Sergei Evonen
Appearances
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
Hi, Andrea. Good to be here.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
That's right. It's a pretty close-knit community. But during testimony, none of the neighbors said that they could see each other's houses. They could see the smoke and some saw the flames. And one neighbor testified that he and his sons heard the sound that they couldn't really place. They didn't know what it was, so they got in the car.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
And then when they got to the spot, they realized it was Linda Wailing.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
One of the neighbors, Dr. Richard Musali, he's a dentist. He and his sons went over. And when they got there, they saw Todd. He was unconscious, laying on his back. All hair was gone. His skin was burned. He was not responsive. So Dr. Musali did perform mouth-to-mouth on Todd Sturmer, trying to resuscitate him.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
Yeah, so the first people on the scene were Connie Colquhoun and her boyfriend at the time, Mike Matheny. They lived next door. And when they arrived, Mike told Connie to stay back because he didn't want her to see the horror of the scene. And then when he came back to her, he said, Connie, you got to call 911. And the prosecution played that call during Mike's testimony.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
It was kind of bone chilling to hear that almost unnatural sound of Linda wailing.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
So Kim's testimony was that Linda was wearing socks, didn't have any shoes on, so she tried to get her clothes, and her focus was Linda's comfort. She asked Linda if there was anything they could do, and Linda asked them to take care of the dog. And so Kim followed the dog as it was running around, and that's when they discovered the van.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
And when they approached the van, they kind of froze because they immediately saw blood on the bumper.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
They never addressed it with her, but they were kind of shocked.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
They never asked Linda about the blood specifically, but she said that Linda's explanation for what happened that day kept changing. And Kim's husband took the stand as well.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
They sure did. The medical examiner took the stand and she testified that she smelled an accelerant. And the defense jumped right on her and said, it's been so many years ago. You distinctly remember that odor. How many calls have you been on? And the ME was very firm. And she said, I did smell that gasoline on Todd's body.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
But Dr. Mousali, who gave Todd mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, said that he didn't smell any accelerant on him.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
100%. The jury asked a lot of questions about toxicology testing. The prosecution has raised the theory that Linda drugged Todd before she started the fire, but the testing showed no drugs in his blood. They asked questions about the lacerations. Could those lacerations have been the result of him tumbling down the stairs? But the doctor said he couldn't exclude that in
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
The doctor's testimony did not confirm, you know, the prosecution theory. At least it didn't confirm all of it.
Dateline NBC
Accused killer's voice on a 911 call in Michigan. A hike in paradise gone terribly wrong. And Karen Read's retrial begins.
Thank you for having me on the podcast.