is what your father did to you, used you for drug transactions. She never had a fucking chance. She never had a chance for sure. I don't even blame her anymore. So I blame her for the murder, but not for the rest of her life. So she said, please do not bring my father into this. Nothing is the same. You're yelling at me for my father.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, kinda.

[James Petregallo]

Which is. I don't think that's. You don't argue with a judge like you argue with your boyfriend. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Don't bring my father up.

[James Petregallo]

Don't you dare bring that up. You don't even know my father. Blah, blah, blah. I have a gavel, ma', am. She said. So the judge said, I'm yelling at you for not breaking the cycle. I don't want to see your daughter standing before me in belly chains like you are.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

So dawn asked if her daughters would be able to visit her in prison. And he said that he would make that determination in custody cases involving the girls. He said, I think it's appropriate you retain relationships with both your daughters. He denied a motion that dawn be allowed to participate in a drug rehab program before going to prison. He said he would recommend that she be released to the program when she earns parole. Okay on the back end.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He said, it will fit with Ms. Oxley's stated intention of changing her life. I don't want to give her. I don't want to give short shrift to her desire to recover. I think this is the appropriate order of business.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Her lawyer pointed out that the offense was Oxley's first felony conviction and she deserves the minimum sentence. She said. The lawyer said, I think she realizes what a huge mistake she's made in her life. He said, she faces termination of her parental rights in a hearing in December, and she's got to be a witness in an upcoming murder trial. She's got a lot going on, your honor. And the judge says, unless she's going to be doing it from prison for a while, you, ma', am, may fuck off. 90 months in prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, because she's violating probations and everything else. And you got to make an example when someone involves their kids in drugs. Fuck that. You know don't involve your kids in illegal shit. That's awful.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just do it on your own.

[James Petregallo]

You have the balls to do it on your own if you have to do it, but you don't involve them. So she 90 months. She's already got some time served. We'll talk about that now for James. The district attorney's office decided they will not seek the death penalty against James.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

The prosecutor said he filed a notice with the district court and said the district attorney's office has determined that the statutory requirements for the death penalty are not met by the facts of the case. He didn't steal anything. He didn't do anything like that. This critical decision was reached after careful consideration was given to the constitutional and legal requirements that were sworn to uphold. They said that the statute requires the existence of aggravators that outweigh the evidence in mitigation. He said there are 15 statutory aggravators that include such things as torture, multiple deaths, a prior conviction for murder, murder committed after the commission of a sexual assault, murders committed on police officers. Sure. He said while all murder cases are aggravated in the general sense of the word, not all murders have facts that meet the definition of the statutory aggravators. In addition, the statutory requirements are that there are constitutional concerns that also need to be adhered to. So penalties for murder in the first degree also include life without parole, life with possibility of parole after 20 years or a definite term of 50 years with a possibility of parole after 20 has been served. Okay, so that's all on the table now. Matt Lean has pled not guilty to first degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. His attorney said, I talked to James and his mother and they're relieved. It's a difficult decision to file that notice, but Tom Gregory, the prosecutor, has always been a stand up guy. I'm very happy. Good guy. The next step is how we deal with the case and defend it. Nothing about the decision today mutes our anger against Dawn Oxley. March 16, 2012. James pleads guilty. He has to. He's fucked. They're going to have Don go up there and, I mean, he's in a lot of trouble. He admitted it too. He confessed. I mean, he's shit out of luck. He doesn't really. It's his defense is. Well, she was there too. Yeah. Which is like, that's great. We'll deal with her. But you is the problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is about you, man.

[James Petregallo]

So he pleads guilty to first degree murder. That's the only one they would take. Following his Conviction. Alyssa, who is 10 at this point, what a fucking. This kid is awesome. Poor thing, she asked to speak to him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, really?

[James Petregallo]

At 10? What a fucking plug on this fucking kid. I'm impressed with this girl, certainly. She said, I told him that I decided to forgive him and that I wanted him to have hope.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have hope, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Now if I am a murderer and I murdered this guy, and this cute, adorable 10 year old girl comes up in her 10 year old girl voice and says this to me, I'm gonna go hang myself.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm gonna cry.

[James Petregallo]

I am gonna cry and then try every day to kill myself because I suck. I would just be so miserable with myself that I did that. I'd be like, oh my God, that little girl forgives me my life. Wow. God, that so, man, she's got to be in her 20s now too. I bet she's successful. I just bet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Anyway, sentencing, she said, I'm taking full response. Or he said, I should say I'm taking full responsibility for what I did. Dawn needs to take full responsibility for what she did. Oh, the judge says, well, she has immunity, unfortunately for you. So instead, you, sir, may fuck off. Life without parole.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

So he pled to that. He's like 20. Fucking. I think he's like 26 at this point. But happened when he was in his 20s. Now, May 2012, there's a Dateline episode and Melissa. By 2012, Melissa has custody of Alyssa. She's raising her. She's raising her. Alyssa, that's like her mom to her now. That's it. They're a little pair and they go about the world together. She said she was gonna watch the Dateline with alyssa, who was 10 at that point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petregallo]

She said, I'm nervous. I don't get a chance to see it before anyone else. I hope it portrays the story accurately. She said it was Alyssa's decision to be a part of the program too. They wanted them to be a part. She said, I left it up to her. She said, Alyssa chose to do the interview. She's been very grown up about the whole situation, I guess. So she went to courtenating. Yeah, fucking talk to a murderer. A 10 year old would be so scared of a murder. And she said, I want to talk to that guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Let me tell him what's what.

[James Petregallo]

Wow, that is just like a very impressive, peaceful calmness to a kid that I haven't heard about before. She added that she hoped that the chapter of their lives would end with James sentencing. But the killer's appeal Would keep the story in the forefront. His appeals are bullshit anyway. So she said, just because I have a heart, I hope James finds some hope, but that doesn't mean I want him to get out of prison. There's a consequence to what James did. I think he belongs in there. I wouldn't change my opinion about that. His second chance was that he gets to live. He denied that to my husband. That's fair. That's fair. On the Today show also, she. Melissa, agreed that dawn bears responsibility.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes.

[James Petregallo]

She said, I'm hoping that the truth just comes out of all out in the end of it all. And when it's all said and done, I believe that she should have a punishment for her part in it and own up to that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's a real dickhead.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Yeah. She could own up to it. She's got immunity. It doesn't matter. Right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

It doesn't matter at all.

[James Petregallo]

So she said that she hopes dawn will claim responsibility, not only for the sake of her and Melissa, but for the fuck's sake, tell your daughter the truth.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus Christ. Melissa calls Alyssa a strong little girl. And, you know, she brought up that she has to speak to the kid. Guy in court, like that is ballsy. Melissa said that from the first, she told Alyssa that they would approach her father's murder with compassion no matter who it turned out to be. She said, I always told her pretty much from day one, whenever we found out who did this, we'd have to be able to forgive them at some point in order to go on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We got to look them in the face, too.

[James Petregallo]

What balanced people. Like, just sane balanced people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pretty amazing. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So 2014, dawn is released from prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. So by. Also since then, they say with. With the guy, with Melissa's guidance, their mother and daughter now, Alyssa, Melissa, and the. The crazy shit is they have another member of the family that they've taken in. Oh, Brandi, who is Alyssa's half sister. The girl that dawn got busted making with the drug shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

With the drug stuff. Yeah. Brought her in the house.

[James Petregallo]

Now she brought her in, too.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Every time dawn fucks up and loses a kid they end up with Melissa.

[James Petregallo]

Scoops them up and puts some sanity on them. Wow. So this angel of a woman. This fucking angel is raising Alyssa. And this kid's not even her husband's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Kid, has nothing to do with her.

[James Petregallo]

She's just a fucking beautiful person who wants to help people. This is a. This is Melissa. Hats off to you, Melissa.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If you hear this, you're amazing.

[James Petregallo]

You're amazing. You're fucking incredible. And honestly, you. And that's incredible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And you're fixing Dawn's life one child at a time.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. You're fixing her fucking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Fixing every mistake she makes. Wow.

[James Petregallo]

She poured gas, sugar in the gas tank of her life. And you're going through it with a fucking strainer, trying to get it all out, putting a new motor in it. God damn it. She said that she had no connections to Brandi, but she's committed to paving a new way forward for herself and Alyssa. And that's Alyssa's sister. And Alyssa's worried about her, so she's not gonna let her go into foster care or something. She'll take her, she said, welcoming Brandi as she had. Alyssa became her mother and give them the safe family that they needed. And so, yeah. And once the investigation was over, she got Alyssa back full time. James is at the. Eli. Eli. Ely. Eli State Prison. Ellie Eli. He's in there. His offender booking ID is 71222. And he is never getting out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never.

[James Petregallo]

He is shit out of luck. Dawn, who knows what she's doing, from what I understand. People said that she, like, got her shit together.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And kind of cleaned up her life a little bit and is going by an assumed name and kind of just living quietly. So who knows? We don't know. But either way, feel bad for Ben.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He didn't do anything wrong.

[James Petregallo]

And Melissa, you. You. You get like, the, like, murder story Participant of the year award.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's amazing.

[James Petregallo]

From our show. You get it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's hats off what an understanding, outgoing, caring. The heart on this woman is not.

[James Petregallo]

Just the fact that she wanted to be that nice to the child, maybe like her. And then the fact that she Even after the husband's gone. So it's not just, oh, I'm trying to get in good with him. This is just her genuine who she is. That's insane for nothing. Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How do you do?

[James Petregallo]

That's wild. So if you like this story, let everybody know. Get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. It really, really helps drive the show up the charts. Head over to Shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your merchandise. Get your tickets for live shows starting off in February 21st in Nashville, Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Buffalo, Royal Oak, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown, and Boston. They're all for sale, and a lot of them are selling very fast. So please, if you've known from going previous years, some of them sell real fast. People are disappointed they can't get tickets when they're three months out. Even so, thank you for doing that. Get those tickets right now. Shut upandgivemerder.com get yourself patreon. Patreon.com crimeinsports anybody $5 a month or above. You get everything. Hundreds of back episodes you've never heard before. Bonus stuff. New ones every other week. One crime and sports. One small town murder. You get it all. You get all the shows ad free that we make crime and sports. Your stupid opinion. Small town murder, you get it all for free. All ad free. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. So do that. Follow us on social media for sure we are smalltown murder on Instagram, Smalltownpod on Facebook. You wanna find us on social media, you can do [e-mail] drop down menus will take you there, take you to tickets and take you on out of everywhere. So there you go everybody. Thank you so much for all you've done for us this entire year. We appreciate it. Merry Christmas to everybody and until next week, it's been our pleasure. Bye.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Sa.