Snapped: Women Who Murder - Diana Nadell

Episode Date: April 11, 2021

An affluent grandmother falls victim to an elaborate murder plot fueled by passion and greed.Season 23, Episode 22Original air date: July 8, 2018Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WsLCJWqmIebSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. A wealthy socialite is found dead inside her sprawling suburban home. Is she breathing? I don't think she's home.

I'm afraid to go back in. Oh my God. Killed in her home at night, a place where she was supposed to be safe. Detectives discover there is no lack of motive for murder within her inner circle. The state was worth about $4, $4.5 million. Clearly, anyone who stands to gain financially would have that motive. This whole thing was about money.

But as the investigation heats up, an unlikely suspect emerges from the shadows. She went to Jamaica to have a little rendezvous. You could feel the hate inside you that to do something like this. This was in a spur of the moment thing. This was well planned, well orchestrated. Is she bleeding? I don't know. I'm over the blind. Greed will do those things to you. Oh, I get my skin crawls when I think of it.

I said, you're to die in hell. Rockland County, New York. It's a little after 9 a.m. on a cold and snowy Saturday in this picturesque community and our northwest of Manhattan. A very nice area, very pretty, beautiful homes, everything was well kept. But today, the suburban calm is broken by a desperate call to 9-1-1. Oh, what are you doing? Oh, I need an ambulance. to 911. 911. 911. 911. 911. 911. 911. 911.

911 system received a phone call from Suzanne Nadell Scasio, who was very distressed, saying that she had just found her mother at the bottom of the stairs. I'm on the floor, and she's watching at her knife on her hand. I think she stand herself. Oh, my God. I don't think she's gonna call my face to go back in. Oh, my God. I don't think she's gonna call my face to go back in. Oh, my God. The way the call came in was that an elderly woman

had possibly tripped over her cat at the top of the stairs and tumbled down onto a knife that she must have been carrying with her. Man, what's with me? We have a parmex name. What's on the way? Is she bleeding? I don't know. I'll hold it a bit. OK. Is it nice to live with her?

I blew it up. Minutes later, first responders arrive at the scene. We saw a woman in the driveway screaming in yelling about her mother. Suzanne tells the officers that her 80-year-old mother, Peggy Nadelle, is lying just inside the foyer. She was at the bottom of the stairs with a knife-ort. I knew his dad.

There was blood around her head. A foot or two away from the body was like a steak knife. The coroner pronounces Peggy Nadell dead on arrival. As first responders secure the scene and wait for detectives to arrive, they can't help but ask themselves, are they looking at a tragic accident? Or something more sinister? They had briefly told me the story over the phone

that she might have tripped over a cat and fell on a knife. Immediately on the phone, even, I was not believing that. His gut was telling him something didn't sound right. -♪ Despite being an 80-year-old widow, Peggy Nadell was still a world traveler, a sporty fashionista, and a doding grandmother.

Beginning with her childhood in 1930s, New York, Peggy's life had always been touched by glamour and charm. She grew up, she was born and raised in Brooklyn. She was a child of privilege. My grandfather was a farrier, and my mother had a very nice life as a child growing up. Peggy was a beautiful woman. She was striking. You know, she was tall and slender.

Her hair was always beautiful. You think she stepped out of a bold magazine. As a young woman, Peggy caught the eye of successful men hadn't furniture magnate, Robert Nadel. My father was also very dapper, and I'm sure that's what caught my mother's eye. He was quite a handsome man. Robert and Peggy married and eventually left the city in favor of an elegant home in Rockland County.

For years, Peggy was a stay-at-home mom to their two children, Jim and Suzanne. She loved her children. She worried about them. She always made sure they had everything they needed. Peggy was always looking for her next challenge. And when her children started grade school, Peggy also went back to school, earning her MBA and joining the workforce. As for the male-dominated climate that prevailed at the time, it didn't phase Peggy one bit. She started working for Xerox. She moved up with the company,

was corporate, and did very well. There weren't a lot of women at the time in those type of positions, so she really led the way. I mean treated her with respect. Everybody respected Peggy. She knew what she was doing. 30 years on, Peggy's marriage to Robert

was still going strong. Meanwhile, their two kids, Jim and Suzanne, were charting promising futures of their own. Daughter Suzanne was following in her mother's footsteps at Xerox. Susie took after her mother, and she got out of school. She started with Xerox. Susie was a very successful sales rep in our district.

I met Suzanne when we were. I was just a teenager. I was 17 years old. We dated for like four years and we got engaged. We actually were engaged for nine years. I was busy with trying to get my career going. She was busy with her career. And 1993, 13 years later, we got married.

But when it came to grandkids, Peggy and her daughter didn't share the same vision. My parents always wanted grandchildren. And I decided that I didn't want to have children. As for Peggy's son Jim, he had established a successful career as a neuropsychologist in South Florida. Peggy and her son talked regularly and one day in 1996 he called to let her know that he'd met someone. 32-year-old Diana Martin. My brother met her. They were both employed in a hospital.

The chemistry was instant, but Jim and Diana couldn't have come from more different backgrounds. In contrast to the often snowy suburban streets of Upper Crest Rockland County, Diana hailed from sunny Jamaica. She was from Jamaica. She was married once before with two other children from her prior marriage, and then she met my brother-in-law.

To Jim, Diana's high-end taste and air of refinement reminded him of his mother. She liked designer clothes. She liked to have nice things, Diana wanted nice things. She came up to New York one time. She was a tall, attractive looking girl. She was slender. We thought, well, Jimmy's happy.

We should be happy also. In her son's glamorous new girlfriend, Peggy immediately found a kindred spirit. After Jim and Diana tied the knot in the fall of 1997, the two women grew even closer. She would call my mother every morning, Diana loved her and really cared for her. Their bond strengthened over time, especially after Diana gave birth to two children in the early 2000s. Peggy was a static.

She could not wait to be a grandmother. She was very happy to have grandchildren. She doated on them and just couldn't wait to get on the next plane with my father to go to Florida and visit. Just as Peggy relished being a grandmother, Diana threw herself into motherhood. She had wonderful children. Diana, I think, adored her.

Her two kids, they adored her, and she was doing a good job. They were very good kids. Jimmy gave her a good life, and she had two beautiful children and a nice home. But in 2003, the entire Nadelle family was rocked when their patriarch Peggy's husband, Robert, passed away suddenly. It was very unexpected and they had a funeral, kept it very quiet and just let us know and kept it to the family. With Robert gone and Peggy now retired, she had time to pour even more of her energy

and considerable wealth into her grandchildren. There wasn't anything she couldn't do for those children. Whatever they needed, Grandma was happy to give it to them. Peggy was very close with both her grandchildren. They visited for summers and Christmas vacation, and they love staying with her. Even when she wasn't spending time with Diana and the kids, Peggy, now 80, could be found speeding around the big apple

with the Joie de Vive of a woman half her age. She would go to the city, she would travel, she would shop, volunteer, do a lot of things that occupied her time. She wasn't going to sit at home. In fact, in early 2014, Peggy was already planning her next adventure, a trip to Italy with Diana and her granddaughter.

Sadly, that trip would never happen. Clarkstown New York detectives Earl Lawrence and Stephen Cole Hatcher are tasked with investigating Peggy's death. From the moment they lay eyes on the body, it's clear something's not adding up. There was no way, no way, that she tripped down over a cat and fell down the stairs. Especially given the fact that knife wounds on Peggy's body penetrate her torso not once, but three times. She couldn't stab herself three times. That wasn't just to kill it. That was a slaughter.

Coming up, as the investigation gains momentum, a slew of possible suspects emerges. It had to be somebody that she knew. You have all those people coming in there in your house and everybody knows. She's an older woman all alone. But one suspect stands out above the rest. She went on and on stating,

this isn't how I wanted to get my money. It was almost like she was setting up her own alibi for having her fingerprints or DNA on the knife itself. By 2014, 80-year-old Peggy Nadelle was living out her golden years in style. She had a beautiful and successful family, including two grandkids she deeply loved. But on January 25, Peggy's picture-perfect life came to an abrupt end in her immaculate suburban home. Suzanne told me that she had come upon her mother in the house when she entered, and that she was at the bottom of the stairs with a knife wound.

As detectives from the Clarkstown Police Department worked the scene, Suzanne calls her brother Jim and her sister-in-law Diana in Florida. Diana answered the phone, Suzanne calls her brother Jim and her sister in law Diana in Florida. Diana answered the phone and I said something happened, Mommy's gone. And I heard her shrieking at the other end of the phone. Just shrieking, screaming, carrying on. Diana was like, what do you mean, Mommy's gone? And she's like, Mommy's gone.

She's dead. She was offering up what happened. That, oh, my mother fell down the stairs. And landed on a knife. Her guilty pleasure was laying in bed, watching TV. She'd bring up an apple, cut up an apple, cut up a pear, cut up cheese. Every time I was there, she was always

coming down the stairs with a bow. With a knife, with a fork, my thought was, oh, my God, she fell and stuck herself. However, detectives Earl Lawrence and Stephen Cole Hatchard already know that Peggy's death is no accident. It became apparent to me immediately that it was a homicide. She had multiple stab wounds, multiple head lacerations. There was blood around her head,

she had like a copper bowl in her hand. In addition to the bowl and the bloody steak knife, investigators noticed something else next to Peggy. Turned out to be the head of a statue under her. Was this another weapon? Or did Peggy try to use this in self-defense? Either way, the scene suggests Peggy Nadel died of violent death, but at whose hands and why?

The house was pristine. Everything was very organized, so it was fairly easy to see things that were out of place. When we got up to the bedroom, all of the drawers had been removed from the dressers, and some of the baskets from the shelves had been removed. Investigators start to question if Peggy drifted off while having a snack in bed,

only to wake up to discover a burglar in her home who then attacked and killed her. You could see where she had been sleeping. The blinds were closed and the covers were pulled over in such a manner that you could tell that she was by herself. And she had gotten up, the DVD player was still playing. My first thought, burglary, robbery,

had to be a stranger. But the more investigators study the scene, the less it feels like a random robbery. Peggy did have an alarm system. The alarm system was off. There was actually a key in the doorway from the inside. So right away, I'm thinking that she got up to answer the door to open the door.

So it would have to be somebody that she knew. We took a look at the kitchen table, and it was clear to us that, based upon how the chairs were turned facing each other, that's the person who had been there earlier have been sitting in that chair, speaking with Peggy. Who would an 80-year-old woman like Peggy feel comfortable letting into her home in the middle of the night?

One possibility is Peggy's daughter, Suzanne, who's still at the scene. She was crying. I mean, she, who's still at the scene. She was crying. I mean, she was, you know, hysterical. I mean, I tried everything to try and console her. I told her, I said, listen, this was no accident. Your mother was murdered. Suzanne's first statement to me is my mother's

worth high seven figures. It was a very first thing she said to me. She said it several times. She went on and on stating, this isn't how I wanted to get my money. She made a big deal, which raised a red flag to me for I just found it to be very odd, that she was talking about her mother's wealth.

Investigators ask Suzanne and her husband to come down to the station for an interview. And they separated us. You know, you watch enough TV shows, you know, this is common. And they just kept rehashing, rehashing. Where were you? What were you doing? My relationship with my mother-in-law

is there somebody else that could have possibly have done this? They questioned my husband and I for probably good 7-8 hours. According to both Robert and Suzanne, they'd been at home earlier that evening. And while they hadn't spoken with Peggy in hours, Suzanne had seen her alive and well multiple times that week. I was there at least four or five days a week. I would let myself in with my own key. I knew how to work the alarm.

There wasn't a day that they didn't go by, that they didn't talk, and let minimum of at least once or twice. And then I spoke to Peggy just about every day myself. Suzanne says that she last saw her mother on Thursday, January 23rd. However, on the morning of Saturday the 25th, she tried to speak to her mother on the phone, but failed. I started calling about 730-quarter to 8. She didn't answer the phone. I said, something's not right that my mother

is not answering the phone. So I drove down, I opened the door, and I didn't recall at the time, but the alarm was off. And I saw my mother laying at the bottom of the stairs, and I touched her neck, and I pulled the knife out, thinking, oh, my God, I need to do CPR. So when Suzanne says that she removed the knife, that is a red flag to me.

I'm not a medical professional. But I know enough about certain things, stab wounds, that once you remove the knife from a wound, it makes the wound much worse. When Suzanne called 911, one of the first things she said was that my fingerprints will be on the knife. It was almost like she was setting up her own alibi

for having her fingerprints or DNA on the knife itself. Whenever someone of considerable wealth is murdered, especially under these circumstances, where it's pretty clear early on that they knew they're a silent. One of the first things we look at, who has a motive for this person to be gone. Clearly, anyone who stands to gain financially

would have that motive. In this case, that motive belongs both to Suzanne and also to Jim. However, Suzanne is adamant that her mother employed a number of workers who had access to the house. Any one of them, Suzanne insists, could have targeted her mother. I knew she had a cleaning girl. I knew that she had a contractor working there.

I didn't know who his employees were, but they would come and go. She had quite a large diamond that she would wear. She had beautiful jewelry. She drove an expensive car. She always dressed nicely. Suzanne told me that if this was a robbery, there would be a few certain items she suspected would be missing. She mentioned that a laptop, a giant diamond fake ring, cubic zirconia ring, and a purse.

I said, Earl, we need to check for these three particular items. Suzanne believes they might be missing. They were pretty much the only three things missing from the house. So are the missing items proof that Suzanne's hunch is correct? Or does it put her under an even darker cloud of suspicion? She told me that her mother was a high-seven figures net worth individual. She told me that this isn't how she wanted to get her money.

So certainly she started to creep up on the radar very quickly. Why would you just take her laptop and her jewelry? It was too precise. It's too neat. Coming up, an unusual audio recording adds another layer of mystery to Peggy's final hours. This is Peggy Nadelle. The code word is a max. And an unlikely discovery places someone closest to Peggy squarely in police crosshairs. places someone closest to Peggy,

squarely in police crosshairs. That's from a cell phone that's untraceable. Within seconds of knowing that it was a track phone, I knew that this was bad. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready and buckle up. We've got the one and only Conan O'Brien, making a legendary appearance on SmartLess. Picture this, the iconic Conan O'Brien, Puffy Red Hair and all, joining forces with me, and Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes.

It is just, it's a recipe for podcast perfection exclusively on One Re plus. We're taking you on an unforgettable journey behind the curtain. We're pulling back the veil on the world of late night and giving you an inside look into the mind of a true legend. Our episode with Conan is the second of ten special episodes exclusive to One Re plus. These episodes are the full recorded interviews from our smart list tour that was filmed in front of thousands of our biggest fans from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles.

You're not gonna wanna miss this conversation with Conan? You can listen to these episodes exclusively and add free with Wondry Plus, find Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple podcasts. It's been just hours since 80-year-old Peggy Nadelle was found beaten and stabbed to death in her New York home, and investigators are already circling around a potential suspect, Peggy's own daughter, Suzanne. Suzanne just lost her mother, and she's at the police station. I found out it was more like they were questioning her

as if she were guilty of something. She was number one suspect. Suzanne insists that her mother's killer likely came from the numerous hired help that floated in and out of the house. She had a master bathroom renovated, and it just had finished master bathroom renovated, and it just had finished like within the month, I think.

So there was a lot of contractors in and out of the house. We were able to exclude many of those through everything from phone records, interviews, videotapes. So although the list was large at first, it was being paired down very quickly. Which leaves Suzanne as the crime's only viable suspect. There was police, cars outside of Suzanne's house 24 hours a day.

They came to my office, they pulled me out, they put me in a room, and they asked me questions for hours about Suzanne and about why she would have done it and how she could have done it and why they thought she did it. According to her initial statement, Suzanne told detectives that she and her brother Jim stood to inherit nearly four million dollars upon their mother's death. That was always a possibility that the family members were working together in order to kill their mother in order to receive some sort of inheritance.

Investigators decide to reach out to the other person who stood to gain financially from Peggy Nadell's death. Speaking by phone, Jim tells detectives he was in Florida at work the night his mother was killed. We checked a lot of records. We especially checked a lot of phone records and neighborhood videotapes, things like that. We did learn that Jim was in Florida. As for Jim's wife Diana, she also appears to have her own rock solid alibi.

Diana had flown up to DC to go to a wedding. Upon examining the phone records in this case, we determined that Diana Nadell was in Washington DC at the time of the murder. There was, it seemed, a much closer relationship between Diana and Peggy than there was between Peggy and Jim. She spoke to Peggy regularly, at least several times a week. Diana was really great as far as cooperation and wanting to talk to us, and we appreciated that.

So we kept those lines of communication open with Diana throughout. With Jim and Diana largely ruled out as suspects, detectives ask Suzanne to come in for another round of questioning. When she came into the station, we met her out in the lobby, and within 10 seconds of that, she received the phone call. Prior to this, we had gotten two search warrants. It were for Suzanne's personal cell phone and work phone. And as it turns out, one of our town justices

was giving her the heads up on that. When I started to sense that it turns out, one of our town justices was giving her the heads up on that. When I started to sense that it was turning, and that finger was now being pointed at me, I'm like, something's going on here. And I need to protect myself. She got an attorney, and she ceased talking to us. It was just a complete reversal of cooperation

from that moment on. My attorney informed them that if they had any questions for me or wanted to contact me, well, contact would have to go through him. You are the only witness or person who at least found your mother dead in her house, and you don't want to cooperate with the police. That raises flags to any investigator.

We found a Suzanne. We had a grocery store near her home, which was about 10 miles away from the murder scene, and that she frequented that grocery store quite often. However, on the day before the murder, she went to a grocery store, which was just a mile or two from her mother's home. And then we further learned, she purchased rubber gloves, cleaning items, and things like that.

A detail that becomes even more significant when CSI's complete their forensic analysis of the crime scene. We had a bloody crime scene with no evidence whatsoever, no hair, no blood, no saliva, no semen, no DNA, no fingerprints. So whoever did this planted pretty well. With Suzanne loyered up and no hard evidence physically placing her at the scene, investigators must chart another

course of action. What else do we have? Take a step back. We took a step back. We looked phone records, phone records of the home phone. We saw that Paganadelle had two phone calls on her home phone. I read around the estimated time of the We saw that Pagan Edele had two phone calls on her home phone, right around the estimated time of the murder. One of those calls was from the alarm company.

Just before that, though, it was a call from a track phone. Those two stuck out to me at 1.15, 1.30 in the morning to an 80-year-old woman, what's going on? Track phones have a nickname. They're called burner phones. They call them burner phones. There's a number of reasons. You can usually not trace who used the phone, who activated the phone.

That afternoon, detectives contact the security company that maintained the alarm system at Peggy's residence. I know that they record all their calls, so I wanted to get Peggy's phone calls and we got it. Hello, this is a monitoring center. I'm both the security. This is Peggy Nadelle. The code word is a max.

I'm sorry. That's okay, man. I'm not reaching smart. I'm glad everything's okay. We'll just regard for you. Have a good night. Okay. is a max, I'm sorry. That's OK, man, I'm not reaching for him. I'm glad everything's OK. We'll just regard for you.

Have a good night. OK. OK. It was telling that the alarm went off, and her voice just was saying everything's fine. Everything's good. It became obvious that the track phone that was used to call Peggy was to say, hey, here I am.

Come open the door. I'm here. Who was the caller on that track phone? Track phone. Does using a signed branded type carrier? Track phone was able to determine where the phone was purchased. We tracked the track phone back to the point of sale, which was at the family dollar store.

So that was in Homestead, Florida. That Homestead dollar store happened to be two miles away from where Diana and Jim lived. We were able to determine that this particular track phone was purchased on January 23rd, just a day or so before picking it up, it was killed. At this point, Jim went right to the top, along with Suzanne for the people

possibly responsible for this homicide. Coming up, police hone in on Peggy's children. You don't always know that person. You think you do. And a surprise witness alters the entire trajectory of the case. She was here. She was here from 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. And that's what I'm telling you. Is that what I'm saying? MUSIC

MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC The murder investigation of Peggy Nadelle has turned up its first big break in the case, a burner phone. Police believe was used to contact Peggy in the moments just before she was killed.

We do all the legal subpoena process that we have to to track the phone. It came back to a family dollar store in South Florida. We remained cognizant of the fact that Jim, her son, stood to her just as much as her daughter Susanne did. The estate was worth about $4.5 million. However, Jim and his wife Diana seemed to have rock-solid alibis.

Phone records placed Jim in Florida at the time of the crime, and his wife Diana in Washington, DC. Diana told us that she had attended a wedding in Washington, DC, and that's where she was the night of the murder. When investigators reach out to the bride's mother to verify Diana's alibi, they discover there was a wedding in DC that weekend. However, detectives were surprised to discover that Diana

wasn't invited. She was not on the original wedding list. She never was wanted at the wedding. We started to wonder if maybe Diana was the one that bought the track phone, the burner phone, as opposed to jam or somebody else. Detectives obtained the surveillance video from the store in South Florida where the burner phone was purchased.

There was a video transaction of the person coming into the store purchasing the track phone and then walking out. It was clearly a not-diana. So we looked at that several hundred times that video. Freeze frame did, still shot at it, did everything we could to figure out who the person was. However, having caught Diana in one lie already, investigators aren't willing to let her off the hook just yet. They begin to interview friends of the Nadel family

in hopes of learning more about Peggy and Diana's relationship. Peggy sent her money on a monthly basis. If she didn't send her money, she didn't see the kids. And those grandkids met more to her than money. She'd do anything she could to have a relationship with them. According to some of Peggy's friends, recently Peggy felt that Diana was asking for too much. I got to the point that Diana became unreasonable,

and Peggy said, no. So when that happened, a Diana got very angry. She was saying, I need this money, or else I'm not gonna let you see the kids. Peggy was devastated, but according to those close to her, she wasn't the only one who'd had enough of Diana. Jimmy really did consider leaving her.

He was gonna wait till the children got out of school. Diana's behavior wasn't that of a happily married woman either. During her 50th birthday, she decides, I'm not gonna spend it with my husband and my children. I'm gonna go back to my ex-husband in another country in Jamaica and have a four-day rendezvous with him. And that's what she did. Friends say at that point,

Jim was ready to file for divorce, but Diana would have no talk of it. I would say to her, if you don't love him, divorce him. She was greedy and so that old mighty dollar and wasn't going anywhere. Detectives decide to take a closer look at the fine print in Peggy's will. What they discover sharpens their suspicions around Diana.

So if Jim and Diana divorce, prior to her death, Diana doesn't get a dime. But if Peggy dies, then she gets his half. That was written in her own words. But if Peggy dies, then she gets his half. That was written in her own words. But even if the threat of divorce had prompted Diana to murder her mother-in-law, detectives still have a lot of questions.

Like, how did she get from DC to New York? And who is the mystery woman seen purchasing the track phone? Poring over Diana's personal phone records, they uncover a clue. We got a passport photo from a woman named Karen, and she showed up on the call-detail records of Diana Nadelle several times a day down in Florida. The woman in the photo was Karen Ham Samuels,

a friend of Diana Nadelle. And we compared her passport photo to the transaction photo still shot, and it was a thousand percent much. That gave us all a goosebumps. This was Diana Nadelle's seemingly close associate purchasing a track phone that was used during the homicide. At this point, we have enough to go to a judge and apply for a wiretap on Diana's phone.

Over the next four weeks, investigators listen in on Diana's calls and discover Diana speaking frequently, not only with Karen, but also to another woman, 24-year-old Washington, D.C. resident, Andrea Benson. In the calls, Diana tells Andrea what to say if police questioned her about Diana's whereabouts on the night of January 24th. Then, firm with them on telling you she was here, she was here from 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. and that's what I'm telling you.

Is that what I'm saying? B.M. 56, A.M. And that's what I'm telling you. Say I have to tell what I'm saying? Yes. All right. But don't you have me mama because it has to be done? No, I know. I know. I know. All right.

At one point, you could see that Andrea had a little frustrated, and she actually said to Diana, I'm in this, too. At this point, we were unsure whether or not Andrea was covering for Diana or actually participated in murder. We also wanted to know how much Karen was involved beyond just the purchase of the phone. To prove that Diana Nadell is the mastermind behind Peggy's murder, investigators need more proof. They obtain a warrant for the phone records belonging

to Andrea Benson, detective's discover that just after 8 p.m. on the night of Peggy's murder, Andrea made a call to the track phone. Andrea activated that burner phone. Once the track phone was activated, we were able to watch the track phone, as well as Andrea's phone, hitting towers all along I-95 northbound headed toward

Peggy Nidale's home. We knew we had something that was incredible. Before detectives can prove this new theory, the wiretap records a conversation that indicates Diana might be heading back to Jamaica for good. Diana had emptied out her husband's retirement account, and why are that in pieces what appeared to be to her ex-husband in Jamaica? According to Suzanne, Diana said that she needed Jim's savings for their family.

She told me she took money out of my brother's retirement account and told him that she needed it to pay bills. We started to believe that Diana was planning on either alone or with wonderful children fleeing and going to Jamaica. Jamaica does not extra-dite back to the United States, so that was going to be a major problem. Fearful that Diana Nadell is on the verge of fleeing the country

on May 20, 2014, police in Miami bring her into custody. She says, you think I killed my mother-in-law? I didn't kill my mother-in-law. And we announced that she was under arrest for the murder of her mother-in-law, Peggy Miendale. The same day, investigators in DC arrest Andrea Benson, both she and Diana are extordated to New York.

Once in New York, Diana refuses to cooperate. Andrea Benson, however, sings a far different tune. When Andrea Benson told us that originally her mother was supposed to pick Diana up at the airport, but that she had traffic cords so she asked Andrea to go instead. Even though they just met, Diana confided in Andrea about the very personal nature of her trip. Diana told her the real reason why she was in DC, that she was going to kill her mother-in-law.

Diana told Andrea that in order to carry out her plan, she needed help, and proceeded to offer her $10,000 of Peggy's inheritance if she'd be her accomplice. For Andrea, a single mom without a steady income, the money was tempting. She just thought that being offered $10,000 would be life-changing money. It only took Diana to Dell about one hour

to convince Andrea Benson to help her kill Peggy Nadeau. Diana asked Andrea if there was anyone that she knew that would use her cell phone later that evening to make it look like Diana was in Washington, D.C. And that's where Tanisha Joyner comes in. Tanisha was the one in Washington who used Diana's phone, which established what Diana thought was her airtie. I actually don't believe Tanisha knew the one in Washington who used Diana's phone, which established what Diana thought was her airtight telepine.

I actually don't believe Tanisha knew what it was for. According to Andrea, she and Diana then began the four-hour drive to Peggy's house in New York. When they got close, Diana called Peggy from the track phone. She called Peggy and said, Mom, it's me. I'm here. Let me in.

And of course, she would let her in. It's her daughter-in-law. Peggy excuses herself to the bathroom. And at that point, Diana and Andrea begin arguing on who was going to kill her. No, you do it. You do it. Pegi came out of the bathroom.

Andrea Benson took the strap from her pocket book and wrapped it around Peggy's neck and began strangling her. In Andrea's words, she just wouldn't die. And then Diana begins to panic. Diana went into the dining area and retrieved the statue at in the Andrea's words, Bash Peggy and the head. While Peggy still clung to life, Diana frustrated, retrieved a knife from the kitchen.

She hesitated the first time the last two stab wounds were the two all the way through her body, through her heart. Andrea says that once Diana was sure Peggy was dead, she cleaned the scene thoroughly. And just before leaving, tried to make it look like a robbery by taking Peggy's jewelry, purse, and laptop. They drove back down to DC. When they got to DC, they broke the laptop and half through an dumpster, and they took

the jewelry and dumped it in the Anacosti River. And then she flew back to Florida. According to Andrea, neither Peggy's son Jim nor her daughter Suzanne were involved in the murder plot. That night, police upgrade their charges against Diana and Andrea to first-degree murder. Tanisha Joyner is also arrested and charged with hindering prosecution.

News of Andrea's confession and Diana's arrest reach Jim and Suzanne later that night. I was fast asleep and they told me that they arrested her. And my husband and I both looked at and they told me that they arrested her. And my husband and I both looked at each other and said, we knew it. Coming up, a jailhouse plot threatens to derail the entire case. The message was to have them killed.

And a daughter confronts her mother's killer in open court. I said, you were born in paradise, and you're gonna die in hell. -♪ -♪ After the confession of 24-year-old Andrea Benson, police believe Peggy Nadell's murder was initiated by her 50-year-old daughter-in-law and the mother of her two grandchildren, Diana Nadell. A revelation that's appalling, both for its calculation and its greed. When I heard that, my first reaction was relief,

but on the other hand, still disbelief. I could someone kill their mother-in-law. Diana saw that as an opportunity for her to perhaps garner this lifestyle that she wanted that she did not have. As Diana's trial approaches, the case takes another shocking turn. Diana contacted another inmate and offered to pay them money

if they could arrange to kill certain witnesses. Those witnesses included Diana's alleged accomplices, Tanisha Joyner, and Diana's best friend, Karen Ham Samuels. The inmate in the jail was about to be deported to Jamaica and Diana knew this and asked her to give a message to her brother. That message was actually the names and addresses of Tanisha Joyner and Karen Ham Samuels,

and the message was to have them killed. Karen was the one in Florida who purchased that burner phone. Those two were witnesses who weren't involved in a murder, so we're most likely to turn witness. So it would have paid off greatly to have those two taken out of the picture. At that point, we had enough to indict her. She was indicted for tampering with witnesses,

as well as conspiracy to commit murder. In light of the new charges, Diana's attorneys urged her to take a plea deal. Diana and Adele pleaded guilty to murder. She received a sentence of 23 years to life in prison. She also pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill the two witnesses. However, at her sentencing hearing, Diana shows little emotion. I would like to say that I'm very sorry for my actions and that I am extremely sorry for any

pain I may have caused, especially to my husband. When Peggy's daughter gets a chance to speak directly to Diana, she makes the most of the opportunity. You were born in paradise and you were dying hell. While Peggy Nadell's life had a lasting effect on those who loved her, Diana's greed and betrayal has left behind wounds that may never heal. Suzanne, a son, two grandchildren. I think they will have little pieces inside of them broken for the rest of their life.

That will never be put back together. Diana wanted to live my mother's life. She'll meet her maker someday, and I hope it's horrible for her. My mother was a kind, wonderful person that I mistremendously, and not a day goes by that I don't think about her. Diana Nadell will be eligible for parole in 2037.

Jim Nadel was never linked to any crimes committed in this case. Andrea Benson received a sentence of 20 years to life. She will be eligible for parole in 2034. Tanisha Joyner was sentenced to probation and time served. Diana's friend, Karen Ham Samuels, was never charged in connection to the crime. friend Karen Ham Samuel's was never charged in connection to the crime. For more information on SNAPED, go to oxygen.com. you