Collier Landry Boyle

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

My parents were never really affectionate with one another. I don't ever really recall seeing them hold hands or embrace or anything like that. It had been a while since they had been, you know, I would imagine, together in any sort of way. A lot of times he would be sleeping on the couch and that's how I would find him in the morning.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I definitely seen them argue, but I never knew what it was about.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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My father would have this temper that you could just set off at the drop of a hat. And there was no telling what would set him off. We would go outside to play catch, and he would end up trying to throw fastballs and hit me in the groin or my head to teach me how to be a man.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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So my father says, I'm going to stop, get a tan real quick. So we stopped at the tanning salon. And out comes Sherry. I was like, oh, that's the woman from the other week, you know, the patient. And Sherry comes out of the tanning salon with these two radio control cars. And she's like, happy Father's Day. And my dad's like, oh, what a nice surprise. And she's got the batteries and everything.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And as she's, you know, handing everything over, I look at her hand and I notice a ring on it. My mother was very into jewelry and handbags and clothing and all these things. So I was always a kid who paid attention to like watches, jewelry, all that stuff. So I see this ring and it's unmistakable because it is identical to a ring that my father had given my mother that was a diamond slide ring.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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So I'm just kind of doodling away, and we have all these doctors and their wives around us. And my father's telling this story of how he was flying a solo mission for the Navy. during the Vietnam War over the South China Sea and he gets shot down in his fighter plane.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And it had this like shaft and the diamond slid back and forth in the shaft of the ring. And I looked at it on her finger and I looked up at her and I said, oh, I like your ring. My mommy has a ring just like that. I had never seen that ring before other than on my mother's hand. And then she looked at my father and kind of giggled.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And I take the batteries and I'm all excited because I'm playing with the radio control car in the parking lot. And I look up and I see my father making out with Sherry. I mean, I, I just, I'm standing there in the parking lot, just kind of looking at them like, what is, I'm just trying to go back to like play with the car. And I just keep looking like, what is happening here?

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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So my father says, we have to go. I get in the front seat and my father gets in the car and my father says to me, I need you to do daddy a favor. I need you to tell mommy that I gave you the radio control cars as a gift for getting good grades this year in school. That's the first time that I can remember my father asking me to lie to my mother. So we go home and I tell my mother the lie inside.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I'm just sick to my stomach and I'm just torn up inside. My stomach is in knots. And then the next morning I wake up. My mom says, why don't you go play with your radio control car? take the radio control car out in the driveway and I'm playing with it. And I'm so, because all it is just playing back in my head over and over and over again. The ring, the kiss, the party, like all these pieces.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And I go in and my mother's on the porch and I started telling her about everything. I feel so embarrassed. I'm feeling all of this like wave of emotions. She thanked me for telling her the truth. And I remember she very calmly got up and she asked me to go outside and she went into the kitchen to use the telephone and... I heard lots of words and lots of screaming on the telephone.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And all I could think about was my sort of childhood facade or family life as I knew it was over.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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The smoke in the engines is billowing and he's trying to pull the ejection lever and his F-14 Tomahawk crash lands into the South China Sea. And he cannot get out. And the water is coming in through the cracked cockpit, right? As he's slowly sinking. And he gets out his trusty bowie knife and uses the blade to cut his way out of the cockpit. And he sees an island off into the distance.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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So every time I'm telling Dave about any of this stuff, it's almost kind of hard to get a read on Dave because he's just very like, hmm. He would go, hmm. So every time he would go, hmm, I knew that he was thinking like, oh, that's weird. That was his way of reacting. He never let on that like that was a clue or anything like that, but he did because it was like, huh, hmm. That's worth noting.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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That night, Sherry drops in with a pork roast and sauerkraut because New Year's. And she just comes in and starts like playing house. Like, oh, I made you guys dinner and this and that. And I'm like, this is awful. Thinking to myself, because she's a terrible cook. And my father's like, oh, this is so good. And he's eating and he's telling her how great the food is. And they're just talking.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And I get up and I leave the table at some point because I just didn't want to be there.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And he swam to this island. And he survives in the jungle, eating bark and slugs and waits for the naval team to rescue him. And my mother is listening and nodding because she's enthralled with the story.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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Everybody wants to believe their father is a, you know, the savior of the world, right?

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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So every day that I go to school, I'm trying to like check in with Dave, whether I ask him to come to the school to talk to me or I'm just checking in with him on the telephone.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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There was a matador and a bull. And I remember, I'm gonna be the bull. And my mom was like, dinner's ready. And I run with my eyes closed and I run smack dab into our Land's End table and I split my head open. They take me to the naval base where my father worked at the hospital right there, the clinic.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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My mom's freaking out and he's stitching me up, you know, and I remember I was like crying and my mom was feeding me like salami and provolone cheese because we didn't get to have our dinner, but he stitched me up. And it was like one of those moments of like my dad being there to save me.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I mean, my mother was my whole world. The sun rose and set with her, you know. I just loved being around my mom. I would help her like shop. She loved to go to museums, the theater. She loved cultural things.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I remember one time my mother was like shopping at Tiffany's. There was a Rolex counter. There was this sales girl working at the counter and I got her to let me try on a Rolex. My mother was mortified because first of all, we're not buying you a Rolex.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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Second of all, she was mortified that I had talked the sales girl into letting me put this, you know, whatever, $5,000 watch on my wrist and walk around the store with it. I just thought it was fun to play grownup. And she just got a kick out of that because she just was like, that's my little boy. Like he just charms people into doing things for him, I guess.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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My mother used to say he's 11 going on 40. That's what she would tell people.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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If we were going somewhere, I was expected to behave a certain way, where I was maybe upholding my aristocratic family, if you will.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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My mother's last name was Schmidt. We were related to Schmidt's Brewery in Philadelphia. And she was related to Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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My mother had a station wagon where, you know, you have the front seats, then you have the middle seats, then you have the back seat that faces out the back, right? On road trips, my parents would be playing, you know, the Philharmonic. And I'd be over the orchestra pit, which was the back of the station wagon, conducting as if I was conducting the orchestra.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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Maybe I was using a soda straw as my baton, maybe. They thought it was hilarious.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I was taking tap dance lessons, so I would tap dance for the patients and then I had this little harmonica, which I still have, and I would play like the harmonica and like sing and do a whole little thing to entertain.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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We go to this party in the middle of the sticks. And these are, you know, I mean this with all due respect, but these are rednecks. These are beer drinking, quad riding, you know, salt of the earth type of people. I looked around and I thought, this is a whole different world. Here I am in my little penny loafers, my little polo shirt and little shorts.

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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And I remember Sherry got on the quad and she said, do you want to ride the quad with me? And I was like, okay. I was like, I'm here. I'm like, I'm going to have fun, right?

The Binge Crimes: Finding Mom's Killer

Finding Mom's Killer | 2. The Stories We Tell

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I looked back. And my father is walking with Sherry, talking to her, and he has his arm around her. They're in this very serious conversation. And later on, we say our goodbyes and we get in the truck and I ask my father, who is that woman? He tells me she's daddy's patient and she's terminally ill. And daddy was consoling her. I was like, oh, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible.