Covering Your Murder Tracks - Yutan, Nebraska

It's Bretzky Baby, and I don't know why they let me on the radio, but I do know you're in California, which means you can play on SpinQuest.com with over a thousand slots and table games absolutely free and with the ability to win real cash prizes with instant redemptions.

Your first $30 coin package is only $10 today.

Hurry up, SpinQuest.com.

SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino.

Voidwear prohibited.

Visit spinquest.com for more details.

Looking for excitement, Chumba Casino is here.

Play anytime, play anywhere.

Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored.

Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in.

So, what are you waiting for?

Don't delay.

Chumba Casino is free to play.

Experience social gameplay like never before.

Go to Chumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots, bingo, slingo, and more.

Live the chumba life at chumbacasino.com.

No purchase necessary.

VGW Group void where prohibited by law 21 plus.

Terms and conditions apply.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

Yay

Choo Choo.

Oh, yay, indeed, Jimmy.

Yay, indeed.

My name is James Petrogallo.

I'm here with my co-host.

I'm Jimmy Wisman.

Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today, all aboard the murder train.

Pulling away from the station.

We got crazy stuff today, as usual, as you know, from Express.

I mean, last week we had a woman prepare a whole meal out of a guy.

So you know Express is going to be crazy, as always.

Here we go.

First of all, before we get started, definitely head over to ShutUpandGiveMeMurder.com tickets for live shows.

shows also merchandise, everything from t-shirts to bath mats, but also you definitely, definitely want to get yourself into a live show.

Our live shows are just a long comedy show with some murder involved.

It's really fun stuff.

I'm going to tell you a wild story, give you the pictures and everything.

There are a lot of them are sold out right now.

A few, we released our holds for San Diego, so there's a few left for San Diego for people.

A lot of people are looking for those.

And then we have Seattle, D.C., and Philly are all available for purchase at this moment, but they're close to selling out.

So get them now

if you want to be there and do that.

Shut up and give me murder.com.

Also, listen to Crime and Sports.

Listen to Your Stupid Opinions.

Our other two shows that are damn funny.

And as well, get yourself some Patreon.

Yeah.

Do yourself a favor.

You deserve it.

You deserve it.

$5 a month is not a lot.

So anybody.

$5 a month or above, patreon.com slash crime in sports, you're going to get a lot.

First of all, hundreds of back episodes that you've never heard before.

Immediately upon subscription, you're going to get to binge.

Then you're going to get new ones every other week, one crime and sports and one small small town murder, and you get it all for this.

I sure do.

Low, low price.

This week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to do, it's kind of a disaster potpourri.

We're going to do some amusement park disasters, some industrial disasters, kind of.

meld those two together.

That's a lot of fun.

Then for small town murder, it's back again, everybody.

The prisoner dating game is here.

Here it is.

You know how that works here.

I'm going to sit Jimmy down, line him up with four bachelors, four bachelorettes.

They're very, very available.

That's one thing.

They have two things in common.

They're very available, and they're all incarcerated, violent felons.

So Jimmy's going to pick one of each based on nothing but their own descriptions.

And then he gets to find out what a terrible mistake he's made while we figure out what they've done and everything like that.

It's so much fun.

Not only that, you get all three shows: Crime and Sports, Your Stupid Opinions, and Small Town Murder, all ad-free on Patreon as well.

Unbelievable.

It's the best deal you're going to get.

And you get a shout-out at the end of the show, too.

End of the regular show.

No time on the Express.

So there you go.

Do it up.

Patreon.com/slash crimeinsports.

That said, I think it's time everybody to sit back.

Here we go.

Let's get this going.

Clear the lungs.

Here we are.

Arms to the sky.

Let's all shout.

Shut up.

Come and give me murder.

Let's do this, everybody.

Okay.

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

Let's do it.

We're going to Nebraska this week.

And I have to say, one thing I've credited myself, I don't give myself a lot of credit, but I've kept on top of when we do states and like to do them again in six months.

And you know what I mean?

Like I've had this weird rotation going on in my head for a long time, for years that we've been doing this show.

And I completely spaced Nebraska for the last year.

Wow.

Completely.

I don't know how it happened.

I don't understand it, but we have not done Nebraska in a year.

Yeah.

Well, the whole state kind of flies under the radar.

It's like over 100 episodes.

We haven't done it.

It makes no sense.

Nebraska is like Kansas too you know what i mean yeah that's a good point nebraska is definitely sequel to kansas but we've done kansas twice since then yeah well that's why we haven't forgotten you know mississippi or louisiana or idaho why should we forget

we did australia last week for christ's sake like we i don't know how nebraska flew under the radar we are going to U-Tan Nebraska

Y-U-T-A-N.

I never heard of that one before, but here we are.

Like the coffee, but with the tea.

Kind of, yeah, I guess so.

This is in eastern Nebraska.

It is about 25 minutes to Omaha, about 45 minutes to the dreaded Lincoln, Nebraska, and then two and a half hours to our last Nebraska episode, which was Ord, Nebraska.

Episode 519.

This is 622.

I'm still.

Wow.

That's wild.

Show me your belly was the name of that one.

And it was

real weird.

I remember it being very weird.

Saunders County, this is in, area code 402.

Only 1,304 people here.

Pretty Pretty damn small town.

Yeah, especially to be 25 minutes from Omaha, which is a pretty bustling place.

I mean, it's not a metropolitan, but

it's a moving place there.

Median household income here above the national average, $76,094.

It's usually about $69,000.

And median home cost here, $306,900.

So just below the national average.

So

income high,

housing low, that's good.

That's good.

That's not bad.

It's got a nickname and a motto.

The motto we've heard before, and it's not live, work, and play.

It's, quote, a great place to grow.

Okay.

And that's because they do a lot of farming here, too, so they think it's clever.

But also when you live, work, and play, James, you grow.

You grow.

That's right.

You need to live, work, and play to grow.

That's the thing.

Right, exactly.

And it's like sunshine to fliance.

The other nickname is Home of the Chieftains because that is the name of their high school mascot.

It's a high school football team.

And that's all they care about here because they've actually

the Chieftains.

They're big into that.

A little bit of history here.

U-tan was originally called Clear Creek

and was platted in 1876 when they extended a railroad out here, obviously.

And then it was renamed in 1884 after

a guy named, I guess, Itan, I-E-T-A-N, who was an Indian chief in the area.

They named the town after him.

Now, in 1913, I'm going to show you a picture of this.

There was a horrible outbreak of tornadoes in the area, and it was on Easter Sunday, and it tore this place apart.

I mean, fucked it up.

It had 350 people.

This is the church afterwards.

Whoa.

That is not a building.

I've never seen, yeah, I've never seen something like

a building collapse like that.

It's not like it collapsed from the bottom up.

And it's all tipped over.

It's like this leaning, it's messed up, man.

That's crazy.

What kind of wind would it take to cause that?

Like, that's pretty insane.

In 2017, the town had severe flooding from heavy rains.

So this place is just, it's dammed or something.

And I don't mean with a dam.

I mean, by a deity.

It's a little ugly there.

Yeah.

It is known for being very much into high school sports culture, which is

such a small town.

How many kids could be even in the high school?

120 tops, like 150 maybe?

1,300 people total?

It's creepy.

How many of those people are, you know, 14 to 18?

Probably.

It's very weird.

It's very weird.

Here's some reviews of the town.

Five stars.

UTAN's school system is great and has a very child-friendly environment.

The school system is a child-friendly environment.

They took the stripper poles out a couple weeks ago and made it more child-friendly.

Child-friendly.

You should have seen the schools before.

Wild.

They put a bunch of covers on the sockets.

They took the bars out, too.

They had, and I don't mean on the windows.

I mean they had, in case the kids needed a drink or two, but they took those out.

They took all the stripper poles out.

They made it way, way different now.

A bunch of latches on the cabinets where all the chemicals are set.

Yeah, you know, just little things.

UTAN, U-TAN doesn't have many stores, but Omaha is 15 minutes away.

U-Tan has some of the highest test scores in the state.

I'm happy I chose my child to live here.

Chose my child.

Chose my child to live here.

Very weird place to put it.

Yeah.

Weird way to put that.

Your sentence structure is bizarre.

It's so weird.

Especially to follow a sentence about high test scores with that.

Right.

You didn't go to school here then, I don't think.

Here's one star.

Trashy place, trashy people.

Hell yeah.

Now we're on to it.

Now I like it.

Here we go.

That's where I want to be.

Here we go.

Some of the most immature people I've ever met.

No work ethic, no consistency, lots of drugs.

Yeah.

That's the town.

All right.

Things to do in this town here.

Not much, let me tell you.

1,300

person town in the middle of rural Nebraska.

Not a lot going on.

But there is the U-Tan Days 2024, 2025.

I have the 2024 schedule here.

And so we'll find out what happened at the U-Tan Days parade, I guess.

There is a...

barnyard pedal pull

and a i don't know what this means a state-sanctioned kitty pedal pull.

State-sanctioned.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Do they need a sanctioning body for kids to pull?

They got a committee.

Which end are you on of the rope?

Is the barnyard animal pulling you or are you pulling it?

You're asking me.

Yeah.

I'm not positive of

the logistics of this whole setup, but it sounds insane.

Which location of the cart, before or after the horse?

That's what I'm wondering.

There's an adult pull to follow.

That's good.

Oh.

There is a beer garden.

There's beer pong in the beer garden.

Yeah.

Of course.

And there is music and karaoke from 9 p.m.

to 2 a.m.

This party.

This town rages, man, into the night.

Five hours of karaoke.

There's people that are farmers here.

They're going to be up in two hours.

This is nuts.

My God.

Music and karaoke by Dynamic Air.

That's the band who's going to do karaoke, I guess.

Then there's, of course, the fireworks show.

There's a pancake breakfast, a St.

John's show and shine car show.

Got to have that.

Live music by Dylan Bloom.

Sure.

He plays for three hours.

Fucking shit, Dylan.

Take a break.

9 p.m.

to 12 a.m.

What are you kidding me?

What are you, the E Street band?

What the fuck are you doing?

Doing three hour sets.

Three hours?

What's wrong with you?

How much music could you have?

$5 cover charge for that.

He is going to kill himself up there, so you might want to see it.

And then from 12 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

on Saturday, they have a DJ.

So just that whole thing.

And of course, on Sunday, the big cornhole tournament comes over in the beer garden.

So you're going to get Nebraska.

Drunk cornhole.

I think that's where it was

invented.

I'm going to assume anything with corn was invented in the Nebraska-Iowa belt here somewhere.

Yes.

I assume.

I think it was Nebraska.

They had so much corn to figure out something to do with it.

There it is.

If it's got the word corn in it, they did it.

There's also carnival rides and shit like that.

So

that said, let us

talk about some murder.

Let's do this.

Okay, let's talk about a lady first here.

Her name is Sandra K.

Chater,

C-H-A-D-E-R.

Later on, she'll have a different name when she gets married, but that's how she's born.

She goes by Sandy.

So Sandy is born February 18th, 1959 here.

She's born in Central City, Nebraska, which I've never heard of either.

I I never don't know that one either.

We'll have to look that one up for next time.

She was raised in Hoardville.

H-O-D-1-2.

H-O-R-D-Ville.

Wow.

Now, doing some research here, I figured out that she had a sister that died in 1958, the year before Sandy was born.

And her sister was only six months old when she died.

So I'm not sure.

Some kind of childhood illness.

It could have been SIDS.

It could have been anything.

Kid could have fell into a thresher.

We have no idea.

Either way, dead sister.

Someone got trampled by the high school marching band.

Yeah.

Who knows?

Could have been like a naked gun joke.

People just bop, bad, bada, batter, right over his corpse.

Right over her little tiny corpse, which is terrible, terrible, but you know, terrible.

It happened like 70 years ago, so it's funny now.

Anyway,

in all seriousness, she, so that's coming up in a family that just had like the death of the child that was right before you.

Then they had you.

So would you feel like a replacement child?

Yeah,

and you're probably very protective of her, too.

Yeah, right.

You don't realize how much you know and how much your body knows from that time period.

Granted, you aren't

alive.

I mean, you're alive, but you don't

mentally aware.

You're not sentient.

Acuity.

Yeah, no, you're just

existing.

But your body does things and creates things and ways to adapt based on those experiences.

And she probably did did feel

a lot of weird feelings.

At least, yeah, overprotectiveness of why are you, you know, who knows, though?

I don't know.

Wishing she could scream, stop it.

So she graduates high school in 1977 in Hoardville there.

Now, she is going to go to school.

She wants to be a teacher.

Later on, and that's what she'll end up doing here.

She's going to find a man here in the 80s, in the mid-80s, named Mark Schnabel.

S-C-H-N-A-B-E-L.

Mark Schnabel.

And they get married in 1986.

So

there we go.

She is, what is she, like 27?

She gets married to Mark.

Mark's two years older than her.

So, you know, same general age here.

He's a landscape designer.

And he worked for a bunch of different companies around the area.

He worked for a Lanoa nursery in Omaha and all this type of shit.

So they move around, but then they start to settle.

And about 1987, Sandy gets a job in the U-Tan school district.

So this is where they're going to settle in and everything like that.

She starts teaching and coaching volleyball for the U-Tan school district.

And she is a badass coach, we'll talk about here.

Yeah.

She's really good.

Yeah.

Now they have three kids.

And so this is turning out.

This looks like a John Cougar Mellencamp song.

You know, going great.

Little pink houses and white picket fences and jobs and kids and all that.

They're so good.

They're so good.

Yeah.

Sucking down chili dogs and all that shit.

Yeah.

So 1989, they have a son named Trevor.

1992, a daughter named Courtney.

And 1995, a daughter named Sarah.

So they spread them out every three years.

They even seem like they're planning.

They're good at planning.

Exactly.

They seem like they're very good.

They're doing everything like...

Like you'd tell somebody, you go, well, don't get married when you're like 20.

You know, wait till you're like closer to 30 if you meet somebody great.

And then, oh, you know, wait a couple of years to have kids.

Wait, you know, enjoy each other for a few years.

And then don't have the kids right on top of each other because that's really hard.

So give it some.

Like they took everybody's advice and just did it.

One in diapers at a time.

Exactly.

Once one learns the shitter, you can pump another one out.

No problem.

There it is.

Now, Sandy, like we said, is a teacher and a volleyball coach.

One of her students said, Sandy's a teacher at

Utan High School.

She taught business classes and typing and some photography classes.

So I was placed in Sandy's class to learn how to type.

She had a way of being able to connect with her students and the student athletes.

She always wanted her students to succeed.

So that's one of her former students at the time here.

And

she is like a really, really good coach, though, from what I gather here.

They ended up winning in 92.

They end up winning a

championship, a state championship.

Okay.

Which is pretty impressive.

I mean, I don't know.

It's about 1300 to win the state.

Yeah, it's the state class C1.

So, I mean, it's probably smaller schools, but this is a very small school.

I mean,

it's 50 people.

I can't imagine how many of those because you take 1,300 people and then you say, Okay, how many of them are 14 to 18?

And then you go, Okay, now how many of them are good at volleyball?

Right.

You're like, there just can't be that many.

There just can't be.

It's very small.

She had to have extracted every drop of volleyball talent that that school has to offer.

Like, no, nothing hidden.

She, in her 12 years, her record here is 173 and 35.

That's her coaching record.

Not bad.

Which is terrific.

Yeah.

That's like, you know, Don Shula in the 80s.

Out of 200 games, she won 173 of them.

That's not bad.

Yeah.

Wow.

Pretty goddamn good.

About 110 games.

Won the 92

state

championship, and they went to seven state tournaments as well.

Pretty badass.

One of her players said, when I was a freshman, I was kind of the class clown.

I would laugh and, you know, maybe not focus as much as I should.

She pulled me aside and she's like, you have some intangibles that the other kids don't have and I need you to dig deep because if you do that, the sky's the limit for you.

And I remember thinking, I trust her.

I believe her.

She just had a gift, you know, she just had a gift.

That's nice.

And a fellow teacher said, Sandy was a tough coach and a demanding coach and teacher who treated everyone fairly and earned respect because of it.

So she's like not a, you know,

a coddling type of teacher.

She's,

she'll take you aside, kick your ass a little bit, put it in a way that makes you go, oh, man, damn.

Yeah, she's right.

Thank God for that.

That's tough.

I mean, that's a, that's a, every teacher should strive for that, but most of them can't hit that.

You know, that

it's either too soft or too hard.

But

hopefully all of them are trying to do good.

But

I mean,

that is the goal, isn't it?

To make a fucking difference in people's lives and show them how things are done.

But I mean, it's half knowledge and half just being able to have the kids not just think you're full of shit and just dismiss you.

Because as a kid, you just dismiss what adults say unless there's somebody that you really...

you know, get a vibe on that you believe in.

She's also deeply involved in church.

She's a soloist in the choir at the Mead Covenant Church and was active in the youth programs as well because she's good with kids, obviously.

Yeah.

And she gets to praise solo.

Look at that.

Oh, yeah.

That's what I mean.

She's busting out so she can sing.

She knows her volleyball.

She's a good teacher.

Yeah.

Things are going well here.

Now, from the outside of the whole thing, it looks like Mark is just as devoted to the family, too.

I mean, just looking in, you see the two of them.

She's got a lot going on with the school and the sports.

He picks up the slack at home.

You know, any slack that comes up, he's, everybody calls him like a Mr.

Mom type.

You know, volleyball stuff is in the evenings.

So someone's got to take care of her kids too.

So it's just, you know, really kind of a nice little family life they have going on here.

It looks like he's the supportive husband, and everything's great.

Mark's mother, ethylene,

which sounds like a fuel additive.

Ethylene.

Who would do that?

Ethylene.

Isn't that a fuel additive?

Is that a corn-based fuel additive?

Is Nebraska that crazy for corn?

Ethylene.

Ethylene?

Either that or it's

like a Little Richards song, isn't it?

Ethylene.

It's a drink

that you make at home with cough syrup.

This will cure the kids.

I made up a batch of ethylene.

Don't worry about it.

The kids will have those fevers down by morning.

Some country method.

It's the lean that your grandma ethyl made.

Ethylene.

With a picture of an old lady on the bottle smiling.

Clearly fucked up.

Just happy as shit, little round glasses and shit, all granny looking.

Oh, so this is Mark's mom, Ethylene.

She's from South Dakota.

Their family's from South Dakota originally.

She said he took care of the kids

more because of his wife's schedule at school.

He's a very loving and caring father.

Now, there's some problems, though, that they have that, you know, everybody goes through ebbs and flows in their lives, their lives, and their businesses.

And Mark's business isn't going very well.

He started his own landscaping business and landscaping design business when they moved here.

And it's just not really bringing in the dough.

I don't know how much business there is in a town of 1,300 people for landscaping in corn country.

I'm not sure.

I mean, yeah, I don't know.

If you farm all day or you're doing any sort of agriculture work, last thing you want to do is trim a fucking tree on your own property.

Yeah, but

it feels like everything that's not like, you know, a little yard.

Yeah, it's already got farm.

They just put crops on it.

There's no need to landscape it.

Just plant something, buck it.

So I don't know what's going on.

It's true.

Farming is its own landscaping.

So and some of the neighbors said, you know, his landscape business was struggling.

He wasn't doing that great with the business, essentially.

So Friday, May 21st, 1999.

Let's go there.

This is the last day of school before summer vacation.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

You can hear the Alice Cooper playing.

1999?

1999.

Yeah.

Hell yeah.

That's when I graduated high school, man.

You were jacked on this day.

Yeah, I can feel it.

You were jacked.

So Sandy's at school, you know, saying goodbye to everybody and doing the normal sun things or sun things, summer things.

Yeah.

I looked at the in front of me as I saw the, there's a babysitter who was babysitting the daughters and son, and I read that and then read son so there's a 13 year old who's babysitting the three children

so there's a child babysitting I love we've we've sat that now but for a long time like someone would hit like 11 and we were like you're responsible enough to take care of other lives now and we just give them to them and say watch three small children other child yeah don't start a fire gotta go gotta go now but I'm gonna finger my wife while watching a late movie

we're gonna try to like drink a bottle of wine so we can actually have sex sex with each other tonight.

You know what I mean?

So when we get back, just clear out quick, have the kids asleep, and we'll be ready to go.

Have them asleep so that I can.

This is my one chance.

This is my chance.

So 13-year-old babysitting the three kids that afternoon while Sandy is finishing up all of the clearing out her office, you know, just clear, not going to be there for two months.

So that happens that day.

All that's the last day.

Now, that evening,

it's an interesting evening here because by 1.30 a.m., so it's now Saturday, May 22nd, by 1.30 a.m., there's a guy knocking on the door at 1.30 a.m.

There's two guys, one named Jason McFadden, the other is Scott Mum, and they're 19-year-olds who are on their way back from a rodeo.

Sure.

which as one does.

And they do late-night shit here in this town.

They have their parade goes until 2 a.m.

Yeah.

People are at 1.30 in the morning coming back from a rodeo.

This place is wild, man.

You guys are unhinged over here.

And they're like

middle of the country, so they're on a, on a time zone that it's mountain time, right?

It's central anyway.

At minimum, yeah.

It's central time, I think.

Because Iowa, I think, is where it breaks off because Iowa is Eastern time, I think, and Omaha's Western, or not Western, fucking

mountain.

Or am I wrong?

Central.

Oh.

Could be wrong, though.

I'm not sure.

Central Mountain, Western.

Wait, wait, how many fucking...

Four.

How How many do we have?

Four.

We have four?

Four.

Central Mountain Pacific on the west and eastern, obviously.

So they're knocking on the door, banging on the door at 1.30 in the morning.

And this guy says, I arrived

at the location at 1.30 a.m.

Even though there was heavy smoke,

I could see the van that was parked up against the burning structure and what appeared to be a body lying on the ground.

Oh, boy.

You didn't expect this when you went to a rodeo.

You thought if you saw a body, it would be, you know, gored by a bull.

That would be.

Dressed like an asshole.

Dressed like an ass wipe.

And honestly, you'd cheer it, probably.

You thought he'd be run through by a horn, not this.

So if the fire went much longer, it was probably going to destroy the body beyond recognition.

I didn't want the heat to destroy that body more than it already was.

That's why we, and then other fire departments came.

Apparently, the people that were knocking on the door are also volunteer firemen.

So they were calling fire departments too.

But they're knocking on the door going, your shit's on fire.

Not your house.

The shed.

There's a car and a large shed.

It looked like a garage almost, but just a shed storage place.

In the back, that's what's on fire.

So Mark comes to the door,

bleary-eyed, and greets these two gentlemen and is told that there's a fire on his property.

And, you know, he starts freaking out.

Now, McFaden, the one guy who stopped, he's a student at the University of Nebraska, Omaha,

said from the gravel road, we noticed the smoke and fire.

I noticed there weren't emergency vehicles around.

So they're like, oh, shit, we're going to have to call somebody.

They said they knocked on the door.

Mark answered it, appeared to have been asleep.

Then he called for help from the house.

He said he came out and we told him there was a car on fire behind that shed.

And he said, that's my wife's car.

And that's my wife.

Oh, that's when we saw the body.

He just kind of collapsed to his knees

um they said that he was they had to stop him because he was running mark was running at the van towards the yeah toward the flame so they were grabbing him and pulling him back so you can't get that close to it it could blow up there's a lot of danger um don't touch anything but the one guy said he was pretty hysterical by this time he was losing it so they were yeah the home's about 75 yards from the storage shed which ended up burning to the ground so 75 yards is a good distance

yeah he's got some he's got some some yard yeah there's a good amount of property here.

Nice.

One of the firefighters there said, we extinguished that fire scene.

I got on the phone and called for investigators to come out to the fire scene to assist me.

When I arrived on the scene, everything seemed to be under control and stabilized at that point.

I could see the body under the van.

It was considerable damage to the body.

We could not make a positive identification, the body that was damaged.

You couldn't make that.

So they needed dental records to figure out this was Sandy.

It was that bad.

It was that bad.

She was like kind of wedged under the minivan,

which was up against the shed, which everything was burning.

So the scene is crazy.

How the hell does that happen?

It's a bizarre placement.

It's really weird.

So

they didn't understand it, too.

They said there's nothing about the vehicle.

There's no damaged fuel lines or anything else.

It's a 1992 caravan, by the way.

Yep, the square ones.

That's what's on fire, which is exactly what she would drive at that time.

Hey, everybody.

Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about Acorns Early.

AcornsEarly.com.

Absolutely.

Remember when you were a kid and there's something you really want and you're saving for it?

You're just like, you got like a piggy bank.

You're just stuffing things on it.

You're just all together.

You're trying to do that when you're a kid.

You know what I mean?

Remember that?

Remember, like, you wanted like the PlayStation when it came out or something at first?

And

that teaches you, though.

It teaches you about money.

You put it aside and then you end up getting what you want.

It's pretty cool.

We want to do that for our kids.

We should all be doing that.

Turn your kids into savers.

Acorns Early makes it easy to teach kids healthy money habits that will stick with them for life.

I mean, we've all asked ourselves, why didn't they teach us this in school?

Why don't we know how to deal with money?

Why aren't we financially literate?

What are we doing here?

I feel that way all the time when I'm dealing with money.

And that's why I want to give my kids a head start on their money goals with Acorns Early.

My parents never talked about money.

Your parents accept that we don't have any.

I never heard a drop of

what you don't have.

No, we had to figure all that financial stuff out on our own, and we've made a lot of mistakes, and that's why we want to get the kids going with Acorns Early.

Piggy banks are great and cute and all, but let's be realistic here.

These days, there's so much more kids need to know about money, and Acorns Early makes it easy to teach the kids lifelong skills.

They have the the smart debit card and money app that grows kids' money skills as they grow up.

Start with in-app chores tracker to teach your kids the value of a dollar.

Let your kids set their own saving goals and they can start building those healthy money habits early.

And they can spend what they've earned with their own customizable debit card, giving them that sense of independence.

Plus, the spending limits and real-time notifications.

You can always stay in control of your kids' stuff, though.

That's how it goes here.

We love this for our kids, just to give them a start on financial literacy, because it is, it's tough.

So get your kids going ready to teach your kids the smart way to earn, save, and spend.

Get your first month on us when you head it to acornsearly.com slash small or download the AcornsEarly app.

That's one month free when you sign up at acornsearly.com slash small.

Now back to the show.

Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Ollie.

Ollie.com, O-L-L-I-E dot com.

That's right, a better dog food.

I have three dogs.

You have a dog.

And one of my dogs is allergic to everything and has a lot of like special dietary needs, an older dog, and all this stuff.

Ollie will help you out.

Ollie, we can find stuff for the dog.

It's specific and it's really good.

Because if your dog could talk, they'd be like, don't put that other stuff in my bowl.

I don't want this kibble that smells weird.

It's gross.

Nobody wants that.

Would you eat that?

No.

It's terrible.

It's byproducts, unpronounceable preservatives, who knows what fillers.

It's more of like a crime scene,

you know.

More of stuff you'd find at a crime scene rather than in your dog's bowl.

So Ollie is here to crack the case on pet nutrition with fresh human-grade meals made with the highest quality ingredients.

No mystery meats, artificial junk, just real, minimally processed food made in U.S.

kitchens.

They have five fresh protein-first recipes like beef with sweet potatoes, turkey with blueberries.

That one's awesome.

Your dog's not going to have to wonder what their food is ever again.

Because the stuff you'll want to eat it, it looks good.

You bet.

Yeah, you fill out Ollie's 30-second quiz here, and they'll create a customized meal plan based on your puppy's weight, activity level, and other things.

Your welcome kit.

For any first-timers, Ollie will send out your pup's first box with two weeks' worth of meals, free storage container for a mess-free serving and a guide on how to gradually switch them over.

You're going to see benefits here.

Shinier coat, easier to pick up poops.

Give them

one or two months.

They're going to be at a healthy weight.

Ollie is the only fresh dog food that comes with unlimited routine health screenings so you can get your pup on track to living their healthiest, happiest life.

Dogs deserve the best.

That means fresh, healthy food.

Head to ollie.com slash STM and tell them about your dog.

Use the code STM to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today.

Plus, they offer a happiness guarantee on the first box.

So if you're not completely satisfied, you're going to get your money back.

That's o-l-l-i-e.com slash STM and enter code STM to get 60% off your first box.

Now back to the show.

They said no damaged fuel lines that would have sparked a blaze or anything like that.

But they did say they found two overlapping sets of tracks on the scene, of tire tracks.

Tire tracks, yeah.

So they were wondering,

did someone chase her and run her off the road

she hit this thing and you know whatever they said was this a

flames yeah was this like a theft gun wrong was someone trying to rob her steal from her was she running from someone who tried to you know whatever it could have done anything to her so they talked to mark obviously because this is a mess um mark said he was asleep when he got a knock on the door and you know well they said well where was your wife was this like one o'clock in the morning you know yeah why was she out that 70 feet away from her bed Was she at the rodeo?

We all were.

I mean, it's a good rodeo.

I'd deny it.

I mean, it was, it was pretty.

It was funny.

It was funny.

I'll say it.

It was gory and everything, but it was pretty funny.

We all got a good laugh out of it in the end.

He was smiling the whole time.

You know, what are you going to do?

I think it was a smile anyway.

It was red.

It was red.

A lot of red.

I'll just say that.

Couldn't discern.

So Mark said, I had argued with my wife the night before, and she left the residence residence after the argument.

That's what he claims.

They got in a fight.

By the way, the fight was,

he claims, over whether to buy a new van or not.

Okay.

I mean, I think the 92 caravan and 99, it's time to maybe trade it in.

Seven years, yeah.

Seven years.

It's probably gotten a lot of beatings.

The kids

have shit all over it and thrown up.

They were little kids.

There's been chicken nuggets mashed into the carpets.

Seven years of kids growing up in that thing.

Yeah, it's time the next year uh in 99 yeah they had the the the blowthrough that the car had two sliding doors that was a hot shit mini that was a huge upgrade both sides slid open wow look at us now we can more efficiently have our children fall out perfect

so that's what he said he said

Now, there is contradicting statements of whether the fight turned physical or not.

There's statements that he said that it definitely did not turn physical that night.

And then there's also statements where they claim that he said they had a physical fight that night.

Okay.

Not blows, but you know, as O.J.

Simpson would say, some tussling, as he used to say.

That's how he described murder.

Well, it was just some tussling.

So

that's how.

He's just smacking bitches.

Yeah.

So he said he last saw her at 10 p.m.

He said she took off and he went to bed.

That's what happened

at 10 p.m.

And he said the next time he saw her was when her body was on fire underneath their minivan at 1 a.m.

That's a real bad day.

That's a bad day.

It's the last day of school, too.

Now,

investigators, this is from the newspaper at the time, because, I mean, this is a big deal around these parts, and they are trying to figure out where she had been and what she had been doing prior to her death.

That's what they're telling the press.

One of the cops says, one of the homicide detectives says, we definitely need someone who was with her and knew her whereabouts.

We have a lot of puzzle pieces, but it's not coming together yet.

And then they say one of the other investigators tells a news reporter that the minivan had left a country road twice and run through a sprouting cornfield and two barbed wire fences before crashing into the storage shed.

Wow.

Went through the cornfield and, yeah, taking shit out.

That's a wild way to get home.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, you normally don't say, I'll take the cornfield.

I mean, the road leads right to the driveway, but I'll just take the cornfield.

Yeah, let's do it.

So they said a second set of tire tracks was found, leading to the speculation that she's been chased.

And they said they did not find any evidence that Sandy's body had been dragged, though.

So there was no like drag marks around the body, like the body was somewhere else and somebody dragged it.

Yeah, on her own accord.

They said her on her own caravan.

They said her body was underneath the left rear wheel of the minivan next to the shed.

And they said, we still don't know the cause of the fire.

They said they did.

Mark Schnabel is in the landscaping business and there's shitloads of combustible materials in the shed.

So it wouldn't have taken a whole lot to start a fire in there.

Right, right.

But still, there had to be something that.

Yeah, and sometimes combustible materials, though, if it's like on a rag and just sitting, it

makes its own heat and they can fucking erupt too.

You never know.

That's what I mean.

They were looking at all these combustible materials and this and a lady on the ground, which did she try to get out and fall and burn?

We don't know.

So

there was also one of the four horses in the field got severe cuts from the barbed wire that the fan dragged through the field.

Oh.

And the horse got caught in the barbed wire because it dragged him.

The horse ended up being all right, though.

So they said said that they determined the minivan was heading east on Saunders County Road one when it drove, well, that's number one, when it drove off the roadway through a ditch at least an eighth of a mile through a cornfield.

That's a long way.

It's a long way.

It's a decent amount of time.

It's a city block, you know what I mean?

And

through two barbed wire fences before striking the storage shed.

And like we said, her body was found entangled in barbed wire underneath the car.

Yeah.

Which is all fucked up.

The lead investigator said, we don't know if she's been chased.

We don't know what happened.

The guy said, quote, this is a strange story.

Very strange.

She somehow got tangled in barbed wire and then was underneath the car.

Makes no sense.

They said they haven't ruled out foul play.

They don't know if she was chased or what.

This doesn't seem like a suicide.

It'd be a weird way to kill yourself.

I've never heard of it.

Yeah.

Could be original.

So the chief investigator said, we have about 12 theories.

We figured one of them has got to be right.

Which is, I don't know if that's the most professional response you can get.

I mean,

we're doing our best.

There's a bunch of shit.

Something's got to be right out of all of them.

We'll figure it out.

So the U-Tan school superintendent, Kevin Johnson, described her as a popular teacher and an exceptional volleyball coach.

He said, she made a difference in a lot of lives.

It's going to be hard for them, meaning the kids, to deal with this.

Yeah.

She's like one of the more beloved teachers in school.

So over the next couple of days, Mark has got some

shit to do.

He's got three kids

with a dead mother.

So

not good.

They said that night he was resting at home and the newspaper said

a woman who knows him that he said he was understandably quite upset.

And the three children were staying with friends of the family that night.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just to, you know, I I guess

let him sob.

Yeah.

He planned the funeral and all of that.

Now, the funeral that comes up later on that's going to happen in the school gym, there's more than 1,000 people there.

There is only 1,300 people in the town.

So that tells you a lot.

Who the hell gets 80% return on their funeral of where they live?

Yeah, if I had a problem.

That's pretty impressive.

That's a lot of people.

If I got 80%.

You'd be like 3.5 million people coming to your funeral.

That'd be

pretty wild.

That's pretty impressive.

I don't think Biggie had a funeral like that.

No, BMX had

a big Ford pickup truck driving through Yonkers, but there were a lot of empty blocks.

There's a lot, yeah, yeah.

So

the community here, the people are kind of freaked out by it.

And one person here, a neighbor, says the rumors were out there.

They're swirling around.

Was there someone in U-Tan that caused this accident?

So they were looking at that.

And who was that person?

Who would ever have been so upset with her that they would be trying to do this to her?

There's just all kinds of theories out there.

They were trying to steal her van.

They were trying to rob her.

So the townspeople, this is a small town, and they think they have some like drooling, you know, drool, dripping off the teeth psychopath in this town.

Armed with barbed wire and rapping folks open.

Rapping and burning.

And they're all darkers and lighting fires.

That's a

slobbering maniac.

That's a maniac.

Yeah.

So they didn't understand it.

Another neighbor said, everybody would see us somewhere.

Everybody would see us somewhere and say,

we just can't imagine what happened to this woman.

It was a mystery for everyone because people were so enthralled with her and the way she handled herself and the way she handled her family.

This is the last person they expected something weird to happen to.

The computer coordinator at her school said she was a great lady.

She never had anything bad to say about anybody.

Wouldn't say shit if she had a mouthful.

Nice lady.

She's a nice lady.

That's like from the 40s.

So, yeah, it's an old-timey.

He's a great guy.

Wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful.

That's one of those.

Yeah, it's old.

What fucking idioms aren't disgusting?

They're all gross.

Oh, chicken shit and chicken salad was fun.

That's not gross.

You taught me that's a party.

Again, that's pretty gross.

So this investigation, the team is the Nebraska State Patrol, the State Fire Marshal's Office, and the Saunders County Sheriff's Department.

They're all investigating this.

Okay.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Which it's a lot.

They said they were.

Yeah, and the whole thing is, where the fuck was Sandy during that three hours?

If Mark went to bed at 10, shit's on fire at 1,

where did she go for three hours?

His story was she left, I went to bed.

That's 10 o'clock.

That is a long way to go.

Three hours.

And a short time to get there.

Fuck yeah.

So one investigator, and one investigator said, I was trying to get more information about their home life and things like that.

We had to explore the backgrounds of both individuals.

But did she have a friend somewhere that she'd gotten real close with?

Did Mark have a companion he was close with?

They didn't know anything about the family, so they had to figure this all out.

One fire investigator said it sounded like the van was on fire first, and then the barn became involved just through the radiant heat.

It seems like the van caught the barn on fire, not the other way around, which would rule out his combustible landscaping chemicals and shit like that.

All that does is utilize that space.

That'll just

be spreading it.

Yeah.

They said the only idea that could be gleaned from the initial information was they thought it might have been an accidental fire in the vehicle.

A 92 caravan, yeah, they'll just burst into flames at any point if that happens.

It's not necessarily a pinto, but the 80s and 90s were just chock full of just charred, cindered remains of small children all over the place.

Goldfish and teddy grams clutched in their little sippy cup hands.

It's the worst cars, but boom, burst into flames.

They said,

Yeah, this investigator said it looked like the van had run into the barn, so there was a collision.

If you have people who are ejected out of vehicles, you're talking a great deal of force, speed, a sudden stop, huge impact, lack of seatbelt use.

And from what we hear, she always wore her seatbelt.

Like she always wore her seatbelt.

Yeah, she's a mom of three with a caravan.

She's wearing a seatbelt for sure.

I've never heard of somebody being ejected

like a boomerang

under the car.

Yeah.

Well, they're saying like maybe if she hit something first, flew out and then

the car kind of went past her.

Yeah, but that's, it seems, what she hit then.

That's what they're saying.

You don't bounce off the garage.

You don't accidentally shoot through the windshield.

Like, you don't, you're not just driving and all of a sudden you shoot through the windshield.

You, like you said.

You really got on the brakes.

You got to hit a fucking brick wall at a certain speed to go through a windshield.

Who did your brakes?

I need that guy.

Yeah, what the shit, man.

So they finally get an autopsy done on Sandy, and they figure out she had a fractured skull, broken ribs, and bruising on her torso, but she ultimately died from burning to death.

Oh my my God.

Not smoking, Alation.

Not smoking.

No, no, she was under the car.

There's no smoke.

She's on fire.

She was on fire.

So she had all that other shit, which I guess could happen when you fly out of a windshield or when you fly out of a car and land.

I suppose you could have some bruising, a fractured skull, and some broken ribs.

That seems okay, but there's still like, how did she fly out of the car and land up behind it?

And if you're on fire and still alive,

why didn't she try to get out from underneath the car?

That's the other thing.

Yeah, she had to have been possible.

Well, she had a fractured skull, so maybe she was unconscious.

Hopefully, fuck.

Yeah, when you burn to death, you'd much rather be unconscious.

So they talk to the kids.

All right.

Finally, after like two days, they get to talk to the kids and they have videotaped interviews with the kids.

Now, Sarah's like three years old at this point, not even four.

She's like three and a half.

So

she says, and I don't know what you can take seriously of a three and a half year old.

Not a lot.

I have a nephew that's four.

He tells me some wild shit that I know isn't true.

You know what I mean?

Like there's

purple hippos in his neighborhood and shit.

They'll just say things when they're that age.

You don't know what the hell they're talking about.

And they don't even know what they're saying.

My niece is, when my niece was three, she called cotton candy cock and candy.

Can I have some cock and Andy?

No shit.

They don't know what they're saying and they don't know know why they're saying

it.

They don't know anything.

I once told an old man in a store,

my mother was buying me cookies when I was that age, and this old man said, is your mother a cookie monster?

And I said, no, my mommy's a pervert because I must have heard that word somewhere.

For whatever reason.

That's what came out of my mouth.

Nah, man, that bitch is a pervert.

His mommy's a pervert.

Now, if you had me in an interrogation room, that wouldn't look too good for mommy.

That's terrible.

Mommy's going to prison.

What the fuck?

She said this old man was like, oh god and just like scurried away

so i just heard it somewhere

who's giving my niece cock and can yeah

who's andy and why is his cock out

what's going on here

so sarah though says that they're talking to her within 48 hours so i guess it's still pretty fresh she said that that night and again a three-year-old it's hard to do the days do they can they delineate days and what they are do they all kind of run together she said that she saw her mother with a bloody nose shortly before she was gone.

Okay.

A bloody nose.

Now, Trevor,

he had an 80-minute taped

deal here.

And he said that he heard his parents arguing on the night of May 21st.

And he's almost seven?

I think Trevor is the oldest, isn't he?

Oh, he's the oldest.

So he's like 10.

I believe.

So he's like 10, yeah, at this point.

So

he said that he was awakened from his bedroom on the second floor by what he called a, quote, painful scream from his mother downstairs.

He said he went downstairs to the living room to check it out, but his father told him to go back to bed, go back upstairs, get out of here.

He said that he also saw his mother in the brown recliner that was in their living room.

He said she wasn't talking or moving.

And later, he said he snuck back downstairs because he was curious about what happened.

And, you know, what the hell?

When you tell a kid, don't look look at that, he's got to go look at it.

Yeah.

He said he looked through a crack in the front door and saw his mother sitting in a chair outside

with her head lying on her shoulder.

Like slumped.

Slumped, like you're trying to sleep on a plane.

And he said she looked hurt.

He said, I remember the sounds.

I remember the way she screamed.

I remember all that.

He said he remembered the fire as well.

He said he heard screams and also the thud of something hitting something

that night.

He said that's when his dad told him to go back upstairs because he heard a thud and then the screams.

So, yeah.

So that looks like he woke up and his father was possibly beating his mother.

And the bloody nose would then make sense at that point.

Sure.

And both children, the two youngest, the other, the middle child, Courtney,

she saw some stuff too, but I guess

she wasn't told to go back upstairs at any point.

They were all told by their father the next day that mom died in a car accident.

Yeah.

Now, Courtney said that

she witnessed some of the violence as well, but she didn't see blood or anything, I guess.

So Sarah, again, well, when they're interviewing her, by the way, it's a 33-minute interview.

She's just like drawing with crayons, and she's being interviewed by a child psychologist.

Not even the detectives are outside the room.

I mean, they don't know how to talk to a fucking three-year-old and not traumatize them worse.

You know, so give it up.

Come on.

Listen, you want to be a witness or you want to be a suspect?

Let me, let me, look, we're going to fucking talk about this right now.

Homicide detectives and three-year-olds, really.

Not good.

Just some shells and cheese.

Yeah.

What do you want?

Chicken nuggets?

You want a happy meal?

Will you spill it for a happy meal?

You're going to give up your partners and your accomplices if we get you a fucking happy meal.

So they said

she's got a little tiny voice and she just said she saw her mother with a bloody nose and also asleep in the brown recliner in the living room that night.

She said she remembers her mom on a recliner, blood running down her face and body, pooling on the porch of her family's home.

Oh.

Okay.

Now she's asked by the psychologist, was it a big chair or a little chair?

And she said, a big chair and stretched her arms out wide.

Yeah.

Big chair.

They said, was there blood anywhere else on mommy?

And she said, yeah, on her cheek.

And they said, okay, who else was in the room?

And she said, um, daddy.

Uh-oh.

And she also said that her father carried the brown chair, quote, outside in the dark.

So

how often have you been home and your dad takes the family recliner from the living room and just carries it outside in the middle of the night?

Is that normal?

Just runs it outside.

What's going on out there?

Air this one out for the night.

i'm gonna put this yeah it's just a you know what just too much kid stink on it i've been i've been sitting in this fart i've been farting for yeah been farting into this cushion for a decade plus man i gotta it could use it could use some wind tonight we're gonna do some some outdoor fumigation here

so sarah said she also remembers her dad with a bucket and a rag mopping up something as well uh-oh that night That is interesting.

So, I mean, what is he mopping up in the middle of the the night?

He's moving chairs.

He's mopping shit up.

Things are weird.

So, this is two days after the death.

The investigators searched the home now,

and they spotted, one spotted, what appeared to be blood spatter on the wall and the ceiling.

Yeah.

So, that turned up.

So, they got some blood droplets on the living room floor.

They said, though, when they sprayed everything with luminol,

one guy said it lit up like a Christmas tree in there.

It was fucking wild.

Huge.

He said it lit up.

There was blood everywhere, quote unquote.

He said, they said also a search of the home found blood spatters on furniture, walls, the ceiling in three different rooms,

also on a utility truck, a John Deere Gator outside.

Yeah.

ATV type deal.

And

they said that there was clear and,

you know, present

cleanup effort there as well to clean up the house.

John Deere had it too.

That had it too.

And there was attempts to remove blood spots from the house as well.

Hey, everybody.

Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about some delicious stuff for your cat, Smalls.

Smalls.com.

That's right.

I love my cat, Will Brandy.

She's a cute little kitty.

She likes to get and hang out with me in the bathroom in the morning and wash my face.

And she's the best.

She's so cool.

And she's picky about her food, though.

That's one thing.

Always picky about her food.

But one thing she's not picky about is smalls.

She loves everything from smalls.

I'm picky too.

I get it.

You know what I mean?

She wants what she wants.

And I'm telling you, the cat loves smalls.

Does your cat have digestive issues?

They throw up their food at all.

Or maybe they need a diet upgrade, just something better.

And that's why you got to get smalls.

It's protein-packed recipes made with preservative-free ingredients that you'd find in your fridge.

You could just eat this stuff.

It's good stuff and it's delivered right to your door.

That's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food.

You can get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping.

Just head to smalls.com/slash STM for a limited time only.

They love the smalls.

She loves the paste stuff the most.

Yeah.

The food, everything, she loves it.

But if you put that paste on anything,

it's gone.

She will eat it.

The tuna-flavored paste is her absolute favorite.

She goes nuts and like runs around my feet.

It's hilarious.

She likes it way better than the old cat food we used to feed her.

Thought she liked that.

But if you put them side by side, she'll dive at the smalls.

The other stuff's garbage here.

Since I made the switch to smalls, the cat seems happier, less stinky litter box, shinier fur coat.

Don't feed your cat, Kibble.

Your cat wants to hunt.

Give it something that looked like it was alive at one time.

Kibble was never alive.

I'll tell you that right now.

After switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners say they have a healthier, happier cat and had overall health improvements.

For a limited time only, because you're a small-town murder listener, you can get 60% off your first smalls order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com/slash STM.

That's 60% off when you head to to smalls.com/slash STM plus free shipping.

Again, that's smalls.com.

Now, back to the show.

Hey, everybody.

Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about the safest sponsor going.

SimplySafe.

SimplySafe.com.

S-I-M-P-L-ISAFE.com.

The best home security you're ever going to get.

We love it.

We've used it for years, and it is fantastic.

What does feeling safe at home mean to you?

Well, maybe people for a long time just got some decent locks.

You got one of those woo-woo alarms that'll tell everyone in the neighborhood that you've accidentally set off your alarm, basically, and nobody cares or looks in.

But what if somebody actually broke in?

Then what?

Well, we've realized that true security is a system that works to prevent the break-in, not just to make loud noises once it happens.

That's why we trust SimplySafe to protect our homes, our families, our possessions, our studios,

everything.

Most security systems, they only take action after somebody breaks in, which is way too late if you listen to small-town murder.

You know that.

SimplySafe's new active guard outdoor protection helps stop break-ins before they happen.

AI-powered cameras, live monitoring agents detect suspicious activity around your property, see people lurking and creeping.

Yeah.

Number one, call the cops.

They talk to these people in real time.

Hey, I see you.

Get out of here.

Cops are coming.

Things like that.

No contracts, no hidden fees.

Name best home security system of 2025 by CNET.

4 million plus Americans trust SimplySafe, including these two right here.

Ranked number one in customer service by Newsweek and USA Today.

Monitoring plans start around a dollar a day.

60-day money-back guarantee.

It's too good to be true.

Get in there.

Visit simplysafe.com/slash small to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free.

That's SimplySafe, S-I-M-P-L-I Safe.com/slash small.

There's no safe like SimplySafe.

Now back to the show.

Hey, everybody.

Just going to take a quick break from the show to give you a better way to shop with Thrive Market.

ThriveMarket.com.

You know it.

You know what's more stressful than being busy and everything like that?

Realizing you're out of something right before you need to do something.

Let's say you're having a gathering, a meeting, you're at a coffee.

Now what do you do?

Yeah, that's why you got to stock up with Thrive Market's back to school sale.

Even if you're not going back to school, still a perfect time to get yourself stocked up.

Thrive Market makes it easier to shop for high-quality pantry staples, snacks, vitamins, even skincare without the errands or the ingredient label deep dives.

I don't have time to stand there reading labels and finding the one ingredient I don't want.

Yeah, you know what's great?

Aloha protein bars.

Those are great.

Got a bunch of those.

Delicious.

Simple Mills crackers, the poppy drinks, of course.

Everything's delivered fast.

I saved up to 25%.

I love their tortilla chips, by the way.

The sea salts are so good.

They're delicious.

Prefer them over anybody's their filters make shopping by diet or lifestyle a breeze too you can filter exactly what you want if it's gluten-free or whatever it is and their healthy swaps tool can help us upgrade with the usual buys because you can just find what's a healthier option and they do it We use Thrive Market.

I love getting that big box.

It's tremendous.

Put it right on the counter and dive right into it.

Delicious stuff.

Now's the best time to try Thrive Market.

You'll get up to 25% off select items and new members get 30% off their first order plus a free gift.

Go to thrivemarket.com slash small town murder to start saving.

The sale ends August 31st, so don't miss it.

Now back to the show.

They found over 300 spots of blood spatter all over the house.

That's a lot.

I mean, that counts every droplet.

So, I mean, it sounds like more than it is, but it's still, there's not 300

blood drops in my living room.

Nope, mine either.

Now, the thing is the kids keep talking about this brown recliner yeah the cops are like there's no fucking brown recliner here not at the house at all not at all there's no brown recliner here whatsoever wow so they're like we'd have got nothing they said a thorough search of the home though turned up photographs that were very recent showing a brown recliner that was sitting in the fucking living room and now it's missing And this was, by the way, in an area where they had a lot of blood spatter around

also.

that's where the chair was so uh very interesting so then they look into the overlapping tracks from the minivan and they discover the other tracks seem to be left by marks atv the gator the gator with the blood on it yeah

so uh they started to think it looked like the vehicles were deliberately positioned rather than involved in an accident

a witness later on here uh one of these state experts will say that there was no evidence to support the claim that the minivan had collided with the building or that Sandy could have been ejected from the vehicle during the collision, which was our whole thing.

I've never seen you hit something, shoot out through the windshield, and then end up behind the rear tire.

It doesn't make sense.

So what the fuck happened?

Okay, so they said the physical evidence simply didn't support an accident.

There was no skid marks consistent with Sandy losing control of the vehicle.

It was a straight shot.

The damage patterns didn't match a high-speed collision, and Sandy's injuries were consistent with a beating, not a car accident.

Uh-oh.

Not good.

Then they found out

the cherry on top.

They found out that about six months earlier, Mark took a $200,000 life insurance policy out on Sandy.

Oh, Marr.

That's not good.

Not good at all.

But they still need physical evidence, and they don't have it.

This isn't, I mean, this doesn't look good for Mark, but it doesn't look great, but someone else could have done this.

Who knows?

Doesn't put him in it.

But then the chair,

the recliner.

They found it.

They found it miles away in the woods.

He left it in the woods.

He just threw it in the woods covered in Sandy's blood.

Oh, my God.

It's in a farmer's field.

Oh, they found that.

Then in a farmer's field, they found rags with Sandy's blood and bleach on them as well.

Fucking wow.

Now, he clearly knows about fire.

So

why not burn that that up?

Why drop all this shit and somebody else's property?

Makes no sense.

So here comes the funeral.

It's at the school.

The United States flags at the high school and the post office were flying at half staff in honor of Sandy.

Post office, too.

Post office.

I mean, this is

a

big deal.

Yeah.

This is a big deal in the town, man.

So more than a thousand people come in.

It's everybody.

Mark sat in the front row holding Sarah in his lap, sobbing the whole time.

Oh, Mark.

30 current and former volleyball players showed up, all wearing the red and white school colors on

school t-shirts and warm-up uniforms.

They all showed up in their old stuff.

He doesn't know what Sarah told the cops.

No, no, no.

He has no idea.

He's just snuggling his snitch right now.

Get over here.

Get over here, you little snitch.

Aren't you my cutest little snitch?

He's snuggling

the person that's putting him in jail.

Wow.

That's fucking.

That's amazing.

She's got to be the youngest snitch in America at that point, right?

So far, I haven't heard anybody younger than three.

And if you ask a three-year-old, what are you guys doing there?

She'd go, I colored.

And they asked me about mommy.

And I said, I like mommy.

Like, she's not going to remember or care.

And he'll look like a real weirdo if he's asking her like pointed questions.

Yeah, it's nuts.

So he's holding her and

the main investigator here said, we could have arrested him first thing Wednesday morning, but we decided to wait until after the funeral services to make his arrest.

Yeah.

So as the service concludes, because they have the church and they go to the grave, after her body is lowered into the ground at the Evangelical Church Cemetery near Marquette, he turns to leave and he's arrested by the cops right there.

Oh, shit.

He probably dropped his rose in, and then they just grabbed his wrist as he did it.

He's arrested for first-degree murder at the graveside right now

as the entire thousand-person funeral party watched.

As the whole town watched.

They did that shit on purpose.

Yeah.

This was at 3.25 p.m.

as mourners were

preparing to comfort the grieving widower, basically.

He's like, come into my house for casseroles.

And they were like, nope,

not so fast, asshole.

So they said he was handcuffed, and that's what happened.

He was later booked on suspicion of murder.

And they had to do it.

It was a hundred-mile ride, I guess, because he's brought to the Saunders County Jail in Wahoo.

That's where that is, in Wahoo, which is an actual town.

And they said he's still wearing his funeral suit when he got there, too.

Not a lot of murder suspects arrested in a funeral suit, which is pretty funny.

Now, people were surprised.

No one suspected him, really.

Really?

Yeah.

One guy, this is the high school superintendent, Kevin Johnson, who was talking before about

how great she is.

She's great.

He said, up until this morning, I thought Mark was innocent, and I still don't know.

I just watched a man get cuffed.

They've got, I mean, they're not going to arrest him without.

Yeah, he doesn't, I don't think the public knows all the evidence at this point, probably.

The pastor of the church said he was fucking pissed off that they said, What?

Yeah, he said, Don't do that shit there.

He said,

The arrest could have been postponed until after the mourners could gather with family members at the church.

Yeah.

He's like, I could have got a couple of bucks out of that, probably.

You know, a thousand people coming back to the church.

You never know somebody going to drop something in a bucket.

You had to fuck the whole thing up for them.

You really fucked me out of at least five grand.

People are going to throw fives and 20s in there.

I had a good day coming at me, and you fucked it all up.

So

one of the church members said, not knowing the unknown has been the worst.

That the truth will be revealed is how we've been praying.

That's a weird way to put that.

Mark's got an attorney, and he says, my client is super innocent, man.

He said, this is ridiculous.

He said, my client is distraught and surprised and worried about his three children.

Damn it.

He didn't know whether he'd be charged with first or second degree murder.

So here's what they theorize based on all the evidence.

Mark beat the shit out out of his wife with a blunt object and then said, uh-oh, this is bad.

So then he staged the minivan accident at the barn.

The second set of tire tracks, instead of a chase, came from Mark's ATV as he transported his wife's body to stage the accident scene.

God damn it.

He wasn't even trying to stage a chase.

It's just he got lucky and they thought that's what it was for a minute.

Wow.

It was just him moving the body.

He used his ATV, transported the body to the barn area.

It's a five-acre farmstead.

So

his kids are inside sleeping.

This is horrifying.

He positioned her body underneath the caravan and set fire to both the vehicle and the storage shed.

Why did he put her back there?

That makes no sense.

Then he went back

to the house and waited until he got to act surprised.

Yeah.

So

they decide over the course, the prosecutor says he's going to take the weekend and figure out what charge it's going to be.

And then he decides that it is is first-degree murder is what he decides that we're going to charge him with.

Mark's attorney said, frankly, I expected it.

We intend to vigorously defend the charge.

We will be in court.

Well, yeah, you will be for sure.

He's being held on a $500,000 bail at this point.

The kids will remain in the custody of Sandy's sister for a minute here.

And they have to decide whether they're going to be allowed to visit Mark in prison.

Are they going to see Mark's family?

What's the deal here?

He's not going to want to see him when he finds out what's up.

No, you little bastards.

Well, he's got a funny quote.

They said the children are visiting with a counselor and Henderson each week, and they said they enjoy living with their aunt and uncle as well as their cousins.

And they also said that

the counselor recommended the children not visit their father because of the potential emotional trauma.

Right.

Now, his attorney said that we're not opposing the guardianship order, but his parents who live in South Dakota do object to the permanency of the order.

They want to be able to have some custody too.

But they said Sandy's sister, they've worked to keep the children in contact with the family.

They said that

that family has two children themselves that are 14 and 12.

And

the sister also works for the Social Security Administration, and they're building an addition to their home to make the kids more comfortable.

Oh, my God.

They're literally starting construction already to expanding their home.

Two more bedrooms for these kids.

Yeah.

They can't.

Sell it and buy another one.

Yeah.

They give a shit.

Yeah.

So during the pre-trial hearing here, Mark's defense attorney keeps trying to convince the court that Sandy's death was a tragic accident.

I don't know what everyone keeps fucking talking about here.

They said that

she'd hit the storage shed.

She was ejected.

It's horrifying, you know.

But an accident reconstruction specialist said that the accident was staged.

He said someone other than Sandy drove the 1992 van up against the storage shed.

He said that tracks made by the van in the cornfield showed no signs of swerving or skidding that would be considered with an accident and consistent.

He said this was not a traffic collision.

This was a controlled event.

The person driving was steering to avoid hazards and driving over certain things.

He said there's no way Sandy's body could have ended up under the left rear tire of the van if she were driving.

Plus, there was no damage with the van consistent with a collision That's enough to eject someone from a vehicle.

Right.

So Mark's attorney said, Wasn't it possible now

that Sandy Schnabel got out of the van, became entangled in some barbed wire, snagged by the van as it drove over the fence, and then the van rolled over her body?

Isn't that possible?

Yeah, but this isn't a movie written by the Wayans brothers.

This is, you know, that's more like the scary movie.

This is ridiculous.

That's like some righteous gemstone shit that would like, yeah, somebody.

Well, somebody's dick is out.

Well, the answer is no.

He said all that, and the guy just said, no, that's not possible.

He said, well, let me ask you this.

Riddle me this, fuckhead.

All right.

How about this shit?

What if?

Okay, it was.

Whether it was possible that Sandy had tried to intentionally damage the van.

The lawyer said she was angry the night before she died from family financial problems preventing her from purchasing a new van.

Could someone have tried to cause the van to roll over?

That would have caused a new van purchase.

Did she try to crash it on purpose?

Now we have to get a new van.

And there's a long pause and the guy said, yes, I guess.

I mean, sure.

She could have done it herself, but I doubt it.

Why would she be tangled in barbed wire under it on fire?

Yeah, you already said no to that possibility.

So during one moment in the proceedings, Mark had a complete breakdown here.

The investigator said, as part of the court process, our key suspect had to go for an evaluation, which determined his mental capacity and that kind of thing.

So Vandy Van Horn, I guess that's a person, and I were the ones that were, it's probably a nickname, that were bringing him in.

We came out the front way because that's where the press was packed in the doors.

So we came out down a spiral metal staircase.

All of a sudden, we're talking with him and he just collapses.

He just doesn't pass out, but he just goes limp.

At that point, he starts to fall down the spiral staircase.

He's like three stories down.

He's in handcuffs and belly chains.

If it weren't for Investigator Van Horn and I catching him, he would have went down that spiral staircase and probably suffered a great deal of bodily damage.

He was losing control.

So he's not meant for this and he's not long for this.

And so he's going to plead guilty instead.

They make a deal with him that he will be charged with second-degree murder if he pleads to that rather than first-degree murder.

That avoids the death penalty, but still leaves him in for life without parole, the possibility.

He pleads no contest, though.

That's part of the deal, rather than guilty.

So he does not have to say he did it.

The judge doesn't have to go, did you blah, blah, blah.

And he says yes, doesn't have to do that.

So, yeah, it's second-degree murder in exchange for a recommendation by prosecutors of a sentence of 25 years to life.

Now,

that sentence, which, by the way, domestic abuse people in the state freaked out about because they're like, he can get, he's eligible for parole in 12 years if you do that.

What the fuck?

During sentencing, by the way, all the volleyball kids are back, all wearing their red and black fucking school jackets.

He's got a whole team just ready to spike balls on his fucking head.

Mark speaks at sentencing and said, I just want you to know how sorry I am.

And if I could take it back, I would, but I can't.

Okay.

So the judge called the murder unspeakably cruel and inhumane,

saw everything, said that he talks about the sentences, the recommendations, but explains to the courtroom that even though the prosecutor recommended the sentence of 25 years to life, the judge does not have to abide by that.

The judge says this horrific event changed the course of the children's lives forever.

What you taught them is that even people who they claim, who claim love them, cannot be trusted not to hurt them.

The court, having found the defendant guilty of one count of murder in the second degree and being fully advised in the premises, finds that the defendant should be hereby sentenced to, you, sir, may fuck off life in prison.

Okay, that's good.

Said, fuck your deal.

Yeah.

Now, the defense attorney said that he wasn't surprised that the judge opted for a tougher sentence.

He said it's mainly the feeble attempt to cover up that made everybody mad, meaning his client's feeble attempt to cover up the murder.

Problem is, the judge fucked up.

Judge Gilbride made a bad error.

She failed to set a minimum sentence.

She didn't say without parole.

She said life in prison.

That made him eligible for parole in 10 years because she didn't specify.

So that's the automatic default.

Yeah, it's fucking ridiculous.

So when no minimum is specified, the sentence defaults to a statutory minimum.

The prosecutor and the defense attorney here, like we said, they had the recommendation worked out.

But anyway, so he's sentenced to that, and it's a fucking mess.

The judge tries to fix it, but they say, no, you can't fix it.

You can't.

That's just.

Nebraska Supreme Court overrules the attempt by the state to appeal that sentence.

And basically,

in the wash, it all comes out that

he has a minimum of 20 years.

But

it ends up being 10 years because that's so, yeah.

And first they did 20 and then it went back to, no, she didn't set shit, so it's 10.

And is that paroled or is it eligibility for parole?

Eligible for parole.

Okay.

Eligibility.

They said, yep, they said

it's a drastic change for his sentence, the defense attorney said.

They said a flat life sentence is in the discretion of the court.

Several Supreme Court judges noted that the interpretation would require a change in case law.

They said that that sounds all well and good, but that's not how we've interpreted it since 1972.

He's out in 10 years or parole possibility.

The kids end up staying with Sandy's sister, which I think is good.

2016, he's up for parole.

Oh, God.

He said, I regret what this has done to my children.

My in-laws, my family.

My kids don't want me to contact them.

I won't contact them, especially that little fucking snitch, Sarah.

I mean,

I love my kids.

He then says, that doesn't mean I don't love them.

He told the board that he committed himself to being a productive and trouble-free inmate and has become a specialist in braille through his prison job.

He asked the board to parole him to South Dakota so he could take care of his 83-year-old mother.

No.

His 83-year-old mother, Ethelene, called him a very loving and caring father.

He took care of the kids because of his wife's schedule, she said.

Trevor says, I still remember the sounds.

I remember the way she screamed.

I remember the sound of whatever hit her, he hit her with, and I remember the fire.

I remember the next morning he took us aside and told us to our faces that there had been an accident.

I don't feel safe in my life if he's released.

Sarah said, my mother was dead when I last saw her.

My life changed.

For 17 years, this picture of my mother has haunted me.

I have night terrors.

I suffer from deep depressions.

He's five to zero, they say, fuck off back to prison, asshole.

One of the board members said it was the seriousness of the offense and the widespread impact it had on the community, and said also he has not undergone rehabilitation programs in prison that deal with issues such as domestic violence.

He said his excuse was, well, my case managers hadn't recommended such classes.

That's why I didn't take them, but I'll take them now if that's what you want.

2021, another parole hearing.

Oh, God.

The kids do the same thing.

They come back.

And Trevor said it's been incredibly hard to live a normal life in the shadow of this brutality.

I guess so.

He is denied 5-0 again.

Good.

One of her older students there, one of Sandy's students, said it's a weird emotion.

It doesn't feel victorious, but it feels somewhat relieving for now.

All the volleyball kids show up at all the parole hearings in their fucking, in their warm-up jackets.

Yeah, they have a uniform.

Yeah, they're 40-year-old broads squeezing into their fucking

three kids later, squeezing into their high school shit, showing how pissed off they are.

2024, he's 60 years old.

Another parole hearing.

Sarah, through a letter, says, I lost my mom, my home, my family, my childhood that night.

I'm asking you, pleading with you, to give me a chance to live my life.

And they said, no problem.

5-0 fucking denied.

Go to the Bahamas.

Yep.

He's never gotten a vote positive on this for him.

No shit.

5-0 every time.

Yeah, he's a total asshole.

What a scumbag.

Well, his kids are in the house he's a bad guy

no he's capable of anything his next parole hearing will be November 2025 where the kids are gonna the ladies are gonna come with their jackets and it's on again

the sister that what that has a custody of the kids now Tina Comer she said keep Mark Schnabel in prison for the rest of his life yeah she's buried at the

Mamre Mamre I don't know, church cemetery in Marquette, Nebraska there.

So there you go, everybody.

There's

I'm telling you, we can't go away from Nebraska for another year.

It's crazy there.

We've been away for too long.

Quickly, at the end of the show, here, shutupandgivemeurder.com is where you go for everything.

Tickets for live shows, get them now.

Seattle, there's a few left for San Diego that we just released.

Also, D.C.

and Philly, get those tickets right now.

ShutupandGiveMeurder.com.

Follow on social media at Small Town Murder on Instagram, Small Town Pod on Facebook, Patreon.com/slash crime in sports.

You get everything there.

Anybody, $5 a month or above.

All sorts, 300-plus episodes of Backstuff You've Never Heard Before.

New ones every other week, including this week.

We got Disaster Potpourri for Crime and Sports.

Prisoner Dating Game for Small Town Murder.

Need I Say More?

God damn it.

And you get all three shows, Crime and Sports, Your Stupid Opinions, Small Town Murder ad free on Patreon.

And a shout out, patreon.com slash crime and sports.

Get in there and come see us.

Head over to the site.

If you want to follow us on social media, there's a drop-down menu.

Tell you everywhere you need to be.

That said, until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.

Bye.

This is Larry Flick, owner of the floor store.

Labor Day is the last sale of the summer, but this one is our biggest sale of the year.

Now through September 2nd, get up to 50% off store-wide on carpet, hardwood, laminate, waterproof flooring, and much more.

Plus two years interest-free financing, and we pay your sales tax.

The Floor Stores Labor Day sale.

Don't let the sun set on this one.

Go to floorstores.com to find the nearest of our 10 showrooms from Santa Rosa to San Jose.

The Floor Store, your area flooring authority.

If you want to feel more connected to humanity and a little less alone, listen to Beautiful Anonymous.

Each week, I take a phone call from one random anonymous human being.

There are over 400 episodes in our back catalog.

You get to feel connected to all these different people all over the world.

Recent episodes include one where a lady survived a murder attempt by her own son.

But then the week before that, we just talked about Star Trek.

It can be anything.

It's unpredictable.

It's raw.

It's real.

Get Beautiful Anonymous wherever you listen to podcasts.