Snapped: Women Who Murder - Sarah Jo Pender

Episode Date: March 7, 2021

Convicted along with her former boyfriend of the cold-blooded murder of their two roommates in 2000, Sarah Jo Pender was sentenced to 110 years in prison.Season 9, Episode 1Originally aired: April 1, 2012See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries 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. When Sarah Pinder met Richard Hull, the attraction was immediate. I'm already picturing like our house in the suburbs. I'm already putting together an American dream, but their reality would be a bit more crowded.

He says, hey, I have a buddy and his girlfriend want to come up. Do you mind if they come here and stay with us for a couple days? The arrangement didn't last for long. Their roommates have been found dead. Her whole head was misshapen. It didn't even look like a real person. We're dealing with a double homicide. The investigation of the gruesome crime

led to a startling confession. And a jury would have to decide, was Sarah a criminal mastermind? I refer to her as a female Charles Manson. Or was she just a victim of circumstance? You know, in every horror film, there's always some really stupid white girl that follows the trail of blood into the house. I swear to God, that's real. That's me. In the end, the end of the year. The

end of the year. The end of the year. The end of the year. The end of the year. Indianapolis, Indiana, October 25, 2000. It was around 6 p.m. when a teamster's employee stepped into the

alley behind the union's local headquarters to put the days trash into a dumpster. There was an individual that opened up the lid and saw two bodies inside the dumpster. A man and a woman riddled with what appeared to be multiple shotgun wounds. Both bodies were all but mutilated. There's nothing worse than a body that's been hit with shotgun pellets. The injuries that they sustained were horrific. The stunned employee immediately called the police.

It's not the highest crime part of town. So the fact that this was a shotgun and the murder made this a little different. And once the police arrived, one thing quickly became apparent. They weren't looking at the original crime scene. There wasn't a lot of blood or a regulated blood that was inside the dumpster, which would be an indication to us that the dump site was different from the kill site. The police had no clue as to where the couple had been killed.

In fact, they didn't even know their identities. These individuals, they didn't have any type of identification. Their extensive injuries meant the victims' faces were essentially unrecognizable, too. But that didn't mean they were impossible to identify. Both victims had several distinctive tattoos. They released a picture to these tattoos. People may recognize, well, I know that tattoo.

And then you will start getting leads. These tattoos, people may recognize why I know that tattoo. And then you will start getting leads. By the next afternoon, the investigators had the victims' names. Neighbors recognized those tattoos as belonging to Andrew Cotoldy and Trisha Nordman. But when the police went to the house where Andrew Cotoldy and Trisha Nordman had been staying, they soon had another mystery on their hands. The couple's housemates, 21-year-old Sarah Pender and 22-year-old Richard Hall, were also missing. Their roommates have been found dead.

We definitely want to find them. Born in 1979, Indiana native Sarah Pender was only five years old, with her parents split, and her mother moved to California, leaving Sarah and her older sister with their father. He had custody of them, and he did a great job, you know, trying to do the best as a single parent. And it was hard. By the time Sarah turned seven, her mother was back in Indianapolis

and back in her daughter's lives. They'd be with me, you know, every weekend. And they'd live with me in the summer. Despite her mother's return, Sarah struggled as she entered her teens. When I was in high school, I went through the phase of trying to feed the emptiness inside of me with boys or drugs and drinking the parts of it

and that didn't work out real well for me. However, by senior year, it looked as if Sarah's rebellious phase had passed. I cleaned up my act and I graduated high school and decided to go to college. I didn't really worry too much about her because it was like she knew how to keep her self-out of trouble and keep her head in her books.

Sarah got into Purdue University, but after a year of studies, money ran short, so she dropped down and went to work. I found a job at a small construction office and worked my way up for me as secretary to doing and reading blueprints. She was also offered to be gone to drafting school and to where she could go out and do the estimates on the jobs and things like that. Although only 20, Sara appeared well on her way to success. I'm paying my bills, I don't have debt, I owe my own car, you know, I'm doing great, life is good.

She soon had a new man in her life too. Sara met 22-year-old Richard Hull at a concert in July of 2000. Before I even saw his face or knew his name, I heard his laughter. So you have this joyous laughter coming from this bear of a man. And I see a silhouette and he's got a beer and one paw and a cigarette in the other. And his shirt's open and he's with the little round bellied jiggles when he laughs. And I thought,

oh my gosh, I want to meet that man. A mutual friend made the introduction and that was all it took. And we headed off instantly. It was an instant attraction. I believe so. I mean, we had fun. I mean, we're both like flamboyant, you know,

outgoing personalities, both of us. A former high school football star from the nearby small town of Noblesville, Richard seemed larger than life. It looks like a big meathead. You know, I mean, even in kindergarten, I weighed 103 pounds, I was like a little doboi, you know. Within a month, Richard had moved in,

and Sarah was planning their future together. We just never left each other after that. We were together. We just never lived each other after that. We were together. That was it. I'm already picturing like our house in the suburbs. You know, I've already been together American Dreamhouse. There were a few things standing in Sarah's way though.

Not only was her new boyfriend essentially unemployed, he also had a rap sheet. Richard kind of got involved up in the drug culture and kind of started staring down, staring down the wrong track. I had issues with alcohol, and then later on, I came into drugs. I was my own worst enemy.

As far as Sarah was concerned, Richard's past didn't matter, at least not at first. She said that he was very, very good to her, very caring and very attentive to Sarah, you know, and Sarah just kind of glowed and it made me feel good, but I still, yeah, I still wasn't quite comfortable with the situation yet, you know, I didn't really know him in that, but she seemed content. Then in early August, just a few days after moving in with Sarah, Richard asked if an old friend could crash at the apartment. He says, hey, I have a buddy when his girlfriend want to come up from D-Mine if they come here and stay with us for a couple days. His name was Andrew Kitaldi, and like Sarah, he'd first met Richard at a concert. I was like a security guard bouncer, I guess, you know, pants.

And I met Drew. He was passed out on a, you know, a top of a trailer. I ended up helping Drew get down and everything. And I ended up giving my phone number, and on the old week, we just stayed in touch after that. According to Richard, Andrew and his girlfriend, Trisha Nordman, had recently fallen on hard times. Trisha Nordman and Andrew Catoldi had had some brushes with the law.

Then he tells me, OK, by the way, they walked away from a halfway house and they have warrants. But since Richard vouched for his friends, Sarah said sure. It's a halfway house. You know, you walk away from halfway house. That's not dangerous, you know. Okay. When Andrew and Trisha showed up a few days later,

Sarah figured she had made the right call. Drew is very, very outgoing guy. He's very charismatic and they're very brotherly. You know, hey bro, you know, big hugs. Trisha is very quiet, very polite, and we're sweet. And, you know, and something like this is great. In fact, the couples got on so well that a week later, they even decided to rent a house together.

The apartment that we were in was only one bedroom, so we ended up getting a house that was literally down the street from Sarah's work. We're all moving in together. And I just think it's like college being in college and you get roommates you don't know. Drew and Tristate in one room, and Sarah and I had another. I mean, you know, we share household work. Paying the rent was a bit more problematic.

Sarah Pender was the only one of the four people living in the house that was working. She was like an assistant office manager, you know, clerk's clerk type of thing. She made good money. Although as Richard explained to Sarah, Andrew and Trisha made good money too. He told me that they were in his old drugs. Sarah didn't object on one condition. My only request was don't sell them out of the house.

He said, okay? According to Sarah, Richard joined their new business and for the next few weeks, things went well between the roommates. At least Sarah thought so. Thanks to their irregular business hours, she rarely saw Andrew and Trisha. I worked a money through Friday, eight to five jobs.

You got up here, we know, we had our thing, and we had our own money and everything, and we did what we had to do. But according to Sarah, she eventually did see signs of tension between Richard and their roommates. Towards the end of September, I came home, and there was a hole in my wall.

And I was like, right there, hole in my wall. This is where Drew's fist went through. According to Richard, the disagreement stemmed from their business. Or more precisely, it was due to their products, mostly meth and marijuana, which all four housemates frequently sampled. I'm not going to sit there and act like, you know,

it was just him doing, I mean, we all heartied and did the drugs. Even Sarah, although she did try to keep things under control. She participated, but she was not one to overdo anything because of her job. Andrew didn't have as much restraint, according to Richard. There was a difference between abuse and use,

and he wouldn't even stop. It was just constantly, daily. Soon, the arguments between the business partners became daily, too. Drew's really not a bad guy. He really wasn't, but drugs changed people. They went from being, like, brothers and partners to really adversaries.

As the tension in the house mounted, Sarah says she told Richard that things needed to change. I said, look, you know what? Please just stop selling drugs. Just get a real job, and we can go settle down. She was like, you really need to chop. He said, look, I can't do that, but I'll compromise. I'll get a part-time job.

But the job, bouncing at a nearby night club, only escalated the drama between Andrew and Richard. He's working on Thursday Friday, Saturday nights, which is the best nights for what they are normally doing. And by the middle of October, two months after moving into the house, the situation had finally become more than Sarah could take. She didn't like fighting, she didn't like disagreements, she didn't like anything like that. I was really concerned about that, so I said something to Richard and said, you know, are you gonna do something about that?

Coming up, Andrew and Trisha's bodies are discovered in a dumpster. We're probably dealing with it with a double homicide. But we're there also two killers. You saw two people loading the bodies end of the truck? In when's the October 25th, 2000. It was around 6 p.m. when a teamsters union employee made a gruesome discovery in a dumpster behind the local headquarters. This person in this case,

you know, totally innocent, innocent, was just a person that found the bodies. The bodies were of a man and a woman. Both had been shot multiple times. It was clear to us that we were probably dealing with it with a double homicide. And based on the wounds, the couple had been killed with a shotgun.

A shotgun was put up right next to his chest and fired and just blew his inside of his chest away. The female victim's injuries were even more horrific. She was shot to her head with a 12-gauge shot gun firing deer slugs, which are big bullets, big lead bullets right into her head. Her whole head was misshapen and it didn't even look like a real person. And that presented the investigators at the scene with a serious

challenge. These individuals, they didn't have any type of identification. The victim's identities may have been a mystery, but did the dead man's pockets contain a clue as to why they died? We did find meth and fedemane, and we thought there's some type of drug involvement. However, if the pair had died in a drug deal gone bad,

it hadn't gone down in the alley where the bodies had been found. Despite the gruesome injuries, the police found little evidence of blood in or around the dumpster. It didn't appear from initial indication that this was the original scene of the murder. They shot him and dumped him in a dumpster just a short distance away. The fact that the victims had been dumped

gave police a potential clue about the killer. It may indicate that there is some type of relationship between the suspect and the victim because they wanted distance themselves from the individual. Either way, the first priority was identifying the bodies, hoping for a hit, the investigators entered both victims' fingerprints into the local police database.

90% of the time, many of our individuals that are victims have been in the system at some time. They did not come up, which was a surprise to us. Stymied at the local level, Indianapolis police turned to the state and federal databases. But those checks would take time. So in the interim, the investigators fell back to a less foolproof form of identification.

Tattoos. They were distinctive tattoos that the victims had. The next morning, pictures of the victims' tattoos and an appeal for the public's help ran on the local news. Soon after, a caller identified the victims as 26-year-old Trisha Nordman and her boyfriend, 25-year-old Andrew Cotaldi. Police were able to piece together who these people were based on their tattoos. By the next afternoon, the FBI database had confirmed Andrew and Trisha's identities and explained whether prints weren't on file locally.

The hits came out of, I believe, lost Vegas, Nevada. So, you know, we were able to contact the authorities back there and get their packets. Neither the caller nor the couple's Nevada file had an Indianapolis address for the victims. But the file did provide something that would be useful. Mug shots. Indianapolis police spent most of that Thursday canvassing the neighborhood with the pictures. We were able to determine that these individuals lived on Michael Street within

a three to four block area from the teamsters local where the dumpster was found. And they hadn't lived alone. According to neighbors, Andrew and Trisha had shared the house for the last two and a half months with another couple.

21-year-old Sarah Pender and her 22-year-old boyfriend Richard Holm. What's more, Sarah and Richard's landlord told police that they had disappeared around the same time as Andrew and Trisha. He hadn't seen their car there for like maybe like a day and a half. Was it a coincidence? The police didn't think so.

There was definite, reasonable suspicion and probable cause for us to obtain a search warrant. The detectives came out and ended up going into the house. And when they into the house. And when they searched the house that afternoon, it didn't take the investigators long to determine that it was also the scene of the crime. They awkwardly placed a couch in the middle of the room like we wouldn't have looked under the couch,

but we moved the couch and definitely saw what we believed to be evidence of where a large amount of blood from either victims was. Soaked into the carpet was on the walls, it was on the couch. Elsewhere in the room, police found more blood stains. A bed had been moved over a big spot of blood that was on the carpet, and that was away from the couch. It was fairly obvious getting into the house, the way the furniture was arranged in this one room, what we believed to be the room where the individuals were killed.

As for who had killed Andrew and Trisha, a picture was beginning to emerge. According to what the neighbors told police, the last they had seen of Richard Hall was Wednesday morning when he'd come around looking to borrow something. He asked to borrow a three-prong into a two-prong plug. Richard Hall, that that Wednesday had rented a rents vac to try to claim the floors and he needed an attachment because he

could not plug the rents vac into the wall. That would be what we call in the business, another clue. Clearly, Hall knew something about the murders. But what about Sarah? Another neighbor whose motorhome was parked behind Sarah and Richard's rental house provided what appeared to be a crucial clue. There was somebody nearby that got up in the middle of the night and looked out and saw two people loading the bodies into the truck. By late Thursday afternoon, barely 24 hours

after Andrew and Trisha's bodies had been discovered. Indianapolis police felt they were close to cracking the case. We've identified these people. They've been identified with the house. The other two roommates haven't been seen. Now, all the police needed to do was find Sarah and her boyfriend. Luckily, Richard Holes' criminal record provided a starting point for the manhunt. Richard's mother's address, the family address of a Noble'sville.

So that's the best address that we have. At 9 p.m., that Thursday evening, Indianapolis investigators and Noble'sville police started surveillance on Richard Hall's family home. The police had only been watching the house a short time when Sarah and Richard arrived. They drove up. we surround the car. Both Sarah and Richard were quickly taken into custody.

They knew who I was because of my past and everything. So they picked me up in front of my house. Cuffton placed in separate squad cars. The couple was driven to the Noble'sville Police Station. Although according to Sarah, she didn't yet realize just how much trouble she was in. I'm thinking I'm going to Dale and possession of marijuana. No, I'm going to Dale and murder charges.

Coming up, Sarah tells the police what happened. I'm going to kill a blood, beginning out as we're the kitchen and out the back doors. But will the police believe her? She wasn't just an innocent bystander. Hey, listener. It is me, Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast gold

in our new episode with David Letterman available four weeks early on one Drupal. It's like a late night talk show hangout, but with a smart list twist. We are diving deep into David Letterman's incredible career in the moments that shaped him into the beloved icon he is today. Our interview with David Letterman was reported live in Brooklyn in front of thousands of our biggest fans from our smart list tour This is the fourth of 10 interviews with new episodes releasing every Thursday

We're talking with celebrities and icons like the great Will Ferrell Kevin Hart Mark Cuban Jimmy Kimmel so many more Join us for an unforgettable conversation that will have you laughing pondering and quite possibly contemplating growing a beard like lettermans I know I have you can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wundry app or on Apple Podcasts. October 27, 2000. At a little past midnight, 21-year-old Sarah Pender and her 22-year-old boyfriend Richard Hall were sitting in separate interrogation rooms at the Noble'sville Indiana Police Department. Suspects and the murders of their housemates, Andrew

Ketoldi and Trisha Nordman. Indianapolis police had picked the pair up a few hours earlier outside the home of Richard's mother. We took them in separate cars to the Noble'sville Police Department where we started our interviews. The police questioned Sarah first, figuring she would be easier to turn. Many times, unless they law you're up, we will work one against the other.

And based on his criminal record, the police suspected Richard Hall had been the shooter. My view was that he probably did pull the trigger. That's basically what Sarah said in the interrogation room, too. According to Sarah, Richard and Andrew had been arguing about money and drugs shortly before the shooting. Tired of their fighting, Sarah said she had stepped out. I walked around the neighborhood, I decided, okay, I'm going to go get some cigarettes

and just know whatever. Sarah told police that by the time she had returned home, Richard was already loading up the bodies. I want to ask myself, what happened? And he's like, shut up and get the truck. I'm just running out of it, I'm getting the truck. Sarah said she had been too scared to ask questions. All I could see was like these black pupils.

It must've been from all the adrenaline, but I could see was like these black pupils. It must have been from all the adrenaline, but I mean, I saw these black eyes. And immediately, though, one clear thought I had was, oh, I'm about to die. She told police she got up and went to work on the morning of October 25th. But when she got home that evening, Sarah said she had told

Richard she couldn't stay in a house where two people had just been killed. They got a motel room outside of an apples and stayed there overnight. Meanwhile, in the neighboring interrogation room, Richard was largely confirming Sarah's story. They start interrogating him and he confesses. Although according to his confession, Richard had shot Andrew and Trisha in self-defense. Richard Hall and his statement had indicated that he confronted Katoly because some of the things Katoly was saying

and threatening Richard Hall's family. This is what Hall said, that they struggled over the shotgun. The detectives didn't buy it, especially since Trisha had been shot point blank in the face. How do you explain self-defense when you look at the cold blood and murder of Trisha Nordman? By the end of the day, the detectives had charged Richard Hall with the double murder

of Andrew Cotaldi and Trisha Nordman. But with her statement essentially confirmed by her boyfriend's confession, Sarah was set free. They're treating me as a key witness or whatever, and they let me go. Sarah's penders' statement place made sense at that point. She just got hooked up with the wrong guy. Just how wrong was quickly becoming apparent

as the crime scene text continued to piece together what had happened inside the house. Preliminary testing of the blood found at the scene revealed that it was Andrew Cataldi's blood on the floor by the bed. He wasn't sitting on the bed because the blood was on the floor away from the bed. And it was Trisha Nordman's blood that the police had found

underneath the couch. Trisha Nordman, who was just sitting on the couch when she was obliterated. Meanwhile, Andrews autopsy provided a few more chilling details about the killings. The pathologist told me that the angle of the shot was 30 degrees, meaning the Andrew Cotoldy had to have been on his knees when he was shot.

Later that day, the investigators searched the hotel where Sarah and Richard had been staying. Inside, they found the murder weapon and more. We find the receipts that come back to the Walmart. According to the date on the receipt, the shotgun had been purchased the day before the murders. But the bigger surprise was who had made the purchase. If Sarah was simply an innocent bystander,

what was she doing buying the murder weapon? She's a lot deeper in it than we thought. And then there was the fact that Sarah admitted she had gone to work the morning after the murders, spending the day at her desk, while Richard was busy cleaning up the crime scene. Why wouldn't you tell somebody? Why wouldn't you get away from Richard all?

That's some of the stuff that made me think, we didn't take a closer look at this woman. The investigators went to Sarah's office and questioned her co-workers. Strangely, they said she had seemed upbeat, even happy the morning after the murders. They had killed the roommates. Why would you be happy about that?

Did one of Sarah's co-workers have the answer? Sarah, two to three days before the murder, told a co-worker that she was just tired of Trisha Nordman and Andrew Catoldy living there. And she wanted to get him out, get rid of him. The more that we got into it, and she was the one that I kind of think was the mastermind behind this thing.

She went just an innocent bystander. She had arranged the whole thing and participated in it and may have been involved in the actual shooting itself. On Saturday, October 28, the investigators contacted Sarah and asked her to come into the Indianapolis station, taken into an interrogation room and read her rights, Sarah agreed to talk.

I don't have anything to hide. In the taped interview, she once again walked the detectives through the events leading up to the murders. According to Sarah, she and Richard had started the evening by visiting her father. You know, he goes out with my dad, I go out with my stepmom, everything's great. But Sarah said that things took a turn for the worse when she and Richard arrived home. As soon as we walk in the door, coming home, it's almost like 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night. Drew is right on him. Drew and was feeling tricky about something? And it did with a phone.

Then, as the argument grew more heated, Sarah said that Richard had asked her to leave. He says, look, you don't have to go round for this. This ain't ugly. Sarah told the police she had readily agreed. I didn't want to be around when they were arguing. So I went for a walk. According to Sarah, she had returned to find that the front door had been locked behind her,

and she didn't have her key. She didn't understand why, and the front door was locked, and she went around back. When I walked around the back door, there was a huge trail of blood. she went around back. When I walked around the back door, there was a large trailer blood that appeared to be blood. I got to make out through the kitchen and out the back door. Despite the blood, Sarah said she had gone inside.

You know, in every horror film, there's always some really stupid white girl that follows the trailer blood into the house. I swear to God, that's real. That's me Sarah claimed the blood trail had been from Andrew Kataldi's body, which was already on the trunk Looking back, I think might sound like how could I be so stupid? And when she walked in the house Sarah said she had found Richard dragging Trisha's body toward the door dragging Trisha's body toward the door. We're getting a lot of attention on the ground. And they say it told me that you were going to go in.

And I'm trying to talk to him. And I just, I didn't know what to do. Sarah told the police that she had only done what she needed to do to survive. Whatever it happened was going to happen to me. That's what I was afraid of. And at that moment, I thought, if I ally myself with him, then I'm not a threat, then I'll be OK. But what about the murder weapon?

The shotgun that Sarah had purchased just days before the shooting. According to Sarah, that had been Richard's idea. We had talked about making approaches for some time, but he had suggested that we go and we should do this weekend. As for why Sarah had made the purchase herself, she had already explained. He told me that something about it

has been allowed to buy it. Sarah protested her innocence in vain, however. The investigators remain convinced that Sarah was far from the victim of circumstance. She claimed to be. We know that she is having a problem with them both. There was definitely enough problem caused to believe that she was a part of the murder.

At the end of the interview, the investigators took Sarah into custody. By that afternoon, she had been booked into the Marion County jail on a pair of first-degree murder charges. Never once in my mind did I ever think that I was going to be arrested for murder, or that I even had anything to do with this. She thought that if she told them the truth, that everything, you know, yes, that she'd be in trouble,

but, you know, she wouldn't be in trouble for the murders. And that wasn't the case. It was just such a huge blow. I mean, it really knocked everybody off their feet and kind of threw everyone for a loop. Coming up, Sarah stands trial. And she says, I'm not bleeding guilty to something I didn't do. And Richard betrays her.

So you indicated that Sarah Pender had been awaiting trial in a Marion County, Indiana, jail for almost two years. Accused of killing her former housemates Andrew Cotaldi and Trishon Nordman, Sarah had pled not guilty to the murder charges. They wanted her to plead guilty to, you know, even a lesser charge. And she says, I'm not pleading guilty to something I didn't do. Besides, she figured the murder charges were merely leveraged to ensure her cooperation against the man Sara said

was the real culprit. Her boyfriend, 24-year-old, Richard home. I think what they were doing was over-targing me in order to get me to turn on him fully. Instead, it was Richard who turned on Sarah. In January of 2002, a little more than six months before Sarah's trial was scheduled to begin, her boyfriend had made a deal with the prosecutors. He was plead guilty to murdering both Trish and Ordmond and Andrew Cotaldi.

He was going to say he was an accessory to it and then actually pulled a trigger. And Richard allegedly had proof. When his attorney approached the prosecutors about the plea, he also presented them with a letter. Because he had indicated that Sarah Pender had written this letter to him, based upon the contents of the letter, it was pretty apparent that at least somebody was holding themselves out to be Sarah Pender if it wasn't Sarah Pender.

And if Sarah had written the letter, what it said was explosive. And this letter basically said, thank you, you know, implicating her in the crime, where she took responsibility for the killings. Now the story is, and this letter is, that I shot them in some drug-induced rage, and that he was this great savior

to go and clean everything up for me and take the rap. And I'm just so grateful. Sarah did write to Richard in prison, but she says the letter in question was not from her. He had a buddy of his in June, for a letter in my print. But when Sarah's trial began on July 22, the prosecutor was prepared to make it the cornerstone of his case.

This letter came the closest to maybe the truth of anything that was seen. In his opening statement, prosecutor Larry Sell said that it ultimately didn't matter whether Sarah had actually shot Andrew Cotoldy and Trisha Nordman. Sarah Pender was primarily responsible for what happened, because she either pulled the trigger, or she manipulated Richard Hall and got him to. According to the prosecutor, Sarah wanted Andrew and Trisha out of the house, and she

convinced Richard to kill them and dispose of their bodies. Larry cells just totally made it out to be like I was this awful evil manipulative person that made this man do it. But would the jury believe that the pretty young woman was capable of such a horrendous crime? Andrew Cotoldy and Trisha Nordman were just shot point blank with a 12-gauge shotgun. It's hard to believe that this innocent-looking, mild-mannered young woman Sarah Pender sitting there at the fence table to actually participate in that. In his open, Sarah's defense attorney

told the jury that his client appeared innocent because she was innocent. He said that his client was only guilty of trusting the wrong man. And they've argued that she wasn't even there at the time. And when she got back, there was nothing but blood and bodies in the house. And she was stunned and scared

and forced to help clean up them. And the letter? According to the defense, it was a forgery. What Richard Hall hoped would be his get out of jail free-cord. The defense attorney tried to tell the jury, hey, this letter's a fake, he made it. He has nothing but time, so he forged it

while he was in jail. When the state started presenting its case that afternoon, the prosecutors faced one big hurdle, proving that their key piece of evidence was genuine. Because of the fact this letter did not surface for months after the murder, there would be some question about who had authored the letter.

One person wouldn't face those questions, however. It was the man the letter was supposedly addressed to, Richard Hull. I wasn't at her trial at all. I didn't want to put him on a witness stand because I had questions about his credibility as well. Instead, the prosecution's key witness was a handwriting expert who had compared the letter to samples of Sarah's writing. Our handwriting experts determined that even though it was printed

rather than cursive, that Sarah Pender was the author of that document. As for the murder itself, just whose finger had been on the trigger didn't really matter according to the prosecution. If somebody helps somebody committed an offense, they're just as yellow as a person that did it. The prosecution claimed Sarah had been in the house on the night at the murders, however, as proof, they called one of Sarah's neighbors to the stand. He testified to seeing two people loading the bodies onto a trunk in the early

morning hours of October 25, 2000. Sarah and Richard Holmer, they're only two people they're alive. So Sarah had to be involved in that. When the defense began its case on July 24, Sarah's attorneys did the only thing they could do to defend their client. Try and cast doubt on the prosecution's primary piece of evidence

and the man who had provided it. They knew that we were going to use that letter, so attacked that letter. They knew that we were not going to put Richard Hall in a witness stand, so attacked the fact that we didn't do that. But did that mean the defense was prepared to put Sarah on the stand to rebut the prosecution's claims

that she had orchestrated the murder? The answer was no. They could not put Sarah Pender on a witness stand. Absolutely could not, because we would have eaten her alive. Of course, Sarah could have overridden the wishes of her attorneys and testified anyway, but she didn't. My parents said, shut up and trust the lawyers. So of course, I shut up and I trust the lawyers.

When the case went to the jury at noon on July 25, the prosecutor was confident he had proved his case. If the evidence shows that the burial issues and accessory, that's enough. Sarah felt equally confident that the jury wouldn't be swayed by what she claimed was a forged confession. Assisting a criminal, that's where I was guilty of. I thought, I'm going home with time served or I'll get some probation. Coming up, Sarah awaits her faint.

I am willing to take responsibility for my actions. And the jury makes its decision. They probably think that's justice. In In Dianna, Bliss, Indiana, July 25, 2002. After only three hours of deliberations, the jury announced it had reached a verdict in the murder trial of Sarah Pender. Accused of masterminding the murders of housemates Andrew Cotaldi and Trisha Nordman, Sarah claimed her boyfriend Richard Hull was the real culprit. I didn't know that it wasn't happening.

I didn't plan it. Nothing. He was the one that shot Drew and Trish. But the prosecutors had argued that Sarah was the one to blame. She was the driving force, the schemer, the manipulator. She's the one that convinced Richard Hall to assist her. Which side did the jury believe? As she watched the jurors file back into the courtroom,

Sarah figured the short deliberations were assigned in her favor. I thought I'm gonna get some probation. I'm gonna go home and eat lasagna, and I was so happy. But then the clerk read the verdict. Guilty of two counts of first degree murder. I felt apart. I had no understanding. Why?

Why? You know, when I just kept thinking, you know, how can God let this happen? How can these people not see what has happened? And, um... It was so...it was so surreal surreal because I didn't expect it. Sarah's family was equally stunned. Guilty on both counts. It, it just, I didn't understand it.

They didn't know my daughter. And they called her something evil. And that is the further thing from the truth. At her sentencing hearing on August 22, 2002, the prosecutor even compared Sarah to the mass murderer Charles Manson. She may not have been involved in the deaths of as many people as Charles Manson was,

but he certainly had the ability to control people that would commit horrific acts. The judge sent in Sarah to two consecutive terms of 50 and 60 years each. Now she's doing 110 years in prison. She'd never really get out. Five months later, Sarah's former boyfriend, Richard Hull, pled guilty for his role in the murders.

He received two 45-year sentences, also to be served consecutively. If you believe the prosecutors, they probably think that's justice. But Sarah Pender remains adamant that Richard killed Andrew Cotaldi and Trishon Nordman, and all she did was help him dispose of the bodies. I am willing to take responsibility for my actions. I have a firm day and one I have. It's not fair that I pay for someone else's actions. And there's a lot of people just like me who did things

that they shouldn't have done, but then they get convicted of things that they didn't do done, but then they get convicted of things that they didn't do because they weren't perfect people. In 2003, Richard Hall admitted to forging the prison letter and criminating Sarah. Despite Richard's admissions, Sarah's appeals were denied. In 2008, Sarah escaped from prison. She was captured for a month later. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing, music playing Keith Morrison and Dateline NBC are bringing you a haunting new podcast called Mommy Doomsday.

The disappearance of two of Lori Vallow's children in Rexburg, Idaho in September 2019 was one of the most bizarre cases the country had ever seen. It left behind a trail of death, devotion, and doomsday beliefs that captivated the nation. Listen to Mommy Doomsday from Dateline NBC, wherever you get your podcasts.