Sword and Scale - Episode 152

Episode Date: December 8, 2019

This is the exciting conclusion of the Sheila Davalloo Story. If you haven’t listened to part one go back one episode and start there.The leads in Anna Lisa Raymundo’s murder investigatio...n were dead ends… that is until Sheila Davalloo tries to kill her husband. During the attempted murder Sheila makes a phone call, but not to 911. That phone number leads the police to a common thread in both investigations… Nelson Sessler.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I think the guy is attacked my motor. Hello and welcome to season 6, episode 152 and part 2 of the Sheila Dabbaloo story. This is Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. So as you heard in the intro, this is part 2 of a two-part story, so if you have not heard the first part, go back and listen to episode 151, otherwise you'll be a little lost.
Starting point is 00:00:54 In that episode, we told you about the story of Sheila Davalu, who viciously stabbed her fiance during a sex game, and when that didn't take, she kept stabbing him in the hospital parking lot. You may think she's a monster, but you haven't heard anything yet. Now, be patient because it's going to take a while to get there, but if you listen carefully, there's a big payoff at the end. I promise. One or a mind you one more time that Sword and Scale Daily featuring true crime news from around the country and around the globe is available right now in Apple podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Please search for sword and scale daily and
Starting point is 00:01:33 subscribe to the podcast with the baby blue cover art. I think you're gonna like it. The end of a raging volcanic love plunges my heart into a torrent of tears. And my soul into a blizzard of cries. I want to scream and shout not only my pain, but the pain of caged generations. Yet something sings melodically to me, and beckons me to listen, with the hope of transformation and healing of my unspeakable pain into beautiful music that only those who have been broken on the wheels of life are able to hear. War months previous to the attempted murder of Paul Christos, Mir Miles away in Connecticut, Nelson Zessler arrived at his fiancee's apartment after work to find it swarming with various police officials. At first, he thought
Starting point is 00:03:07 there had been a robbery or a fire, but to his shock and disbelief, he instead found out that his fiance was murdered. He couldn't get through the police tape so he calmly asked the closest officer if he could get through. The officer gave him the usual spiel about crime scene integrity, assuming that he was an impatient tenant that wanted to get in. Nelson tried to call the on say, Annalisa, but got no answer. Then he beckoned the officer again saying that it was his fiance's apartment, and he couldn't get her on the phone. Anna-Lisa Remundo had it all. She was a gorgeous 32-year-old Filipina, a daughter of two successful doctors, with whom she had a close relationship. Annalisa phoned her mother, a retired pediatrician, twice a day on a regular basis to stay in
Starting point is 00:04:10 touch. And when her parents visited, her father, Reinato, also a physician, helped her tidy up around the house. The family was tight-knit. Her parents and siblings all played an important role in her life. Not only was Annalisa blessed with an affluent and loving family, but she also possessed a beauty that attracted the attention of many, and a personality that was captivating. She was intelligent, witty, and charming. This made her the center of attention at almost every event she attended.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Who can resist a beautiful, smart, successful young woman? Annalisa Ramondo. She's a very well-educated woman with a doctorate of both her parents were doctors. And she's just this quiet person who is dating this guy, Nelson Sessler, who works for Purdue Pharma and himself is a well-educated man. And she's dreaming of a white picket fence of riding off into the sunset with Nelson and having a family, having a house, having kids, you know, that sort of thing. So she's really just a normal woman who wants to get married, have kids, have a dog, have a house, and she's got a very, very good job and she's very smart.
Starting point is 00:05:36 The luxury waterfront condominium, Annalisa lived in was a privilege she earned for herself through hard work and long study hours. Sort of. She graduated from Harvard with her undergrad and got her master's degree in Columbia. Her parents were so proud of her, they agreed to purchase the calando for her as a reward. Because of her sharp mind and degrees from very well-respected universities, Annalisa landed a job working at a pharmaceutical research company called Purdue Pharma, which is headquartered in Stanford, Connecticut, and is owned by one of America's wealthiest families with a combined net worth of over $13 billion.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Back in 2007, Purdue Pharmacet, shall we say, a record for the largest fine ever levied against a pharmaceutical firm. They paid out $600 million in the settlement, one of the largest settlements in American history. The lawsuit against them claimed that they misled the public regarding the addictive nature of oxy-contin. Several executives in the company were charged with felonies and paid out additional fines as a result of their actions and involvement with the debacle. Over the last decade, Purdue Pharma has been trying to repair their public image,
Starting point is 00:07:11 trying to convince the American public that they are not responsible for the opioid crisis, all the while continuing to bring in tens of billions of dollars in revenue per year. Annalisa's salary working at Purdue, a colossal corporate entity, allowed her to afford the beautiful condo she lived in in Stanford. Though she paid the rest of her living expenses like utilities and tax, she didn't have to foot the bill for rent or a mortgage because, again, her parents took care of the entire cost of the condo for her. Them some good parrots.
Starting point is 00:07:50 So her parents bought this condominium for in a, what is a, you know, Stanford Connecticut is pretty exclusive in some respects. It's a huge financial district in Connecticut that is very close to New York City. So a lot of the big financial companies are downtown and there's waterfront property and this condo was right near the Atlantic Ocean in a beautiful place. Very wealthy people around boats, yots. It was definitely an exclusive part of town. And not that Annalisa Ramundo was an exclusive type of elite person.
Starting point is 00:08:30 She didn't think of herself in that way, but she lived in a nice area in a beautiful condominium. Connecticut is a very expensive state to live in, to begin with. And if you want to live somewhere clean and safe, maybe even with some extra amenities like a pool, you're going to have to shell out a hefty amount of cash. The gated community complex Analyse Alimpton called Palmer Landing is not just safe and clean. It's nestled next to Long Island Sound. For those unfamiliar with the area, Long Island sailed as a tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, meaning the freshwater from many rivers flow into the ocean tides, creating a brackish body of water that separates Connecticut to the north and Long Island
Starting point is 00:09:18 to the south. Huge opulent boats are docked right next to condos, allowing those who are lucky enough to live there, a great view of the water and amateur marinas. Back in the early 2000s, these condos sold for $300 to $400,000. Rhett could have been upwards of $2,500 a month. Currently, condos and Palmer landing sell for $600,000 to $700,000 with Rhett higher than $4,000 a month. Currently, condos and Palmer landing suffer $600-$700,000 with rent higher than $4,000 a month. Shit, I can't even afford that. The Ray Mundo's loved their daughter and were proud of her accomplishments, so purchasing a comfortable place for her to live was nothing to them. It was a no-brainer.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Like M. William Phelps mentioned, Annalisa was not single. In the late fall of 2000, early in her career at Purdue, Annalisa met a man named Nelson Cessler at work. They were both fairly new to the company, trying to make their way into whatever clique bit their personalities, searching for a friend group. And when they crossed paths, they immediately clicked. Their friendship quickly turned into casual dating, and Annalisa was smitten. But we all know how new relationships go sometimes. People can hide their true intentions and real personalities until it's too late.
Starting point is 00:10:51 Nelson wasn't the person Annalisa thought he was. At her mind, she had an image of a person she wanted as a life partner, and at first, it seemed that Nelson fit the mold perfectly. Altra, charismatic people, are really great at morphing themselves to fit the needs of whoever they have their sights set on. And that's exactly what Nelson's Sessler did. I mean, Nelson's Sessler is... He's an over-chiebred type of guy. He's a place sports. He's tall. He's an over-achiever type of guy. He's a sports, he's tall, he's good looking. He's got a great job with Purdue Pharma,
Starting point is 00:11:29 one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, really. And everybody asked me about Nelson, and Nelson is really an enigma. The two successful young people were drawn to each other's ambition and drive. They were in the same league, one could say. Both attractive and on the road to a mid-six-figure career.
Starting point is 00:11:55 Nelson lived not far from Annalisa Ramondo in Stanford in kind of like a apartment complex where he stayed with a couple of other guys, and there were other apartments in the same building. So, you know, he didn't live with her, but he was over there and awful lot. He never officially moved out of his apartment. Never cut ties with his fellow bachelors and his beloved bachelors pad. Maybe because moving out and moving in with Annalisa would make the relationship a little too real for him. He kept all this stuff over at her place and spent the night three to four nights a week, but continued paying rent at his other apartment.
Starting point is 00:12:40 In Annalisa's eyes, these frequent sleepovers were the next step towards a serious long-term relationship she so desired. Yes, she was a career-oriented woman, but she dreamed of someday getting married and having children. She hoped this would be the path her life would soon take, with Nelson. Annalisa and Nelson decided to keep their relationship under wraps among colleagues, not wanting any awkwardness to arise in the burgeoning stages of their relationship. Despite their secrecy towards the outside world and their co-workers, the relationship
Starting point is 00:13:25 seemed to be continuing to move in an intimate direction, when Nelson accompanied Annalisa to her sister Bernadette's wedding in Michigan. The event allowed Annalisa to introduce Nelson to her very large, extended family. Meeting the parents is one thing, but meeting the great odds and uncles and cousins and grand parents. Hell, that's pretty serious. Throughout the beginning of their relationship, the little voice in the back of Annalise's mind kept warning her that she should tread lightly when it came to trusting Nelson.
Starting point is 00:13:59 She was continually worried that Nelson was afraid to commit. He wavered back and forth sending her mixed signals about wanting to be together long-term, even after he began staying with her at her condo on a nightly basis. In an attempt to mollify her anxieties, Nelson made sure to dangle the proverbial carrot by whining and dining her and telling her all the things she wanted to hear. 100% Nelson Sessler gave the impression to Annalisa Romando and her family, who he met
Starting point is 00:14:35 several times, who he socialized with at Anacister's wedding. He gave the impression that he was the guy. He know, he was the guy that she was gonna marry. They were a couple. That's the impression he gave. When you look at this on paper, that's the impression he gives. That he is with Annalisa Romando, they're engaged or gonna be engaged soon,
Starting point is 00:15:00 and they're starting a life together. How would I describe the difference in personalities of Annalisa Ramondo and Nelson Sessler? Well, in many ways, I would describe their personalities as the same personalities that got along, that wanted the same things, but in many ways, I would describe them as different, whereas Annalisa was a homebody.
Starting point is 00:15:29 She was a mother in the making, if you will. She was a professional who was dedicated to her work and saw herself as being with this guy for the rest of her life, whereas Nelson was, he was dedicated to his work, smart guy, moving up in that company, but he wasn't all in. You know, he was not all in with Annalisa. About a month after Bernadette's wedding, Nelson and Annalisa decided to make their relationship
Starting point is 00:15:59 a bit more public, letting some of their friends in on the secret. They planned to go out on the town with a group of colleagues and what would be their first public outing as a couple among those in their professional circle. Annalyces friends sat around the table at the restaurant waiting for the couple to arrive. They were a few minutes late, which wasn't out of the ordinary. But soon, five minutes turned to ten. And ten minutes turned to a half hour. They called the phone at her condo at 7.30.
Starting point is 00:16:39 An hour after the group had agreed to meet at the restaurant. They did not get an answer. So they left a voicemail and they called again at 8 leaving another voicemail. Her friend Christine figured that if she didn't answer her home phone, she must be on the way over, so they waited some more. When Annalisa and Nelson did not arrive, the group thought it was a tad bit odd, but they weren't that worried. Christine suggested that they stop at Annalisa's condo to see if she was home, but they decided against it, and all went back to their respective homes. As a whole, the group called Annalisa's phone over 25 times during the course of the night, trying to get an answer.
Starting point is 00:17:33 Earlier that same day before anyone was even thinking about the upcoming dinner reservation, a call came in to 911 dispatch from near Palmer Landing. when it does happen. I saw a guy going to the apartment and I'm in 106th part of the view. So, 1.3rd of view. 1.26th part of view. 1.23th
Starting point is 00:18:17 part of view. Okay, don't yell because then I can't understand you. 1.23th part of view. Listen to me. 1.23th part of view. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One more. One Okay, can you tell me what the guy looks like? What does he look like? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Starting point is 00:18:48 Okay, what are you going to do if hello? The caller hung up the phone, and in fact had gotten the location wrong. She gave dispatch several different addresses, none of which were correct. Anneliese lived at 123 Harbor Drive, apartment 105, not 123 Harbor View. Maybe this was a distant neighbor, someone who lived in a different condo building. Despite the confusion, police were dispatched
Starting point is 00:19:18 to the area immediately. Now, since Sessla shows up at the condominium. I don't know. Somewhere in the neighborhood of five, six o'clock. I'm not sure on exact time. He shows up because he is supposed to meet with Annalisa that night, and they're supposed to either go out or have dinner in or do something together. When he shows up, there's a mobile crime scene van in front of Annalisa's door. There's dozens of state police and there's staffer police crawling around. There's crime scene tapes set up and he sees state police and local staffer police going in and
Starting point is 00:20:23 out of Annalisa Rwando's door. Before Nelson arrived, the two police officers first on the scene pulled into the Palmer Landing parking lot and climbed the steps leading to Annalisa's front door. They knocked on the door of Unit 105, expecting to interrupt a domestic dispute. When they got no answer, they rang the doorbell and waited. Still, they heard nothing. No one opened the door, so they tried the door knob to see if it was locked. The front door was unlocked, so the two officers slowly pushed it open. They announced their presence, but still no answer. They pushed the door open a little further, and immediately noticed the apartment was incomplete to Saray.
Starting point is 00:21:13 The condo, according to Nelson, was always kept very clean, not by him, of course, but Annalisa spent a lot of time tidying up and organizing, which was a benefit to being with her. What the officers witnessed when they stepped inside, however, was the exact opposite. Broken glass from wine bottles, soil from potted plants, books over turned furniture, and a toppled over a laundry basket, even a 10 pound dumbbell, among other things, line the hall. This was a clear indication of some sort of violent struggle. Even more obvious due to the immense amount of blood, red pools, splatters, and smears covered the tile flooring and the walls. It resembled a Jackson Pollock painting, or a grotesque over-the-top scene of a horror movie. As the officers opened the door completely,
Starting point is 00:22:15 they saw a body collapsed in a pool of its own blood, just a few feet from the door. Right away, oh my God, a woman on the floor, and there's blood all over the place, and she's obviously dead. That's easy to tell, because there's a barbell next to her, and it's got blood on it, and hair on it, and there's massive amounts of blood on her clothing and on the floor and there's smears of blood and there's you know so there was a struggle and this woman is dead and that's what they see it's horrific it's a horrific scene. Annalisa was sprawled out on the floor one leg leaning on a box bleeding profusely from the head and face area. Her shiny black
Starting point is 00:23:08 hair was in a bloody, matted mess around her head. Some of it stuck to the white tile, cemented by her own blood. She had all of her clothes on, which made a sexual assault seem less likely. But the amount of blood spatter and smears indicated that Annalisa really fought for her life. She was bleeding during and after the altercation. The fight, being how blood ended up all over the walls and the floor, whoever attacked her was very, very angry. The crime was easily categorized as overkill. This crime scene needed to be treated with extreme caution, and there was an indescribable amount of minuscule evidence that had to be collected.
Starting point is 00:24:03 Richard Conklin, one of the detectives there on scene, you know, told me, I'll never forget him telling me when I interviewed him, this crime scene was immense because there was so much blood and there was so many things that had been spilled over and broken. And one thing that stood out to them was that there was blood down the hallway into the bathroom and that's why they called in the state police. The state police has a forensic mobile crime lab that they can just park up next to the scene and start going at it and you know sure enough that that pays off for them after about 24 hours of digging into that crime scene.
Starting point is 00:24:46 When Nelson arrived on the scene and asked officers what was going on, they wanted to know who he was. As soon as he explained that he was Anilisa's boyfriend, they sprang into action. So stand for police, of course, who are really leading this investigation, want to talk to Nelson Cessler. If he's the boyfriend, I like to say that, you know, when you have a victim of murder, if that's the bullseye, the first ring around that person is everybody that person knows. So, Nelson Sessler is, of course, on top of that list because he's dating her.
Starting point is 00:25:23 So, you know, they ask him, hey, we wanna talk to you, we wanna ask you some questions. And so they find this place in back of the condo, which is like a common room, if you will, for the condominium. And they bring them in there, and they swim down. And what they notice right away is his affect,
Starting point is 00:25:41 his character, how he's acting, or how shall I say, how he's not acting, and how is he not acting? Well, they deliver the news to him that his girlfriend, his fiance, has been murdered, she's dead. And he doesn't break down, he doesn't, oh my God, who did this, what's going on?
Starting point is 00:26:04 Oh my God, let me get up there I want to see her body. He doesn't he doesn't start doing what? Normally people would do in the situation. He kind of just sits and says, oh jeez, okay And while they're talking to him one of the detectives notices that he has a cut on his hand. That's interesting In the eyes of the Stamford Police Department, Nelson was an immediate person of interest. The boyfriend always is, after all. They didn't want to totally remove him from the scene of the crime, but they wanted Nelson within reach to keep an eye on his behavior and question him as needed.
Starting point is 00:26:44 His clothing appeared clean, but again he could have changed. Nelson recounted several different versions of that morning. Friday, November 8th, 2002. One version was he and Raymondo had sex, then he took a shower and went to work. In another version, he and Rhe Mundo had sex, took a shower together, then he went to work. A third version had Cessler and Rhe Mundo having sex, Cessler taking a shower, Rhe Mundo joining him, Rhe Mundo sitting on her bed, knitting, and Cessler going to work. A fourth version had Cessler and Rhe Mundo having version had Cessler and Ray Mundo having sex, Cessler taking a shower, Ray Mundo joining Cessler in the shower, Ray Mundo sitting on her bed in a
Starting point is 00:27:32 towel knitting and Cessler playing guitar, writing down some lyrics, then leaving her work. Cessler says he drove to the donut delight drive-through from Ray Mundo's a little after 9am. He arrived at work shortly after that and remained there until a little after 5pm when he returned to Ray Mundo's residence. Annalisa had just begun a new job with a different pharmaceutical company called Pharmacia and had arranged to work from home on Fridays. Nelson kissed her goodbye and took off to the local coffee and donut shop down the road before his day at the office. He said he pulled into the Purdue Pharma employee parking lot, got out, scanned his key card, and entered the office, then made
Starting point is 00:28:20 his way up to the seventh floor. The key cards issued to each employee tracked every single person's movement. Every time they arrived and left the office, and in some cases, even certain rooms inside the building kept the record of movements. He claimed that he attended a lecture downstairs during lunchtime, grabbed some food from the cafeteria, and went back up to his desk. In the afternoon, he remembered hearing his desk phone ring a couple of times. It was the number for Anilisa's condo. He didn't have a chance to answer before the ring stopped, and she didn't leave a voicemail. He figured it was probably an accident, and if she needed something, she would call
Starting point is 00:29:05 back. He explained he went about his day as normal, then he drove to meet with Annalisa, so they could attend their dinner reservations together. That's when he pulled into the Palmer Landing Lot and was blindsided by a hoard of cops. So you have the way he's responding to the news, you have the cut on his hand, and immediately they think he could have done this. And that's how they start approaching after that. They keep them there for, you know, a good period of time, and what's interesting to me is, which tells me a lot about this motherfucker, is that when they go back about, I don't know, an hour or so after they first talk to them,
Starting point is 00:29:48 to talk to them again, and they leave them alone in there. They leave a cop outside the room. He's sleeping. So here's a guy who's just been told his, the woman he loves, the woman he's been with for a long period of time, the woman he's supposed to marry, the woman he's come over to go out to eat with that night and to spend the night with has been murdered and this fucker
Starting point is 00:30:12 sleeping. So that of course produces law enforcement to even look further at him and say, you know, whoa, this isn't the way people generally respond to a loved one who's been murdered. You could look at his reaction a couple of different ways. As an investigative journalist, I would look at his reaction, of course, one that he has involvement, or two that he just doesn't give a shit. Some people are like that, you know, I mean, hey, there's people out in the world who just don't give a shit. I mean, you look at social media today, you look at the world we live in today, and there's plenty of people who just don't give a fuck about other people.
Starting point is 00:30:55 Okay, so I would look at it those two ways, but I would also look at it is, geez, maybe Nelson Sessler is hiding something, you know? Maybe he's hiding information. When the state medical examiner finally got a chance to inspect Annalisa's mangled body, there were a number of injuries to make note of. She had been bludgeoned over the head multiple times, endured nine stab wounds to the face, left cheek, neck, and shoulder area. There was a puncture
Starting point is 00:31:34 wound behind her ear, elacerationed the back of her head, but the injury that put an end to her life was a stab wound to the chest. The one that not only punctured her lung, but went so deep that it sliced her pulmonary artery and the rear rib cage. One can only imagine what Annalisa went through. There was no sign of forced entry, so the person who attacked her must have been someone
Starting point is 00:32:04 she knew or was comfortable with. The stab wounds were all to the front of Annalisa's body, which confirmed that this was not a case of someone sneaking into the condo and attacking her from behind. This person, someone she must have known, engaged Annalisa in a fight to the death. She was hit with objects in her own home. Her own dumbbell was used against her, being smashed into her skull, over and over again. The brawl spanned across almost the entire home, blood drenching surfaces in multiple rooms, and down the hall all the way down to the bathroom. Now since Cessler's reaction to the news of his girlfriend's brutal murder was telling
Starting point is 00:33:04 for investigators. But we'll let you in on some information the police didn't have yet. Nelson, get this, was having an affair, maybe even with more than one woman. That's just the kind of guy he was. Nelson Sessley, you have to understand. And I think it's clear in the book implicitly without coming out and saying it, but he's with Annalisa Romundo,
Starting point is 00:33:34 who is like the perfect wife on paper and everything, right? She's the perfect woman that he should marry, right? So he's with her. He's quasi- quasi engaged to her. They've been dating for a while, a long time. They met at Purdue Pharma. She left Purdue Pharma, went to work somewhere else, and they continued to date.
Starting point is 00:33:56 He continued to visit her and sleep at that condominium. Meanwhile, he's dating somebody else also, but he's not really with them. And he knows this woman is not wife material. He's dating her or he's banging her, I should say, right? Whereas with Annalisa, he's going over there for dinners, he's watching TV with her, he's doing all the things that you would do with someone in a relationship. Nelson had this perfect, intelligent, successful woman on his arm, ready to commit to him, and he was out messing around on her.
Starting point is 00:34:34 Maybe his strange reaction to the news of her murder was a result of his guilt, or maybe it was the anxiety that police may find something out about his infidelity, giving him a motive. Could Annalisa have found out about his betrayals and threatened to leave? Maybe they got into a fight about his cheating, and that got out of control and resulted in her bloody death. And detectives I interviewed who were in the room tell me, you know, this guy is acting like he doesn't give a shit. bloody death. Police began to break down the crime scene, put together pieces from the statements they
Starting point is 00:35:20 got from Nelson the Cessler and other witnesses, and their next task was to find the person who made the 911 call. The call that alerted authorities to the crime and prompted them to drive over to Analyse's apartment that day. The call came in from the Duchess restaurant about half a mile down the street from Palmer Landing. The caller had used a pay phone and didn't offer a name when talking to dispatch. All they said was that they were a neighbor of Annalises, a friend. They couldn't have been a close friend of hers because they didn't know Anna's name. They didn't even recite her a dress correctly. Listen again as we play a part of the call. When did this happen? When?
Starting point is 00:36:07 I saw a guy going to her apartment and I was 106th, part of the view. What? 123th, part of view. 126th, part of view. 123th, part of view. Okay, don't yell because then I can't understand you. 123th, part of view. Police tried to track down the caller by speaking with Annelisa's neighbors. The caller claimed to be a neighbor after all, so that was the most logical place to start.
Starting point is 00:36:55 Everyone they spoke to denied calling the police and denied hearing anything odd coming from Annelisa's apartment that day. When the case was a few days underway, a couple of Hispanic landscapers came to the police, claiming they didn't approach anyone sooner because they were fearful of cops. They told investigators that on the day of Annalisa's murder, they saw two men standing outside of her apartment
Starting point is 00:37:21 near a box truck, waiting for something. That's all the information they had, but it was confirmed the 911 caller was claiming she had seen a man going into Anneliese's apartment and subsequently heard him attacking her. Police had little to no luck tracking down any of the information from these leads. Just two more dead ends in this investigation. Really it turns into a mystery this case for Stanford PD and the state police.
Starting point is 00:37:56 The state police really do the forensic side of it where the Stanford PD, they do the investigative side of it and boy did they start questioning everyone? One of the things they look at right away, of course, is an Alisa Ramundo's online activity, you know? Dating sites, emails, this sort of thing. And they just start packing away at it, you know? And they come up short, I have nothing. I have nothing. They keep scratching their heads. I mean, it's really interesting that if you look at the crime scene and you're
Starting point is 00:38:32 a guy who understands crime scenes, you can tell right away that this is not a home invasion. It's not a burglary. It's not some diabolical sexual serial killer who broke in and wanted Annalisa. The case seemed to be slow over the next few months. Investigators still trying to explore every possible avenue. Maybe the person who murdered Annalisa did know her and knew she worked at Purdue Pharma. Maybe they thought for some reason she had drugs in her condo and robbery went bad ending in her death. Maybe it was related to sexual harassment allegations from a previous job. Maybe it was a past boyfriend. After all, it's always the boyfriend.
Starting point is 00:39:36 Maybe Nelson hired someone to kill Annalisa so that he could be rid of his fiance and her family, and he could carry on with this other woman. Whatever the case, it was clear that Nelson didn't kill her himself. His alibi actually checked out despite his odd behavior, but that didn't mean he wasn't involved in some way. Per new farm was card swiping system, and armed guards proved that he hadn't left the building all day. He did arrive at the office exactly when he said he did and left to go straight to Annalisa's condo after work. Stanford police have a good idea when the murder took place because they have a 9-1-1 call and because law enforcement shows up there,
Starting point is 00:40:27 pretty quickly after the nine one call, they know that the murder took place between noon and 3 p.m. So they begin to go back and look at Nelson Sessor's life for that period of time, and what they find is Purdue Farma is like a fortress. So to get in and out of Purdue Pharma, you know, you need to go through several different security measures. And while you're in the building, the building knows you're in the building. So they quickly
Starting point is 00:40:57 rule him out knowing that he never left work. He showed up in the morning and he didn't leave Purdue Pharma the grounds until he got out of work at 5 o'clock. So he could not have committed this murder. I mean, it takes him some time to figure that out, but once they figure that out, they're even baffled more. His suspicious demeanor meant something, though. All of the pieces of the puzzle had to be present for the investigators to see the full picture.
Starting point is 00:41:26 Someone gets murdered. Like, for example, I use a case in Connecticut. This, this photos do locate that is all over the median Connecticut and elsewhere. And people say, well, why haven't they arrested the guy? Why haven't they dragged him in for murder? I mean, the case is like two months old. Murder cases take a long time to solve. And we in this fucking society of instant gratification want the shit solved right away and it takes time. You know you have to subpoena records, you have to subpoena phone companies, Verizon, team mobile, they kind of sometimes fight you in that bullshit, right? And then you have to go through the records. You have to track these people down
Starting point is 00:42:03 and they have to want to talk to you. So eventually everybody gets talk to, but it could take a year. It could take two years to do all this work, you know. So I want to say that murder takes a long time to solve. You know, it doesn't take 60 minutes like it doesn't ID an oxygen. So that being said, there are only six months into this thing at this time. And sure, they would eventually come to Sheila Davilo's name and started looking at her and said, holy shit, but they hadn't gotten there yet. This brings us back to Detective Allison Carpentier,
Starting point is 00:42:41 discovering that Nelson Cessler, the man she wanted to speak with in regards to the attempted murder of Paul Christos, was also involved in the murder investigation of his fiancee, Anna Lisa Raimundo. Coincidence? I mean, come on. At this point in the investigation, police found themselves with another very promising person of interest. They had a motive for Sheila. They knew she was familiar with Annalisa, having met her at their place of employment.
Starting point is 00:43:17 And they also knew that Sheila was capable of violence given the circumstances under which they became aware of her, connecting to everything. Their plan was to trap her by charging her with attempted murder of her husband Paul, so that she would be in custody while they built their murder case around her, which would take years. A guilty verdict today for a pleasant villain who stabbed her husband during a kinky sex game involving a knife, handcuffs, and a blindfold.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Sheila Davilou was convicted of attempted murder for trying to knock off her spouse, apparently in order to be with another man. So they pursue Sheila Davilou on attempted murder charges. There's a trial for that first, because the idea behind that is let's get her ass in prison. That way we know where she is and then we can go at her, right? So they bring her up on those charges and I believe she gets convicted and put in prison for that attempted murder on her husband Paul. And that's when they begin going into question her about Annalisa Ramundo's murder. Now that being said, once they have the Sheila Davalu name, everything else falls into place. Because what they do is they take that interview, Alice
Starting point is 00:44:36 and Carpentier did with her, and now they match it up against the 911 call, and they know for certain now that Sheila Davilou called 911 because they get a voice analysis done and the voice analysis is just spot on. It's down, it's her. Investigators who were working hard to make sense of this puzzle also found definitive proof that Sheila
Starting point is 00:45:02 had left work that day. The day, Annal Saramundo was murdered back in November of 2002. The same proof that cleared Nelson of any wrongdoing. The other thing they do is they start looking at Purdue Pharma and they see that Sheila Davilu left Purdue Pharma at noon and returned at like three o'clock that day. Now the forensics come in and what they have in forensics is wow, we have all this blood that's an alisa Ramondo's blood, but we have one drop of blood on the sink inside the bathroom that is a female DNA and let me bet your ass that she'll is DNA. So what the hell is she'll is DNA doing inside an Alisa Ramondo's condo?
Starting point is 00:45:49 They don't even supposedly know each other. And why would she let Davilu make a 911 call that something's going on inside an Alisa Ramondo's condominium? It just all adds up. I mean, once you get that name, she let Davilu, and you just take all of her her information and you look at the affair she's having with Nelson Sessler, the fact that she's married, the fact that Nelson Sessler is kind of engaged to Annalisa, it all makes sense. And all it all just makes sense. Sheila drove to Palmer landing on her lunch break and knocked on Annalisa Ray Mundo's door. She knew Nelson
Starting point is 00:46:27 wouldn't be around, he was at work. When Annalisa answered, Sheila stepped inside and ambushed her. She hit Annalisa over the head with a dumbbell and stabbed her over and over again with a kitchen knife. Stabbing seemed to be Sheila's attack of choice. The drawn out, dramatic fight concluded, and Annalisa was left bludgeoned and bleeding out. Actually, if you look at the crime scene, it has a feminine quality to it, meaning, you know, the killer and Annalisa struggled and they fought. So it wasn't like a male easily overpowered her and killed her.
Starting point is 00:47:13 There's a major struggle that goes on inside that condominium complex. After slaughtering her lover's fiance, Sheila quickly vacated the scene of the crime and went to the Duchess restaurant down the street to call 911. Finally, the 911 caller was no longer a mystery to Stanford police. It seems pretty genuine if you don't know what happens later. It seems like a genuine call until you start breaking it down. If you're investigator, you start breaking it down. If you're an investigator, you start breaking it down. Okay? And a caller, I saw a guy go into her apartment.
Starting point is 00:47:50 I'm at 126 Harborview, 123 Harborview. 126 Harborview, 911 says that, 123 Harborview. So, immediately, this person calling is confused about the address, right? I don't know her name, but she's my neighbor. She lives in 105. So, Nimon once says she lives in 1-0 or apartment number 105, right, and the guy was there, was there, an attacker. So, here's a person calling 911 who is very certain about the apartment condo number, very certain that a guy is in the apartment attacking who she calls her neighbor, right, but doesn't know the address of the complex correctly. So you know, there's a couple of red flags there.
Starting point is 00:48:40 When I break it down further and I look at where the nine one will call was made from, I get even more suspicious of this call. And not suspicious of anything other than that call means something to me. It has to mean something to me. And I know that investigators, they listened to that call over and over and over again, because they knew right away. It was very important. This call would later be used in court against Sheila Davilu, acting as just one of the major nails in her coffin. The motive for her crime was clear. This was yet another example of the scorned secret lover, like Jody Aries. Sheila Davilu was not the one Nelson wanted to wipe up.
Starting point is 00:49:28 So, she was the girl Nelson kept on the back burner when he wanted a quick fuck. The problem was Sheila fell in love with Nelson, and by all accounts might still be. and by all accounts, might still be. She was absolutely obsessed with the idea of being with him. That was never in the plans for Nelson, though. He was gonna marry Annalisa, so Sheila had to get rid of Annalisa. In a letter to Nelson, she makes this obsession and anger quite apparent. this letter and grieve without any final words to you. I also wanted to say that I think it's sad how you toss people away when you no longer
Starting point is 00:50:29 have any use for them. You were more than a lover or a partner. You were like a brother I never had. I figuratively lost my brother to his illness years ago and it feels like I lost him all over again. Ultimately, all I wanted more than passion was your friendship, but I don't think you're capable of having a non-sexual relationship with a woman. Anyway, I'm leaving my parents' number, so if one day you want to accept my hand in friendship,
Starting point is 00:51:00 you can look me up love always Sheila She also included several strange poems in the bottom margins in an attempt to further explain her feelings one of which is entitled reach Reach is what lies on the very edge of trees at the very point where they touch the skies edge of trees, at the very point where they touch the skies, is what looms in the horizon right when dusk gently seduces light to succumb to its darkness, is what cricket speak of, unabashedly in the heat of summer nights, is what we can't reach. This is where Sheila differs from Jody Arias. Sheila could have murdered Nelson, the person she was frustrated with, the person who seemed to be using her for his own carnal pleasure when she wanted something more.
Starting point is 00:52:00 Instead of murdering him though, Sheila got rid of what she perceived to be the problem, aiming to have her cake and eat it too. This was far more calculated than Jody Aries' revenge killing. The murder had the ultimate idealistic goal of somehow running away with Nelson and having a life with him. Before she got caught, it seemed like that might even happen. Very shortly after Annalise's death, Sheila and Nelson had begun sleeping together again. I guess that showed how much Nelson really cared about his fiance.
Starting point is 00:52:40 A few months of this lustful bliss past, and Sheila started to realize that another obstacle stood in the way of her future with Nelson. She was still married. Her husband Paul had to go too, and that's when she hatched her plan to rid herself of him as well. To be perfectly honest with you, you know, Nelson Sessler, in my opinion, is a fucking guy who could have solved this case within the first week, but he chose not to reveal secrets in his life at the time. He's a guy who hasn't said much since this case was
Starting point is 00:53:27 adjudicated and good for him because, you know, the questions that I would ask him, he wouldn't like to answer, you know, I have, I have really raw feelings about Nelson Sessler. What police want to know at this point is why the fuck didn't Nelson Sessler mention this bitch's name when they talked to him first? Why didn't he just say, you know what, I got this girl that I've been saying, I've been banging, she'll a dovetail, and you know what, she's kind of crazy. I know that about her, and maybe you should look at her. You know, it's like, it's like, why don't you do that?
Starting point is 00:54:06 That bad baffles everybody in this case. In February of 2004, Sheila was tried for the attempted murder of her husband, Paul Christos, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison to be served in the state of New York. Eight years later, in 2012, for her former crime, the murder charge she faced in the state of Connecticut, Sheila and her usual arrogant fashion opted to act as her own defense attorney. But the one thing about Sheila Dobrou representing herself in court is it follows perfectly with the psychopathic way of thinking. It's like I can get up there and everybody's going to believe me. The other part of that is Sheila got that huge stimulation from the fact that she knew that huge stimulation from the fact that she knew if she was her own lawyer that she could question Nelson Sussler, that she got high off that.
Starting point is 00:55:12 During her trial, she claimed that the prosecution could not place her at the scene of the crime. She mocked what she perceived to be their lack of evidence against her. She was found guilty of the murder of Annalisa Raimundo and was sentenced to 50 years in prison to be served in the state of Connecticut, directly following her 25-year sentence for stabbing her husband. She will be 60 years old when she begins this 50-year sentence. To this day, Sheila claims she is innocent of both the stabbing of her husband Paul and the murder of Annalisa. Yeah, I mean, Sheila Davalu is a pathological liar. The Sheila Davalu I mean, Sheila Dabalu is a pathological liar. The Sheila Dabalu has poor behavioral controls. She has a lack of, how should I say, realistic long-term goals.
Starting point is 00:56:16 So she really only lives right in the moment. And she thinks because she's a typical narcissist, she believes you're gonna believe everything she says. She thinks because she's a typical narcissist, she believes you're gonna believe everything she says. So it really doesn't matter what she says because she believes, huh? I'm so good, you're all gonna believe me. You know, with the psychopath, they have this grandiose exaggerated estimation
Starting point is 00:56:39 that's high, this realization of themselves. And I like to say this when I give serial killer talks, not that she is, but serial killers and this type of psychopaths, she'll adopt a little. They think totally different than the general public. So the general public, the way they think, they can't really put themselves in their shoes. It's hard to, but they think totally different. They don't get up in the morning and think, Jesus, I'm going to have a bagel, some coffee, I'm going to read the paper, I'm going to go on a lot, they don't think that way, they don't think that way. They wake up in the morning thinking,
Starting point is 00:57:13 okay, all right, here's my day. What am I going to take from the people around me, all right? What bullshit am I going to lay on people to manipulate to get what I want? So when you put that into the context of Sheila Davil, she fits into it perfectly. So she's not really different than a lot of people like her. Sheila's lies and manipulative scheming left disaster wherever she went. Annalise's family, specifically her father, Raynato, was deeply scarred by the decade-long weight for justice in his daughter's murder. In court, he talked about how the experience changed his personality. He required medication to get through each day, and he questioned his once-devout faith
Starting point is 00:58:01 in God. During the whole investigation, Ray Nato and his wife visited Annalisa's gravestone to update her on the latest progress of the case. None of this bother Sheila Dobler. None of this. The fact that she butchered a woman, the fact that she took a woman
Starting point is 00:58:20 who had everything going in her life, right? Who was moving up and was gonna be a productive member of society. A woman who could of someday helped millions of people with the research she was doing, you know, in medicine. She took that away from society and she doesn't give a shit. She could not care less that she did that. All she cares about right now is her reputation, what
Starting point is 00:58:47 she looks like, how she sounds, what people think of her. That's all she cares about. We're going to leave you now, with one last haunting poem, sent from Sheila Davalu to Nelson Sessler. This one, in particular, is very telling. Anger, anger intoxicates and rears its ugly head, leaving no composure, no humility, breaking down. Dreads of society, madness plays with fire till it burns, uncomfortable flames. If I were insane, I would have no way of feeling the pain of tearful eyes or the lack of compassion in the world." Sheila Davilo was a narcissistic sociopath. She wanted what she wanted out of life, and she took it by force. That sort of determination and drive, which in some is an admirable trait, can get warped
Starting point is 00:59:57 and diseased. It can morph into an obsession, which is the name of M. William Phelps Book. If you want to read more about this bizarre case with all of its twists and turns, check out his book on Amazon. It's a pretty goddamn good read if you're in the mood for a crazy story. For now though, I think I've had enough crazy to last me a while. So that's going to be it for this two part episode about Sheila Davilo. We hope you've enjoyed it. And until next time, stay safe. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc
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