Sarah Mitchell

Summary

Snapped: Women Who Murder

Episode: Sarah Mitchell

Host/Author: Oxygen

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of Snapped: Women Who Murder, Oxygen delves into the chilling case of Sarah Mitchell, a woman whose familial bonds turned deadly. The story unravels the complex dynamics between Sarah and her sister, Stevie Allman, leading to a heinous act of betrayal that shocked their community.

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Background: The Allman Sisters

Stevie Allman and Sarah Mitchell were sisters with starkly contrasting personalities and lifestyles. Growing up in Oakland, California, under the care of their single mother after their father disappeared, Stevie became the pillar of the family.

• Detective's Insight [07:42]: "The girls grew up in an environment where there's a single parent, the father disappeared, and their mom raised them. So the kids were relied on a lot to help out everybody else, and Stevie was one of those people that was relied on at an early age to help out the family."

Stevie was industrious and dependable, excelling in her job at a local utility truck company, earning over $100,000 in bonuses for her dedication. In contrast, Sarah led a more turbulent life, struggling with multiple divorces and unstable relationships.

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Rising Tensions and Community Involvement

By the late 1990s, Oakland was grappling with rampant drug-related crimes. The Allman sisters decided to take a stand against the escalating violence, positioning themselves as community watchdogs to combat the drug epidemic.

• Sarah Mitchell [12:28]: "The framework of the house was still existing, but for the most part, the fire was extensive."

However, their activism inadvertently placed them in the crosshairs of local drug dealers, leading to mounting threats against Stevie and Sarah.

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The Arson Attack

On the evening of July 1, 1997, disaster struck. A neighbor, Monica Boyette, responded to a frantic knock at her door, finding Stevie severely burned and her home engulfed in flames.

• Monica Boyette [04:31]: "A lady came to my door and told me that she needed help."

Stevie claimed that drug dealers retaliated against her for filming their illicit activities, resulting in the firebombing of her home. As authorities grappled with Stevie's statements, confusion loomed over the whereabouts of her sister, Sarah.

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Investigation and Unveiling the Deception

As detectives delved deeper, inconsistencies in Stevie's account raised suspicions. Key evidence suggested that the arson might not have been perpetrated by drug dealers but by someone with a personal vendetta against the Allman sisters.

• Crime Scene Investigator [19:12]: "That, quite frankly, is unusual because normally someone is going to tell us something, but in this case, with a high dollar reward, with a lot of national attention on this case, we're getting no information, which to me means we're not turning up the right stone."

The breakthrough came when Leota Belville, another sister, filed a missing persons report for Stevie, revealing that the woman in the hospital was not Stevie but Sarah impersonating her.

• Leota Belville [21:27]: "The first thing Leota told the detectives was that the person in the hospital is not Stevie Allman and that is Sarah Mitchell."

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Discovery of Stevie's Remains

Detectives obtained a fingerprint match confirming that the woman claiming to be Stevie was, in fact, Sarah Mitchell engaging in identity theft.

• Sarah Mitchell [32:32]: "It pretty much vindicated a lot of my suspicions. We knew that she was Sarah. And now where was Stevie?"

Subsequent investigations led to the discovery of Stevie's dismembered body in her burned home.

• Monica Boyette [37:17]: "She had been cut in half from the waist up and then the lower torso from her waist down to about above her knees. And then the last part that came out was the legs. We had four body parts all together. It was just disbelief and just never seen anything like this before in my career."

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Trial and Conviction

Sarah Mitchell faced charges for forgery and the murder of her sister. The prosecution presented overwhelming evidence, including financial motives and forensic findings linking Sarah to the crime.

• Prosecutors [43:25]: "Prosecutors theorize that on the night of June 30, 1997, while Stevie was sleeping, Sarah walked into her sister's bedroom with horrific intentions."

Despite Sarah's defense highlighting the lack of direct witnesses, the jury found her guilty of first-degree murder.

• Leota Belville [45:05]: "She thought about it before she did it and she planned it, and then she executed her plan. And therefore they found that she premeditated the murder, which is first degree murder in California."

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Aftermath and Community Impact

Sarah Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison, with her next parole eligibility set for January 2027. The community was left in shock, grappling with the betrayal within a family they thought they knew.

• Monica Boyette [46:22]: "At the end of the day, I think it just boils down to money, jealousy, pure, just greed and evil."

Leota Belville emphasized Stevie's legacy as a person of high integrity and a community pillar.

• Leota Belville [46:40]: "She cared for her mother, she cared for her siblings. She was just a person of high integrity, hard worker. I mean, she represented all of the good things in people. And I think her sister Sarah represented some of the worst things in people."

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Conclusion

The Sarah Mitchell case serves as a haunting reminder of the depths of familial betrayal and the destructive power of deceit. Stevie Allman's dedication to her community will always be remembered, overshadowed only by the tragic demise caused by her sister's greed and malice.

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Key Quotes

• Leota Belville [02:00]: "She represented all of the good things in I think her sister represented some of the worst things in people."

• Sarah Mitchell [13:16]: "They said if she ever got in the way of our business or she ever caused us problems, it was easier to just put a bullet in her head."

• Leota Belville [27:05]: "Stevie had been long frustrated by Sarah being lazy, not willing to work, always looking for someone to take care of her, and just not being a real productive person. And that was at the heart of the bad blood that had been going on between Stevie and Sarah."

• Monica Boyette [40:53]: "We didn't realize we had a murderer right here in our own neighborhood. I mean, if she'd have killed her sister, she'd have killed me, she'd have killed you, she'd have killed anybody."

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Reflection

This episode of Snapped: Women Who Murder intricately weaves the narrative of family dynamics gone terribly wrong. It highlights how trust and love can be twisted into motives for the most unimaginable crimes, leaving a lasting impact on all involved.

Transcript

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[Leota Belville]

She represented all of the good things in I think her sister represented some of the worst things in people.

[Detective]

She was grounded. She was financially secure. Whereas her sister's life had always been haphazard and unstable.

[Carl]

And when a brazen crime is unleashed on their childhood home, all hell breaks loose.

[Monica Boyette]

The home was engulfing flames. It was completely torched. She was burnt really bad.

[Carl]

The aftermath will lead investigators on a desperate search for answers.

[Leota Belville]

She was frightened at the threats that they were receiving from the drug dealers.

[Sarah Mitchell]

She was nowhere to be found.

[Monica Boyette]

We were all in shock. Someone was asking, where is your sister? Where is your sister?

[Carl]

But the trail leaves them dead in their tracks.

[Monica Boyette]

I was told we were Going there.

[Leota Belville]

To look for a body, they determined that not only was she dead, but that she had also been dismembered.

[Carl]

In a tale of sibling rivalry, it seems one was an angel.

[Investigator]

I'd had a terrible feeling that something very bad was going to happen. I thought she was going to be dead.

[Carl]

While the other, a devil in disguise.

[Sarah Mitchell]

I think it was good versus evil.

[Leota Belville]

She thought about it before she did it and she planned it. And then she executed her plan.

[Monica Boyette]

This is what horror movies are made of. Frightening.

[Carl]

Oakland, California. A city in the Bay Area well known for its acceptance and diversity. But in the late 1990s, drugs had flooded the streets of this once proud community.

[Monica Boyette]

In the 90s, we had a very large epidemic of shootings. The city had a lot of gang activity going on, a lot of drug activity going on. Oakland is a beautiful city, especially around Lake Merritt. But Oakland could be like any other big city. You have your ins, your outs, your ups and downs, and you're good and you're bad.

[Carl]

And on the evening of July 1, 1997, East Oakland resident Monica Boyette gets a glimpse of the bad when she hears a frantic knock at her door.

[Monica Boyette]

A lady came to my door and told me that she needed help.

[Carl]

Monica recognizes the woman as one of the Ullman sisters who live nearby.

[Monica Boyette]

I could not tell which one of the sisters it was. She was burnt really bad. She said someone threw something in her window.

[Carl]

That's when Monica looks down the street to see the woman's home ablaze.

[Monica Boyette]

You could hear people. It's a fire, it's a fire. People were saying that the house was.

[Leota Belville]

Fully in flames when the fire department arrived.

[Monica Boyette]

I had came home from work and I noticed a bunch of fire trucks out there and the home was engulfing flames. It was completely torched.

[Leota Belville]

There would not have even been an attempt to go into the house to try and save anyone because it was so fully engulfed in flames.

[Carl]

As firefighters rush to extinguish the inferno, paramedics tend to the woman's wounds.

[Monica Boyette]

She had first and second degree what.

[Carl]

They say are deflective burns on her hands, her arms and her legs.

[Leota Belville]

I don't believe they concluded that there were any life threatening injuries, but that she did need immediate medical attention.

[Carl]

The woman identifies herself to first responders as 52 year old Stevie Allman, the owner of the home that she shares with her sister, 47 year old Sarah Mitchell. Stevie stuns authorities when she claims the fire was the result of drug dealers throwing firebombs through her window.

[Leota Belville]

She alleged that several individuals surrounded the house and firebombed the house.

[Sarah Mitchell]

The assumption was that drug dealers had attempted to burn her out of the house.

[Detective]

All police know is that Stevie allman has been injured, but we don't know why drug dealers would want to attack her.

[Carl]

First responders attempt to calm Stevie down as she is loaded into the ambulance. But just as the doors close, surrounding neighbors make a terrifying realization.

[Monica Boyette]

We were all in shock. Someone was asking the lady that came to my home, where is your sister? Where is your sister?

[Carl]

Stevie says her sister Sarah is in a different and had only recently moved out. As the ambulance pulls away, the Allman sisters childhood home is left in ashes. California natives Sarah and Stevie allman moved to Oakland, California, at a young age with their mother and seven siblings.

[Leota Belville]

They had been in Oakland since the 1950s and grew up in that house that they were living in.

[Carl]

With her father out of the picture, Stevie was tasked with helping her older sister, Leota, look after their younger siblings, including Sarah.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

The girls grew up in an environment where there's a single parent, the father disappeared, and that their mom raised them. So the kids were relied on a lot to help out everybody else, and that Stevie was one of those people that was relied on at an early age to help out the family.

[Detective]

There was a special bond between Stevie and her sister, who is five years her junior. Her name is Sarah. It wasn't uncommon for people to mistake them for twins.

[Carl]

Though she always looked up to Stevie, Sarah quickly became accustomed to walking in her older sister's shadow.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie was a very sweet person, One of the absolute rocks of that family.

[Carl]

By the early 1970s, the Allman children had left the nest, with the exception of Stevie.

[Detective]

Stevie stays in the home with her mother, and she has a good job working for a local family business.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie aman was known to be very industrious, very hard worker, and this was a company that made utility trucks. And Stevie was one of that family's most valuable employees.

[Carl]

After nearly 20 years with the company, Stevie's dedication was recognized with a sizable bonus.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie aman was one of the two employees that they gave over $100,000 to as part of her reward and her having been such a hardworking, dependable employee.

[Carl]

While the other allman children had established lives of their own, Stevie and Sarah remained close, proving that even with family.

[Detective]

Opposites attract, Even though Stevie and Sarah were very close and looked alike, that's about where it ends. In terms of their individual characters, Stevie was the hard worker. She was grounded. She was employed, Whereas Sarah lived a more frivolous lifestyle. Did not hold down jobs.

[Carl]

By her 30s, Sarah found herself divorced with three young kids and a new last name, Mitchell.

[Leota Belville]

Sarah would meet a man, move in with him, live with the man, and it would fall apart. And then she'd wind up back living with Stevie and her mother.

[Carl]

In the early 90s, Stevie and her mother welcomed Sarah and her kids back with open arms.

[Leota Belville]

The kind of arrangement that they had is that Stevie worked at her company and Sarah, who did not work, was responsible for keeping the house clean and doing all the cooking.

[Carl]

After a few years, Sarah's kids grew up and moved out while she remained with her sister and mother. Then in 1994, the matriarch of the family passed away and left the home to her children.

[Detective]

Once Stevie and Sarah's mother died, there was a big decision to make what to do with that beloved home that they lived in. It was bought by their mother, had so many memories, Stevie could not stand to part with it, so she bought it outright.

[Carl]

Stevie agreed to pay her siblings for their shares of the home and became the sole owner and she allowed Sarah to remain in the house. But while the house hadn't changed much, the city of Oakland had.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Mid to late 90s Oakland was basically, basically crime infested with a lot of drug dealers. Drugs were cheap then, so crime was pretty rampant. There was a lot of drug wars going on and other crimes related to drugs. Burglaries, carjackings, robberies, homicides, everything.

[Carl]

That's when the two sisters decided they would no longer be passive observers.

[Investigator]

Officers that were community policing officers worked closely with the community to solve neighborhood crimes. So we asked the residents to be our partners in this. They were our eyes and ears for the Oakland police department.

[Carl]

But on July 1, 1997, it seems the sisters noble efforts to protect the neighborhood may have put them in the line of fire. Firefighters have just extinguished a massive fire at the east Oakland home of Stevie Allman and Sarah Mitchell.

[Sarah Mitchell]

The framework of the house was still existing, but for the most part, the fire was extensive.

[Carl]

The homeowner, 52 year old Stevie Ullman, has been transported to the hospital with multiple burns. Stevie claimed that the home had been firebombed by drug dealers, retaliating for Stevie, filming their illegal activities for police.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

Stevie said her intentions were to have them arrested and they would be out of the neighborhood and the neighborhood would be peaceful again.

[Sarah Mitchell]

She said there were hooded individuals running into the yard. We were looking for three to four individuals.

[Carl]

Coming up. As detectives round up local drug dealers, new information comes to light.

[Sarah Mitchell]

They said if she ever Got in the way of our business or she ever caused us problems, it was easier to just put a bullet in her head.

[Carl]

And a shocking twist turns the case upside down.

[Leota Belville]

They said, well, why is she filing a missing persons report on Stevie Yaman? And Steve Yaman's in the hospital.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

The spotlight shifts now to this person that was in the hospital that is supposed to be the anti drug crusader who is now not the person she says she is.

[Carl]

On July 1, 1997, a fire has destroyed the childhood home of Stevie Allman and Sarah Mitchell. With Sarah currently unaccounted for, Oakland arson investigators are speaking to Stevie, hoping to find out who targeted their home.

[Detective]

This case has now gone to the arson unit, and the first thing they want to do is go to the hospital and get a statement from their victim, Stevie.

[Carl]

Stevie's theory is that local drug dealers attacked her home.

[Leota Belville]

She responded that drug dealers firebombed the house and threw Molotov cocktails into the house and that she ran through the front door and suffered burn injuries to her arms and legs.

[Sarah Mitchell]

She was filming dope deals and prostitution, and from my understanding, she wanted to try to put an end to it.

[Investigator]

What she saw, she reported to the Oakland police.

[Carl]

Stevie says she recognized the men that threw Molotov cocktails as the same men she videotaped dealing drugs. Stevie goes on to explain that once the drug dealers discovered they were being filmed, they began threatening the Ullman sisters.

[Detective]

Stevie reveals to police that actually she and her sister had received several threats over the last couple of months.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie told the officers that Sarah had become frightened at the threats that they were receiving from the drug dealers and that she had moved out and no longer wanted to live there out of fear of being retaliated against. She indicated that Sarah had moved to Sparks, Nevada, with her new boyfriend.

[Carl]

According to Stevie, not long after Sarah left, the drug dealers made good on their threats. Now that detectives have heard Stevie's account, they ask for Sarah's contact information to hear her version of events.

[Sarah Mitchell]

We were trying to contact her to piece together some of the details that we were finding a little confusing.

[Leota Belville]

They inquired, could Stevie give them the phone number to call Sarah? Stevie said her address book had been burned in the fire.

[Carl]

Armed with only Stevie's statement for now, detectives begin their search for the alleged arsonists.

[Sarah Mitchell]

We were looking for individuals in black hooded attire, you know, that had set the house on fire. I notified all the beat officers out there to start giving me identifications of all known dope dealers in the area.

[Carl]

On July 3, the hospital releases a Statement to the press on Stevie's behalf.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

In the statement, Stevie said that her intentions in filming these people were to get them out of the. To have them arrested, and they would be out of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood would be peaceful again.

[Carl]

The meat of it was essentially her role in the community and neighborhood watch and being careful as members of the community and not wanting the bad guys, if you will, to take over. And she was tired of it.

[Monica Boyette]

The community was just very distraught, very upset, very concerned. And I believe they rallied together quite well to support her.

[Carl]

She started getting donations, and people asked if they could donate money. And so we managed the processing of any monetary gifts that came through to her.

[Leota Belville]

The story had blown up into a national story to the point where Stevie Yaman was receiving phone calls from the White House and the drug czar. And so the pressure on the Oakland police department to solve the case was tremendous.

[Carl]

To aid in the efforts, the governor of California offers a $50,000 reward for anyone with information on the arsonists to come forward.

[Sarah Mitchell]

There was a lot of high activity on our part from law enforcement to pick these people up for warrants. If they see them doing a deal in the street, they'd get picked up for sales of narcotics.

[Leota Belville]

I think the majority of the drug dealers that they spoke to didn't even know what the Oakland police department was talking about. When they asked about videotapes, they were.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Matter of factly about it. Said if she ever got in the way of our business or she ever caused us problems, it was easier to just put a bullet in her head as opposed to taking a chance of getting hurt or injured with a firebomb.

[Carl]

While the alleged dealers acknowledge they're not above violent retribution, they insist they know nothing about the fire.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

That, quite frankly, is unusual because normally someone is going to tell us something, but in this case, with a high dollar reward, with a lot of national attention on this case, we're getting no information, which to me means we're not turning up the right stone.

[Carl]

Detectives turn back to the arson report, Looking for any evidence they may have missed.

[Leota Belville]

They found several items that were inconsistent with the house or the room being firebombed.

[Sarah Mitchell]

There was glass on the outside of the house as opposed to the inside.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

Which was inconsistent with the statement that a Molotov cocktail was thrown inside.

[Carl]

Detectives begin to think that the arsonist was not a drug dealer at all, but perhaps someone who held animosity towards the Allman sisters. Getting back in touch with Stevie Allman could be the key to finding out what happened. However, in the week following the fire, they struggled to connect with her or her sister, Sarah Mitchell.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Nobody knew where the other sister was at. Nobody knew where Sarah was at. And that was something that I was going to have to find out from Stevie. A number of times I tried to speak to her, but each time I went up to the hospital, doctors were telling me, she's been sedated. She couldn't speak. There was all kind of circumstances which meant that I couldn't get to Stevie and talk to her myself.

[Carl]

With Stevie on tight medical supervision, detectives are forced to wait for information. But on July 7, 1997, they received surprise, surprising news from the Santa Cruz Police Department.

[Leota Belville]

Leota, a sibling of Stevie Ahman, had filed a missing persons report on Stevie Ahman. They said, well, why is she filing a missing persons report on Stevie Amin and Stevie Yaman's in the hospital?

[Carl]

Oakland detectives head to Santa Cruz to inform Stevie and Sarah's sister, Leota Belville, about what's trans. And they are met with a shocking accusation.

[Leota Belville]

The first thing Leota told the detectives was that the person in the hospital is not Stevie Ahman and that is Sarah Mitchell.

[Carl]

Coming up, the investigation reveals bad blood in the family.

[Investigator]

We before, I'd had a terrible feeling that something very bad was going to happen to Stevie. I wanted to know where she was. I just asked Sarah over and over.

[Carl]

And detectives begin to suspect a dubious cover up.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Nobody would have somebody's identification and money like that belonging to Stevie unless Stevie wasn't around. My suspicion on this was that she had killed Stevie.

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[Carl]

It's been one week since the home of Stevie Allman was set ablaze and detectives have just learned the woman they thought was Stevie may actually be Stevie's sister Sarah Mitchell.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

The spotlight shifts now to this person that was in the hospital that is supposed to be the anti drug crusader who is now not the person she says she is.

[Carl]

Stevie and Sarah's older sister Leota Belville says she immediately knew something was amiss when she saw the fire on the news and reports were dubbing Stevie a crime crusader.

[Investigator]

Stevie would never have been drug dealers. She wouldn't have even acknowledged them. She would have just looked the other way. She wouldn't do anything.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

The OTA told us that it was not Stevie Allman that was in the hospital, but it was in fact, Sarah.

[Carl]

Liotta says she received a phone call from Sarah while she was in the hospital and that Sarah had a believable reason for posing as Stevie.

[Investigator]

Sarah didn't have any insurance and Stevie did and so she was going to use Stevie's name and let the insurance pay for it.

[Carl]

Liotta goes on to share a disturbing premonition she had about Stevie.

[Investigator]

I wanted to know where Stevie was.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Why did you want to know where Stevie was?

[Investigator]

Because weeks before, I'd had a terrible feeling that something very bad was going to happen to Stevie. I mean, I thought she was going to be dead, and I wanted to know where she was. I just asked Sarah over and over.

[Leota Belville]

Sarah Mitchell responded, stevie's in Lake Tahoe. And a little bit later in the conversation, the sister asked Sarah Mitchell a second time, but where's Stevie? And Sarah responded that Stevie's in Reno.

[Investigator]

I said, something's wrong here. And I said to her, you told me Stevie was in Tahoe, and now you're saying she's in Reno. I want to know where Stevie is.

[Leota Belville]

At that point, Sarah Mitchell basically ended the conversation with her sister.

[Carl]

Given Stevie and Sarah's relationship over the last few years, Liotta fears something terrible has happened.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie had been long frustrated by Sarah being lazy, not willing to work, always looking for someone to take care of her, and just not being a real productive person. And that was at the heart of the bad blood that had been going on between Stevie and Sarah.

[Carl]

When their mother died. Liotta says the relationship between Stevie and Sara only grew more fraught when Sarah began impersonating Stevie and cashing her checks.

[Investigator]

I know that it's happened several times where Sarah has pretended to be Stevie. Stevie still allowed Sarah to live there with her in that house, and I don't know why.

[Carl]

Liotta says Stevie had recently expressed interest in leaving Oakland, which only caused further friction between her two sisters.

[Leota Belville]

Stevie began having discussions about wanting to sell her house and go somewhere to retire. And then Sarah, of course, questioned, well, if you sell the house, what's going to happen to me? And Stevie, of course, responded that she was not responsible for taking care of Sarah for the rest of her life.

[Carl]

Armed with this new information, detectives call the hospital for an immediate interview with the woman claiming to be Stevie Allman.

[Sarah Mitchell]

I found out from the hospital itself that she had been released.

[Leota Belville]

So they did an all points bulletin on finding her, and they eventually found her in the city right next door to Oakland, and she was in a hotel in the city of Alameda. They brought her in for questioning.

[Sarah Mitchell]

For the purpose of this interview. You see that now we're taped reporting it and that we need to get your full name.

[Investigator]

My full name?

[Sarah Mitchell]

For purposes, yeah.

[Investigator]

Stevie Viola. All men.

[Carl]

The woman claiming to be Stevie sticks to her original story, but detectives aren't convinced.

[Sarah Mitchell]

The first Thing I noticed was the burns on the front of her arms, the front of her legs, but it was only on the front, meaning to me that she was well aware of where the fire was at. She wasn't engulfed in the fire. Okay. Now, there were definitely somebody in the front yard and somebody in the backyard.

[Investigator]

There may have been three, but I believe there were four because of the way everything hit at one time.

[Carl]

Detectives, change course and press the woman about Liotta's allegations.

[Sarah Mitchell]

We received a report, report from Scotts Valley pd, And it's in regards to a missing person, and it was initiated by Leota Belville.

[Investigator]

No, Leota knows better. She just was hysterical that night. She's the oldest. She's got control.

[Leota Belville]

She was adamant that she was Stevie. Amen. And that her sister Leota never knew what she was talking about.

[Sarah Mitchell]

In the past, have you ever assumed Stevie's identity at any time, or have you ever assumed Sarah's identity? Has there any confusion?

[Investigator]

People will call me Sarah. People will call me Stevie. Ms. Almond, that's about as far as assuming anything.

[Sarah Mitchell]

You're not Sarah.

[Investigator]

No, I'm Stevie.

[Carl]

Detectives ask for identification. As she opens up her purse, investigators spot two sets of IDs.

[Sarah Mitchell]

She had a lot of identification on her that belonged to Sarah, and she had Stevie Ullman's identification on her. So at that point, I'm also confused as to who I'm talking to, whether I'm talking to Stevie or Sarah. Plus, she had also a lot of checks in her purse of donations that were written to Stevie Allman.

[Detective]

Police obviously ask her, why do you have two sets of identification?

[Sarah Mitchell]

She said that they often carry each other's identification, which made no sense to me in as much as she said that Sarah was off with her boyfriend in Nevada. Meaning doesn't she need that identification for her own self?

[Leota Belville]

It reached a point in the interview, and it became clear to the detectives that she was never going to admit that she was Sarah Mitchell.

[Sarah Mitchell]

What we're probably going to do, Stevie, is just, for all intents and purposes, and just to clear it up, we're just going to have your fingerprints.

[Investigator]

Just roll your fingerprints, okay?

[Sarah Mitchell]

I told her that we'd like to get her fingerprinted so that I could find out who I'm talking to. At that point, she didn't really want to talk much anymore.

[Carl]

It only takes police 45 minutes to receive the fingerprint match results and determine which Allman sister is sitting in front of them.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

The fingerprint return said that she was Sarah Mitchell.

[Sarah Mitchell]

It pretty much vindicated a lot of my suspicions. We knew that she was Sarah. And now where was Stevie?

[Carl]

Coming up, an elaborate scheme is laid bare.

[Leota Belville]

What they found was that all of the bank accounts had been cleaned out.

[Carl]

And detectives unearth a chilling discovery.

[Leota Belville]

He opened the freezer and saw what looked like an elbow.

[Monica Boyette]

It was just disbelief. Just never seen anything like this before in my career. Just total shock.

[Carl]

Oakland detectives have just determined that 47 year old Sarah Mitchell has been posing as her sister, Stevie Allman, prompting the question, if this is Sarah, where is Stevie?

[Sarah Mitchell]

She was very nervous. When we came back into the room and approached about knowing that she was Sarah, she denied it.

[Leota Belville]

She completely shut down. She wouldn't answer any questions. And all questioning stopped once she demanded a lawyer.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

At that point, Sergeant Hughes arrested her for forgery.

[Carl]

With Sarah in a cell and an APB out for the real Stevie Allman, detectives hold Sarah Mitchell on charges of forgery and providing a false name to police.

[Leota Belville]

They went and looked at Stevie Yaman's bank accounts, and what they found was that all of the bank accounts had been cleaned out. So they wanted the video of those transactions. And on every single one of those transactions, they found Sarah Mitchell had withdrawn all the money.

[Carl]

While there were physical similarities between the sisters, investigators believe they were distinct enough to identify the woman in the footage as Sarah and not Stevie.

[Sarah Mitchell]

She was cashing checks that were issued to Stevie Allman that she wasn't entitled to cash. There were other incidents that Sarah was posing as Stevie, I think attempts to try to get retirement checks, and she was trying to do a. A total identity switch.

[Carl]

To detectives, this can only mean one thing.

[Sarah Mitchell]

My early suspicion on this was that she had killed Stevie. And because nobody would have somebody's identification and money like that belonging to Stevie unless Stevie wasn't around.

[Carl]

On July 15, 1997, two weeks after the Allman home went up in flames, detectives secure a search warrant for the property.

[Monica Boyette]

In 1997, I was one of the senior crime scene investigators in our unit. The day I was asked to respond with the investigators, I was told we were going there to look for a body. So we would search it from top to bottom and turn it inside out if we had to.

[Carl]

While much of the home was destroyed, some items survived the fire.

[Monica Boyette]

I entered the house and it was severely burnt. You could smell the charred wood, and the room was coal and very dark. There was no electricity. And as I walked in, they brought me with their flashlights and guided me to the kitchen area, which was just past the living room.

[Leota Belville]

Two of the investigators went into the kitchen, and they walked over to the freezer. And so using a flashlight, he opened the freezer and saw what looked like an elbow protruding out from the garbage bag.

[Monica Boyette]

I reached inside of the freezer box and I was able to grab a hold of what I believe was her arm. And I tried to feel for a pulse, but there was nothing. She was. She was deceased.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

It was clear that it was female, but obviously it would take the coroner to do an actual identification.

[Sarah Mitchell]

It wasn't confirmed yet, but it was my assumption that it was. Stevie.

[Carl]

The entire freezer is moved to the coroner's office for an autopsy.

[Monica Boyette]

I was there as we untaped the freezer box, and then as the body was removed, I think there was at least two bags.

[Carl]

As they open the bags, authorities are met with a gruesome sight.

[Leota Belville]

It was at that point they determined that not only was she dead, but that she had also been dismembered.

[Monica Boyette]

She had been cut in half from the waist up and then the lower torso from her waist down to about above her knees. And then the last part that came out was the. The legs. We had four body parts all together. It was just disbelief and just never seen anything like this before in my career. This is what horror movies are made of. Frightening.

[Carl]

The damage to the head was the obvious cause of death.

[Crime Scene Investigator]

See in the results of the autopsy was that Stevie Allman died of blunt trauma. Blunt trauma to the head, where she received numerous blows, maybe as many as 20 blows, likely with a probar, but an instrument like that cause her to die.

[Carl]

Because the remains had been well preserved, Investigators feel confident with the preliminary identification of the body as Stevie Ullman. Back at the home, CSIS look for clues amongst the wreckage to piece together how the crime unfolded.

[Leota Belville]

They went into the front bedroom, which is the room that was Steve Yaman's bedroom, and they went in and placed the luminol on the floors and the walls. And the room lit up like a Christmas tree. So that confirmed that Stevie Ahman had been murdered in that bedroom.

[Carl]

Authorities find more grisly clues in the bathroom.

[Sarah Mitchell]

I did see the tub that had the skill saw marks on the porcelain tub, which is where she had Stevie's legs draped over the side of the tub and cut the legs off.

[Carl]

Despite the condition of the burned home, authorities are able to recover blood samples as well as several possible murder weapons.

[Monica Boyette]

I can tell you there were quite a few things that they asked me to recover. A skill saw, hammer, some knives. There was probably close to 40 pieces.

[Carl]

Of evidence collected on July 23rd, 1997, Sarah Mitchell is officially charged with the murder of her sister, Stevie Allman.

[Monica Boyette]

We was totally shocked. We didn't realize we had a murderer right here in our own neighborhood. I mean, if she'd have killed her sister, she'd have killed me, she'd have killed you, she'd have killed anybody.

[Carl]

Coming up, Sarah's deception causes an uproar in the community.

[Investigator]

Here you are, a woman who had blamed the drug dealers for something so horrific that you yourself had done.

[Carl]

But prosecutors face an uphill battle to bring an alleged killer to justice.

[Leota Belville]

The defense strategy was to focus on the fact that we did not have any direct evidence that throughout the case, the prosecution has failed to put one witness on the stand that saw anything.

[Carl]

Oakland detectives have arrested 47 year old Sarah Mitchell for the impersonation and murder of her older sister, Stevie Allman.

[Monica Boyette]

It was shocking to hear something like that would happen, especially right next door to me.

[Investigator]

We just felt duped, period. Everyone was angry at that point because here you are, a woman who had blamed the drug dealers for something so horrific that you yourself had done.

[Carl]

In November of 2000, Sarah Mitchell's much anticipated trial gets underway.

[Leota Belville]

I spent quite a bit of time establishing the relationships between Sarah Mitchell and Stevie Ahman so that the jury could understand how someone can do this to their own sister. We focused on the actual evidence in terms of who had access to Stevie. Amen. That they could walk into her room at night and beat her to death. And then you close the case down with the motive. And in this case, it was a financial gain motive. That was the reason behind this whole case. We focused on voluminous numbers of photographs of Sarah Mitchell in the bank withdrawing her sister's money.

[Carl]

Prosecutors theorize that on the night of June 30, 1997, while Stevie was sleeping, Sarah walked into her sister's bedroom with horrific intentions.

[Detective]

According to prosecutors, she sneaks into her sister's bedroom in the middle of the night. She's armed. She begins bludgeoning Stevie's head and over and over again. Then she drags the body from the bed across the floor into the bathroom, where she proceeds to cut her sister into pieces with a saw.

[Sarah Mitchell]

I don't understand the mentality, how a sister could kill another sister in such a dramatic and gruesome way. It just. It's beyond me. I can't explain it.

[Carl]

According to prosecutors, the evidence against Sarah is overwhelming.

[Leota Belville]

You showed the jury what happened that night. What was the instrumentality that was used, the dismemberment of the body? The attempt to cover up the blood spatter that was all over the walls and the floor in the bedroom by firebombing the house from the inside and then claiming drug dealers through a Molotov cocktail. And then you show the jury the photo of the glass outside the house as opposed to inside the house.

[Carl]

Ultimately, the state's case was enough to convince the jury. And on November 21, 2000, Sarah Mitchell is found guilty of murder. I believe the ultimate verdict in finding her guilty was appropriate considering the evidence that was stacked up all around them and around her.

[Leota Belville]

She thought about it before she did it and she planned it, and then she executed her plan. And therefore they found that she premeditated the murder, which is first degree murder in California.

[Carl]

At her sentencing hearing on December 4, 2000, surprisingly, Sarah's family pleads for her life.

[Leota Belville]

They had been hurt enough, and to take the life of the second sister would just be another stab in the heart.

[Monica Boyette]

Her family, from what I understand, did not want the death penalty. And now she's left to live her life behind bars. Sometimes, maybe death isn't really a punishment, but life behind bars is.

[Investigator]

Anyone in their right mind, right, would not think to do something so horrific if you know your sister is actually taking care of you, providing for you, has a home for you, and taking care of your every need, and then you turn around and this is how you repay them.

[Monica Boyette]

At the end of the day, I think it just boils down to money, jealousy, pure, just greed and evil.

[Carl]

And though Stevie's life ended tragically, the crime will never overshadow her memory.

[Leota Belville]

She cared for her mother, she cared for her siblings. She was just a person of high integrity, hard worker. I mean, she represented all of the good things in people. And I think her sister Sarah represented some of the worst things in people.

[Narrator]

Sarah Mitchell is housed at the Central California Women's Facility, serving a life sentence for the murder of her sister. Her next hearing for parole eligibility will take place in January of 2027.

[Carl]

For more than two centuries, the White House has been the stage for some of the most dramatic scenes in American history. Inspired by the hit podcast American History, tellers Wondery and William Morrow present the new book, the Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power struggles, the world altering decisions, and shocking scandals that have shaped our nation.

[Sarah Mitchell]

You'll be there when the very foundations.

[Carl]

Of the White House are laid in 1792, and you'll watch as the British burn it down in 1814. Then you'll hear the intimate conversations between FDR and Winston Churchill as they make plans to defeat Nazi forces in 1941. And you'll be in the Situation Room when President Barack Obama approves the raid to bring down the most infamous terrorist in American history.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Order the Hidden History of the White.

[Carl]

House now in hardcover or digital edition.

[Sarah Mitchell]

Wherever you get your books.