Sword and Scale - Episode 248

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Emily Noble suffered a lot of loss in the last decade of her life but she always persevered. She was physically healthy and took her mental health seriously too. She never faltered. That’s why when she went missing in May of 2020 everyone suspected foul play except her husband, the prime suspect.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5895676/advertisement

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised Probably you know But did you talk to her? It only takes five seconds and then she's full shit. Hello and welcome. Once again, this is season 10 episode 248 of Sword and Scale. The show that reveals at the worst monsters are real. Hope you're having a wonderful day. Thank you once again for joining us. If you haven't heard by now, the place to find all the good stuff is plus. Just head on over to sword and scale.com slash plus.

And for just a small fee, you can access all of our bad catalog. You can access all the exclusive plus episodes everything's commercial free in a beautiful pristine 320 kilobyte feed That's my sales pitch go check it out that helps support the show and bring more of them to you sorenskill.com slash plus And I'm going to be a little saying we repeat here from time to time. Something we say out loud sometimes and sometimes we even print it on merch. Store.surnscale is where you'll find that by the way. It's a pretty simple saying and we can't really take credit for it because it's just good advice.

The saying is, don't talk to cops. And that isn't something we repeat because we don't like law enforcement, or believe in the fundamental need for an effective criminal justice system. It's a saying we repeat repeat because let's face it. Most regular people aren't fully versed in the law and don't fundamentally understand their own civil rights. Most people are worried about picking up their kids from soccer practice, picking up the dry cleaning or whether or not they're fully stalked with

milk and eggs. By the way, have you seen the price of eggs lately? The bottom line is that if you ever have the misfortune of finding yourself sitting in that cramped, sparsely furnished, fluorescently lit interrogation room with nothing but your thoughts and a barrage of cold accusatory questions from the cop across from you. This little simple saying, maybe the only friend you have left in the world. In the latter part of May 2020, Matt Moore called 911 to report his wife missing. Hey, how you doing? Hi, my wife's missing.

Is this her? Yeah. That's your wife? No, no, no. Oh, okay. You look just like you're feeling like a second. Oh, my God, there's two. Okay.

And more. Now, I'll draw this. Hello. Hi. Celeste, I'll draw this. Otherwise. Hello. Hi. It's the last. I've got to know you all soon. Brown. Okay, so what's going on?

She's uncharacteristically missing. Okay. I just, I have her wallets here. Here's a wallet. Right here. I have some money. The phone right these. I have this money. The phone's here, I have this money. When Matt began to worry, he contacted Emily's best friend Celeste.

She arrived just as the police did and for a moment, to Matt's four-learn eyes, she looked just like Emily. He told the officers that being gone without a word for this long was not like her. There aren't many places you can go these days without your ID or money. Let alone the idea that most people don't go anywhere without their phones. As unusual as it was for Emily to go missing, it was more unusual she did so the day after her 52nd birthday and the day of Memorial Day May 25th 2020. Okay, you said you guys went to celebrate her birthday. Tell me about that. When you do, we went out to, I have to say the town, the spring, water, spring, collect

some water. I have way back, we stopped, had a picnic. Got back in the car, came here. Excited to go down the hall of Thomas. We heard that things were opened up. One cold lay, one two bag of nails, and then we went to GD's. Came home. And we went bed and we slept. Just like normal. and we went to bed and we slept, just like normal. I got up, it was early, because earlier than I usually get up to go pee with my prostate.

So every night I looked at the clock and I, it was late, it was early, early in the normal, it was like 12, 30, one o'clock maybe, and I'm like, okay, okay go point into this room here Well, so I'm gonna catch it took a while for me to get back asleep. I will help I think around 10-30 I look down my phone. I look for her To see where her phone was I got a search Here, so I just got back to season this which is out there doing to use that. I'm not going to use that.

I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that.

I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. I'm not going to use that. That beep beep you heard was the axon body camera. Unfortunately you'll hear a lot of that in this episode. Apologies. Per protocol the officer walked through the home to see if there was any indication of why she was missing. What he saw was an immaculate home. Everything was neat and tidy. There was nothing out of place and nothing missing except for Emily that is. Does she suffer from any any illnesses? Is she has dementia? Has she ever threatened to harm herself? Ever done this before? No. Okay. Is you guys, I mean, never physical, never.

Okay, do you still typical how you do stuff and things? Okay. Okay. Hello and you guys are married. You got married in August. Too long since it's about. I think you guessed it. You did put it to me, but I think it's too. You did two or three, but I think it's two.

You don't remember the year? No. She's really small, she's 100 pounds, probably five foot in series, so hard. She thinks, well, I'll check the trunk. I don't know, I just don't want to. Oh, no, no, I don't understand, buddy. I didn't.

I had the worst case in there, and my enemy, she did something to herself. Like, sorry. Do you have any reason why? That's what I'm going to say. You know what I mean? I would hate to think of that. OK. OK.

There was a reason why that came to his mind, though. Suicide, man, I don't know. I might have some of me to decide. Your son committed suicide? Yeah. Did she know? Yeah. They were they were in a lot of time. They were really close. My son has, it's a friend he got.

He's a great kid. And Austin just got four old needs to go. We're seeing you get out of a man. It gives a friend. She wasn't as good as a friend. Matt's teenage son committed suicide only 10 months prior. And in the short four years that Emily had known Matt and his son, she'd grown to love him, making it all the more difficult to bear

when he killed himself. Suicide, however, was only one of the possibilities at this point. So as right now, look like she deliberately left. We just don't know why she left for stuff behind. And she'd know history, it's a little miss or anything like that. No, man. Okay, like in the other crazy chick. I don't know.

She's so bright. She's so every time. She goes on harm. She's always. Do you guys own any firearms? Have you checked to see if it's still here? You did check or you know what's here. All the possibilities were running through Matt's mind as well. After hours of waiting for his wife to return home, he was already imagining the worst case scenario. I'm looking after someone at 10 o'clock in Westerville. That part I don't know. And the part that we try to figure out is there are two

things we try to figure out when someone's reported missing. If they do it on purpose or there's someone take it. And that's what we always try to do. I don't care if it's kids. I'm not wise. Ten and one. That's what one took her. Very, very low. Yeah.

If she was the herger, something like, there was something on those lines. They tried to hide it. Did they go like a long ways away or something or? It depends. Everyone's different. Sometimes it depends on the reason why they want to hurt themselves. I've got a few young right here. When my son died, it was a great fucking way to talk.

This is so long. I'm dying. I'm afraid still I can't get to this and not. All of her belongings left behind were a disturbing sign. The officers, seeing that there was certainly something to Emily's disappearance, started searching immediately rather than waiting the typical 24 hours. They searched her normal hangouts, the lengthy walking path that intersected the city of Westerville, and the myriad of parks and woodland areas that it connected, but without any luck finding her. After a couple of hours, they returned to update Matt and he had a new clue. Crazy no show me this thing here

We mean doesn't belong here doesn't belong The only thing he found out of placing the entire house was a bright orange extension cord that normally hung on the wall of the garage but was instead laying on top of a table. It didn't seem like much of a clue, but Matt was looking for anything out of the norm. Without filing an official report, they had enough information to begin searching for Emily. They had a physical description of her last known whereabouts. been doing. I'm trying to get in touch with as many people as possible. Yeah, because at this point now you got to call as many people as you can. Because now we're at the point, it just doesn't make any sense. You know what I mean? Now for someone to be gone that long. I'm going to say that most people, most people, most people will disappear or do the same thing, leave all their stuff and they just need a break.

They just go somewhere, you don't hear from them for a few days and then we'll get information. Hey, you know, I just needed a break. We can check. I just, I don't want to spill things up. What do you mean? Really bad with time and face and I'm just not good at that shit. I just don't want to like get you wrong. You know, I don't, it doesn't sound like you could. I see things up a lot.

Matt was being cooperative and helpful with the police, but things he was doing were starting to stand out as more than just quirks of an odd man. The officer already noticed his inability to keep the timeline straight in a story, but he also seemed fixated on the idea that Emily committed suicide. Maybe it was just the lingering memory of his son's suicide, but even so, statistics weren't on his side. The likelihood that Emily, a 52-year-old woman, was abducted at 10am off the quaint streets of Westerville, Ohio, was incredibly low. Maybe she took off of

her own free will, and left all her belongings behind her. Maybe she did indeed end her own life, but the longer she was missing, the more likely it meant foul play. And we don't need to tell you the statistics of missing wives, but it usually boils down to you well. The husband, of course. The following morning marked a full 24 hours in semolise disappearance, and the police She just disappeared. 10 o'clock, we woke up 10 o'clock morning, got them in the mall, a bee who's there didn't wake up up. So all of a sudden she'd gone this morning.

She likes to go forage. That's how they get their meals. So we checked the wood area over here. That's good. We got in there what about 100 yards or so, I guess. This was yesterday, yesterday morning at 10-11, the first storm has gone. We didn't report till last night about five or six o'clock. Okay. So some red flags were trying to cover all our bases.

We've been through the house, which I could a little kid, immaculate, it's nice and clean. So our next step was just what, how to see if we get a track someplace. If she...she obviously took off on foot someplace because the car is here, her phone's here. It doesn't have a... Yeah, we're in... So I thought maybe I'd be really, really impressed. So...

So what are you, put your guys' respect down here? They already suspected Matt had something to do with Emily's disappearance, but they couldn't be sure. So they brought out the bloodhound just to see where it would lead just in case. How often do you guys go pillaging? Can we see in it? I'm just taking it all in. Is that what it's called? Foraging. I'm telling you, when you go, steal stuff. I'm not going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach.

I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach.

I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going It's just everywhere. What do you guys usually go? Forage? Forage, there it is. I keep wanting to say the other word that is wrong, but forage, yes. Kill it.

There's a bridge up here that goes, it's a walk bridge. If you're facing this way, if you go along the left side of it, you don't go up on it, but you're just just along the side of it. It's right there and there's a wood here and there's to it. And then you go up onto the trail, walk down a little bit and take a left and a take to go back into this neighborhood.

It's about at 10, 15 minutes off. Emily loved nature and spent a lot of time foraging for edible plants, hence Matt suggested to search the nearby thicket. The dog got a scent from some of Emily's belongings that Matt supplied and took off down the road. Matt waited and worried. This is the most bizarre thing in the world and I'm super, super great. I don't understand what's going on. I don't understand what's going on.

It's like a movie. The police shared those very thoughts and were beginning to suspect something far worse. Then to add to their suspicions, Matt said this. After a while of waiting, Matt just wanted to go inside. The recent turn in the weather made it quite hot outside. A few moments later, he re-emerged. It was weird if you thought he had anything to do with her disappearance, but it could have just been an honest question from a concerned husband. The dog came up with nothing, which Matt was happy about. His thoughts were that she must be alive somewhere if the bloodhound didn't find her.

The police, however, were less than happy. The only thing they gleaned from that exercise was that Emily didn't leave the house on foot, and if she didn't leave the house on foot, and her car was still there, maybe she never left it all. In the coming days, they would dial up the investigation and uncover more troubling information from Emily's longtime friend, Suzanne. People lie to my face every day. I don't trust anybody. It's hard to find a good answer.

Yeah, yeah. So I kind of have that approach. Plus, I was a fraud investigative information wide so again So again, I yeah, you see what can motivate me. I do and that is why As soon as I saw the text I mentioned you know, I got some texts that said you know, I'm at least missing a shoe with you Spidey sense, you know my God, I'm just... I don't know what it is about this guy. I'm just... he's just shady. The day after her 52nd birthday, Emily Noble disappeared. The only trace was the things she left behind like her, cell phone, purse,

money, and keys. A quick search turned up nothing, and the police were starting to suspect that Emily wasn't missing but rather murdered. An interview with a longtime friend, Suzanne, revealed more about Emily's life before Matt, and she would point the finger at nobody else but her husband. She was always very active on my dating, and I'm kind of against it, and she's really little, and like I was mentioning, I always felt very protective of her. And it seemed as though, and it didn't occur to me, you know, at first, but every time I'd meet her somewhere, she was meeting up with some guy from

Plenty of Fish, or Tinder, or this one or that one, not even normal. I find that as far as Emily, you know, this is not, this is, you're smarter than this. You know, you can't just be inviting random strangers to your home with people where you live, you know, and then after the parents and she inherited all the money, she could drunk all this money, you know, in the bar, on my family's stop. She just is very,she's a shareer. You know, oversharer.

She's very open and bubbly and just doesn't think about, you know, things like personal safety or...very naive. You know, just a bit even once. Everyone's great and wonderful and the world out for me, kind of thing, you know. She saw Emily as happy-go-lucky, albeit incredibly naive and overly trusting in people. In her mid-40s, she dated a lot, and after her parents left her close to a quarter of a million dollars, she went a bit wild. Then she met Matt. She was very cagey about it.

Like a lot of her friends still don't know up until Matt posted this is Matt's family's husband. They didn't know she was married. She kept him kind of at arm's length from everybody. And I think that's because she knew none of us was going to like it. She recalled the first time she met Matt. Emily invited her over and Matt cooked dinner. Drinking the whole time. Right? By the time I finished dinner, he was drinking vodka right out of the bottle. That's a bad sign. And he was getting a little bit later on.

And I didn't like it, and I'd had enough. She talked this behavior up to the meeting new people, jitters. Maybe Matt was nervous and drank a little too much. Then the next time they got together, he was half in the bad when they came to pick me up. Oh wow. To the point where I insisted that Emily drive and I knew he had driven to my house. And it didn't get any better while we were at the bar.

And that's when I started to notice that he was like, home real close, you know, like, not arm around the waist affectionately. It was arm around the neck almost, you know, because she's sure. So, just squeezing her real tight. She couldn't get like two feet away from him. She did say, and I don't remember the context, but she did say that when he's drunk he's the devil. That's what she said to me.

Suzanne noticed the signs of an overbearing and controlling relationship and she didn't much care for it. Her worry was made worse when Emily showed up with a new hairstyle. And Emily has beautiful naturally curly hair, like the little curly hair girl in the peanuts. Okay. And the next time she came in my eyes, her hair was straightened. And I remember laughing, I'm like, Jesus, how long did that take? You know.

And she said, well, mad likes his straight, mad doesn't like my curly hair. So he prefers it straight. That's a tell. Yeah. Your man doesn't like the way you look. You've got to change the way you love like that. I didn't like that. Emily's relationship with Matt had all the signs of toxicity except one, until she showed up with bruises on her arms. I knew what it was because I've been a victim of domestic violence and I've been held against the wall and I've had those exact bruises and my heart sunk as soon as I saw them. And I remember asking her what the hell happened. It was a new bruise and it was concerning enough for me to go, what happened? Oh, I heard myself at the gym, and I walked up to her,

and I'd put my hands where the bruises fit. And I said, Emily, try again. What happened? You can tell me anything. Are you okay? What's going on? And as when she said, well, Matt likes it rough. And I'll say, what do you mean,

how fun and rough does he like part of my friend, but the Emily, are you okay with this? Oh yeah, but he does like to choke me. Did she say she was okay with that? She didn't say, no, she did not say she was okay with it. She didn't say she wasn't, she just not say she was okay with it. She didn't say she wasn't. She just kind of, you know, one of those. She's just kind of acknowledged the fact

that he does choke her in her sex, but didn't say one word yet. He likes to choke me. Is there, do you know this any bruising? I did not. Did not. Suzanne said Emily told her about the rough sex and the choking. And she witnessed what she thought

was controlling behavior on Matt's part. With this knowledge, Matt was looking more and more like the number one suspect in her disappearance. And I remember saying to her, I don't know what would make me say this, but it's haunting me. I remember saying to her, Emily, this is going to end in tragedy. Okay. I don't feel like you're safe. What's as much time as you've spent with Emily and clearly you know her very very well.

You know, never matter anything like that. What do you think happened the night of her birth? I think he took her out for dinner. Mm-hmm. And I think he took her out. I think he probably shoked her out. Suzanne never liked Matt, and always feared Emily's relationship with him would end tragically.

Is there anything more I can do? Keep an eye on that. Okay. That's why I'm still friends with him. Just. Obviously, you know, if you confront him, that's fine, but don't burn bridges to the point that he will block you. Oh, no, no, no, that's why my sister was like, why don't you block him? That's because I need to keep it close.

Friends close enemies close. Right. That's exactly right. I don't fully trust him yet at this point for obvious reasons. All suspicions seem to be on Matt. They brought him in for questioning. You were not in a rest. You weren't handcuffed coming in. Is that correct?

Correct. OK. And that door doesn't lock. This is a voluntary interview. Okay. Obviously, we need to do the best we can to get the full story which is find your wife and you can get back to normal. Obviously, part of that involves talking with you.

So, you know, again, this is a voluntary thing. Yeah, like, like, I told you, out there, I have a idea, I'm not going to start out. We could have done this in my house. No, that this part we can't do. Because it's not voluntary. That's completely voluntary. And I give you, yeah. I don't want to. Try that door right now. At some point, I want to help you. I want to get this going because I didn't do it and I want you to find whatever it all happened to her.

He immediately became defensive. These are my random warnings. Yeah. I'm being arrested. You're not being arrested. It's the one I'm being read by my random. Because it's the standard protocol that I do, just to make sure that we are on the same page

with everything. Reluctantly, Matt began answering their questions even though he felt it was a waste of time because he knew he didn't do anything. We were super laid back. So you guys were 100% strong. It wasn't 100%, but it wasn't anything where I would ever harm my wife.

That's all I'm asking. That's not I'm saying. How was your relationship? How was your marriage done? I'm not saying anything worse than anybody else. Just make sure I have. So scale one to ten relationship with our ten being bliss every day, hunting moon like a hunting moon and one being scary and can't stand each other.

I'm sasking, what would you rate? It would fluctuate, like a sine wave, but we were on since six months it was in eight. Class six months? Absolutely. Did you read our texts? Well, we went to everything. There's a lurch that didn't make some old texts for me. They were like, er, whatever, but it was, after my son died, there was tension stress.

She dealt with it differently and I did, and so there was things that were said that could be. Of course, they read their texts, and more. Some of Emily's texts contradicted Matt's claim of a blissful marriage. She loved me. I would be very surprised if there was like another man. Well, I'm not saying that, but literally two weeks ago, she was one person that she kind of confided in through text messages and so forth. That's something that you said.

You picked another fight with me last night. She was two weeks ago. And that was just the first message they found. Probably me. We're're talking this month. Matt and I are talking in friendly, but it's not the kind of relationship I want. A month ago, please don't talk about Matt and I in love. And at the same time she said, I think Matt is mental ill. She said, I don't want to talk about him, I'd rather focus on the future. By the way, Matt got really drunk last night, What do you think your spouse says about you when venting to their friends? With Emily missing, Matt found himself trying to explain away every little fight they

ever had. things of course there was a roller coaster relationship but it wasn't like anything it was anything you would think that someone would hurt someone just would did. I'm just addressing the fact that you you just told me plastics must have been blessed in the night. Not? Yes. Okay. There I have been levels of that and you can check the other texts and they are super I love you. I saw that. I saw that. I didn't take too very much up up up up up up down by holding a relationship that would go away that would really go away it would last for a night will you will you acknowledge that's some pretty heavy shit when your wife says I'm took up my wedding ring I don't think we're gonna stay together

mom have you think it is it always swung back We were always just wasn't. Why would you have said that whenever they asked how your relationship mean? I didn't even remember that because it's not in my mind set. But good times. That's been so good. Okay, but those, but you know, you guys are really going to try to not trying to do anything. I'm raising your wife's words. That's what I'm going to do. I understand that. I understand that.

And you text her on New Year's Eve and say, if you wanted to divorce, you're going to move out fine. I mean, these are all things I just printed off, which have very, they are the usual fight. Like, I'm pissing you fuck off. I don't want to talk to you tonight. You just don't leave me off.

It's go golfing because I don't want to see you right now. I want to be alone. That's, you know, you imagine that's pretty that's it's not as heavy as you think it is You if from looking at it from the outside. I can see why someone would think that but it's not it's just She was saying that to her friend. I mean that's surprising to me because I wasn't like you know I mean at times you say me because I wasn't like, you know, I mean, at times you say, we'd be married to anymore. If it doesn't go down the lines, then I'm sitting in a police station right now.

I mean, you're being like, you're going out. I mean, he was answering all their questions. They just weren't the answers they wanted to hear. Matt's claim that their marriage was great didn't line up with Emily's texts to friends. There were other things too, whether or not he made a post to Facebook and which phone he had used. or if you would phone her phone, I can't recall about him. You know, remember that? I was two days ago. I don't know. I don't know if it was me that I put out on my,

I must have, what I had to do. Sorry, Laura. I'm sure I did. I can't say I definitively did, but I'm sure I got on my phone. Okay, this idea, this is not, I did. You guys know, I want to say this is Matt. I'm Emily's husband, she's missing.

I must have, I had to. I just don't recall right now if I did. What's anything from her, did you do that? I didn't post it on Facebook. I didn't do it. Because they're not out there. What? The post.

There's no post. But I made from her phone saying that she's missing. Because I didn't make any before the phone was taken from me. That's for that. The because I didn't it wasn't like maybe it wasn't like hey, I'm guessing again. I'm guessing At some point I started making posts on Facebook saying my wife's missing Whether it was prior to you guys taking the phone from me or after I don't know And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Matt was talking in circles, seemingly telling the officers what he thought they wanted to hear and then having to double back when those statements trapped him in a lie. Then they asked him about the rough sex. She said totally well from her that I that i choke during she didn't like it this is a no idea just as it was a lot of i have no idea what was your idea of my idea of it happened if it was my dear and i have no recollection

but you just talked about your hands and then i don't have to have a point of what's up with the murder for two years eyes i mean i don't know what you're going with this. I've never heard her that's not what we asked like Drink sex if I ever can I remember time where I was like oh my god I want to choke her and this is really great thing I'm doing here and she was like okay, it's fine and later on she says something different. I've no idea Was that my question? I guess I'm not I'm sorry means defensive. I'm worried. I'm looking me. Well then help us find her

Okay, yeah, we are on the same team right now. What does this have to do with finding my wife? Because we have to when I have people calling in concerned about it today I have to ask these questions that that's my job You have to call in and questions. They were concerned some bland and bursting. I don't even know. Yes, we are. She's a real great one. I'm telling you that clearly you know something. Fucking yeah, yeah, she's not to be someone you should be listening to. But that you talked to her. It only takes five seconds and she's full of shit.

Well, I all I ask was a question. Okay, ask me again. I'll try to answer the best I can. I'll try, I'm sorry. When you guys were having sex, what, at what particular time can you tell me at the time when you're having sex? What was it a year ago?

Last week. Anytime when your penis has been in Emily, have your hands been around her neck? I think both of them. Hey, hand. Maybe a hand. Okay. Like, you know what I mean?

And I'm not judging either way, is that your thing or Emily's thing? Both. Oh, okay. Thank you. She never told me to stop, I would stop. Good. That's what I wanted to hear. I'm not, yeah. Just because I ask a question doesn't mean I know much.

I just it's just a question. I promise you. Okay. I don't understand why that would help you find where she is right now. I don't get that. It seems like you're trying to end something on here. trying to do something on here. And I don't feel comfortable. Matt felt like they were trying to pin her murder on him before they even found a body. Even though he was free to go, he didn't leave because he knew how that would look. Thank you, guys.

I did not hurt my wife. I did not hurt my wife. I loved her. Would you pass a lie to Techford Tech? Absolutely. I wouldn't want to talk to a lie detector test? Absolutely. I wouldn't want to talk to a lawyer though. I mean, ask a lawyer. Ask what?

If it's, should I take one line and even know if they work? Well, the bottom line is we're here trying to find your wife. And right now, you want to do it now? You want to do a lie detector right now? Yeah. That's it. You do? You got. All right, I live detector right now? Yeah, that's it. You do? You got it. I'll go grab it.

He agreed to a live detector test, but this isn't your old fashioned polygraph. This isn't your grandpa's live detector test. This is CVSA or computerized voice stress analysis. It uses a microphone and a laptop to measure the smallest of changes in the vocal cords, rather than the various heart rate and respiration monitors the polygraph uses. It's supposedly far more accurate and requires less time and fewer questions to get results. It took longer to explain all of that to you than it did to ask Matt nine questions. Most of the questions were control questions, obviously true or obviously false. The only two questions that pertained to the case were number four. Do you know where Emily is and number six? did you kill Emily?

If you answer a question truthfully, your voice pattern will look like a Christmas tree. There were a couple of answers that the police didn't really fit the bill. After studying the results and deciding to confront him about his deception, they brought him back into the room and had him point out his own lies. One, do you look like the top of your Christmas tree in your rest? No, I mean that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one's good, that one I thought I'd do it. Tell me I did good. Tell me I'm fine. You did not do it. That's what you picked out. How can this be? I'm just pointing it to you. So you want to do it again? This right here is one that you picked out. And that's what the question is. I need a lawyer, I guess. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know what happened to her.

He genuinely seemed baffled, but the police weren't buying it. They were convinced he was involved, and they just had to get him to confess. What do you think happened to Emily? How would you guess anybody? I think she could hear something. How do you think she heard something? She would say that she was going to do it to could hear something. How do you think she heard something? She would say that she was gonna do it

to hear something. So you think that she could hear something? I don't know. Just what does your gut say? Does she hear something? Yeah, that's what you're got to believe about. Has she ever been in there when I was saying you know, I've got my lines.

We're just talking. Do you think I did something to her at in the middle and I took her somewhere and came back home went through what I went through, saw my texting me, what I did today. Does that seem like something, something feel her would have done? I'm leaving that one.

I'll be honest with you. I don't, I don't, I don't know what else to do. I can't. I mean, everything seems like that I'm telling you not to drop the police something actually and you say, fuck the two of us. What would you do if you were me and you were innocent? What would you do? That's exactly what I'm doing right now. I don't know. I don't know what's... Like, this appears to me to be very strange that I would fail something that I know

on the online. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's like this. This appears to me to be very

strange that I would fail something that I know I'm not lying. You were the last person to see your life. I was. She didn't float into heaven. She didn't. Something happened. In a couple of minutes. It's okay. It's not okay. We just need to understand. There's something that might have happened to my wife and we're in your talking to me about it. I'm doing. This is very odd. Are you angry with me? No, I'm suspicious of what's going on now. What am I doing? Can I? Can I just show a consensual thing things Absolutely, and I leave yes You can do whatever I'm all I got to be then and you I didn't know this looks. I didn't do anything You want to see how this looks? You fucking killed her. Oh, I didn't sir. Oh shit. I didn't I didn't kill you killed her and it was an accident And we need to get this result

It didn't happen. It didn't happen. I tell you she's dead Where is she? I'm what he's talking about. That's why we have here. People are saying they've seen her. You people are foolish. Her phone says you're foolish. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. You understand how this looks though, that's everything you guys. I didn't do anything to my wife. Trust me.

I don't murder her. I didn't do her. I didn't do her. I didn't do her. I didn't do her. That's how we worship you. I don't know. Right now, I didn't. Matt would get up and leave after that barrage of accusations. That was two days after Emily went missing. The investigation would seemingly stall after that. Days would turn to weeks and the community continued searching. We love you, we miss you, we care deeply about you, we've not forgotten about you, we will continue this until we get some kind of closure.

As time went on, a strange thing happened and people that never knew Emily flocked to help search for her. I thought to myself one day, I wanted to go look, she's local, why not help? I just felt a connection like I needed to search. It's been a real big, nice outpouring of support and strength. Overwhelming, knowing how many people were willing to put their lives on hold, and just walk the miles, take times off of their jobs. The only person not searching for Emily was Matt.

He didn't join a single organized search. Instead, he contacted the vanished podcast, asking for help, and peculiarly described Emily as, quote, very small. She's like 100 pounds, pretty legs, pretty arms. End quote. Despite all the volunteers and the assumption that they were simply looking for remains at this point, Emily was missing for weeks and then months. It's been almost three months without any real sign of Emily Noble, that's why family friends and a professional team are out here making sure no stone goes unturned. From the areas that you guys have suggested we're going to focus on the Alam Creek area today. Obviously we're hoping for the best,

but we have to look at all possibilities at this point. We're looking for anything from finding them only hopefully safely. To unfortunately possibly finding remains at this point being that we're three months out and have had no contact with her at all.

Then in mid September, a 911 call came in. 911, what's your emergency? Hi, we are searching for Emily Noble. We are in the wooded area near Herkhandel, and we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we do, we We can't see it. I don't know what an owl is. A dead body. It is a dead body. We think it is.

We think it is. Nope. Okay. It looks like they hung themselves. It looks like they hung themselves? Yes. Can you tell us a male or a female? It looks female.

Tiny. And hanging from a tree. There's growth coming down from a tree. There's a rope coming down from a tree. She's on the ground. Her knees are on the ground. I turned around and I saw a little girl and I said, Hi. Okay.

But it wasn't a little girl. It was the decomposed body of an apparent suicide victim. The police arrived quickly and sealed off the scene. The weathered body resembled the color of a worn out paper bag after being exposed to the elements for an unknown period of time. It was found kneeling with the neck still hanging from the USB cord they used as a ligature. The saddest part of all was the apparent lengths this person went through to be successful. One hand was still gripping the ankle. Is she hanging? Yeah, it looks like there's a rope. Come from the top of this.

Come over up. There's a black rope. Whoever it is, it's the... They've done it for a while. That's crazy to help close it. That's also... It seems a little suspicious. The proximity of the remains to the road was a little suspicious.

The body was mere feet off a major thoroughfare in a small valley surrounded by trees and undergrowth. But what was perhaps more suspicious was the fact that the body was only a few hundred feet from Matt's home, and exactly where he said to search from the very beginning. They were cautious to identify the remains as Emily's after the exhaustive search for over three months, but the following week they had an update for the public. We've used outside volunteer groups that specialize in these type of searches.

All kinds of volunteer groups have been in to help. Like I said, through all kinds of different areas of the city, we've used so-and-so to search lakes. We've responded to strong odors, and officers actually found the deer on one search where we went to a strong odor. We've responded to calls where, frankly, people have seen vultures in certain areas, circling, and we've responded to those areas.

As unpleasant as that sounds, it's just to give you an idea about how seriously we've taken this and that we've utilized every asset available in searching for Emily. Today, we received word from the coroner's office that M.I. Noble's dental records are consistent with the remains that were found off county line road last week. WPD is going to continue to conduct our investigation to try to figure out

how the body got in the location of the dental and county line road. There's still a lot of work to be done. We can confirm that area was searched on three separate occasions by Westerville Police Detectives and Westerville Police Personnel, and on at least one of those occasions the cadaver doll was used. They found her three and a half months after she went missing within walking distance of her home. The announcement that they searched that area three times, one of those times with cadaver dogs and didn't find her suggested she hadn't been there since May.

This only cast more suspicion on Matt, but nothing happened. More months would pass. Around the time of Emily's 53rd birthday and the anniversary of her disappearance, Matt held a remembrance party. Then, a month later, authorities shared the opinion of the corner. His findings were very clear. He said that this was clearly a homicide based on the injuries that were sustained and the mechanism of those injuries. He also gave his opinion that her body was staged to appear as though it was a suicide in his opinion that was absolutely not the case.

The quiet neighborhood Matt lived in was overkill, especially since Matt seemed to be cooperating and was arrested without incident. In the back of the police cruiser Moore and the saga of Emily Noble's disappearance, this story was only just beginning. Matt Moore was arrested over a year after he reported his wife missing. Finding Emily's body more than three months later hanging from a USB cord in the very woods he suggested searching, only made the police even more suspicious than they already were. The city of Westerville searched to find Emily only to find her in the worst possible way. Now, her husband was facing a trial

and the community was less than shocked. There's no way this is a mistake, like Matt wanted to say. We knew he did this from the beginning, his family, our family and friends. We just bit our tongue and let them, officers do what they needed to do. We knew this was going to be the outcome that he was going to be arrested and hopefully it will go follow through and he will serve time and jail, hopefully a lifetime.

The running theory was that Matt, after taking Emily out to celebrate her birthday, returned home and put his plan into action. They thought he spent the night carefully crafting his narrative. His phone and social media both revealed activity during the late night early morning hours. Odd Facebook posts send 3am texts to his brother, presumably to cover his trail. The next morning they surmised he followed Emily into those woods and strangled her, staging the scene to look like a suicide. Because there was no way Emily would do that and no one else would want her dead.

They also found it suspicious that he waited so long to report her missing and then had the convenient theory of suicide when he finally did. This was of course all built around their experience with Matt and the coroner's opinion that Emily's injuries were not consistent with hanging. None of this was actual evidence that Matt did anything. But further support came only instance in his history that supported their theory. But with suspicion comes down. The trial would be postponed until 2022, and then play out over a lengthy seven days of testimony.

I want to stop here and ask the audience, you, you sitting there right now, or jogging or doing laundry, whatever the hell you're doing. I want to ask you, do you believe Matt? Did you believe him during his contact with law enforcement? Did you notice anything in his voice that made you suspicious, that made you think that he was guilty? Or did he sound sincere? What was your first good instinct? And did it change as you kept listening? Hold onto that thought because what happened next changed everything.

The defense based its argument on how absurd it was for police to suspect Matt at all. It's one of those things that no matter how many times you say it, it doesn't make a trick. No one else would do this. No one else would do this. Okay, well, no other suspects were ever developed. We know in the 25th he's taken into the police station, He's asked to come down in the back of a cruiser and you saw one of your exhibits is he was read his Miranda rights. This is on the 27th of May. He's their guy. In fact, they continue to work from May 25th all the way to June 17th of the following year to charge him.

Because they kept just looking. Look, look. They argued that his actions weren't that of a criminal mastermind trying to get away with murder, but those of a concerned husband who loved his wife. The prosecution didn't think any of that mattered. They felt her text messages to friends proved their relationship was on the rocks. And the evidence of Perry Mortham bone fractures in the neck and the bridge of her nose suggested she was strangled and her body was staged in those woods. The chief of police told Westerville community and the public at large, we searched that area

three times with law enforcement and once with ducks. Nobody said the perimeter. And here's what else we have. If I'm at more, I'm just saying, so where the master, the main criminal mastermind, and I'm gonna talk about whether Matt Moore is the main criminal mastermind in a second, he takes them to the exact area

and says this is where she forges and then even the state of Ohio and their closing argument just now had to concede. Did you know what he says? You might wanna go in. Oh, that's a bad fact, right? And you know why he wouldn't wanna go in? Is it because he doesn't wanna find her?

Actually, I agree with that. You know why I just wanna find her? Cause 10 months earlier, his son was hanging from a tree in the woods. I wouldn't want to go in a wooded area either. The defense claimed the entire case was built on a stack of inferences. That doesn't go into the woods and search for her. And so that inferential leads you to the fact that he didn't want to find her. And that should lead you to the fact that he killed her.

I remember asking Ian about the fact that she didn't come to Ohio and search for her sister was no indication of whether she loved her sister or not. She said that's right. Well, why is it okay for some and not for others? Not to mention during all those searches the whole town kind of thought he was the murderer But back to inferences, but you cannot draw an inference and an inference So what does it mean? Literally six days of test testimony seven today it is she did she commit suicide no she didn't commit

suicide so she must have been killed well if she was killed it's Matt Moore that's in for a second not supported by the evidence we think he did this we think he did that now We think he did that. Now we think she went for a walk and a mat because of a text he sent on May 7th to his friend that on May 24th, after they've had a nice day together, that he now is working and going and following her and killing her in the woods. That's not just one inference and a pun in inference. It's probably eight or nine or ten, but it's speculation. And then there argument that Emily would have never committed suicide. They want to tell you that Emily was happy, she was forging, eating plants, nettles.

And so there's no way she could have committed suicide. We talked about suicide in board year and we talked about mental health. And I really mean this. We are all smarter and I know each and every one of you. Truly, if mental health were that simple, we would live in a much different world. It's not. It is not that simple to say they seem happy. It's just not.

Because the truth is and you'll see in the counseling records that Emily had history of depression and anxiety. That she had struggled with prior loss and trauma. Look through the records and see how many times you see the word trauma and loss and grief and sense. Emily had suffered a lot in recent years. Her former husband committed suicide. A short time later, his brother committed suicide. Then her father fell, hit his head, and never recovered. A short time after that, her mother died in a car accident. Then she met Matt and his son, Joey. Not long after, they married and moved in together, Joey too, committed suicide.

That's a lot of trauma for anyone to deal with. While Emily never expressed struggling emotionally to her friends, Matt did say she had some suicidal ideation and even said if she were to do it, she would hang herself. This has all been made out to be so horrific, right? What really happened is Emily went to nature to find a piece. And you'll see that, how's the evidence? That's where she found peace. She went there and she grabbed her ankles.

You know why she grabbed her ankles? So that she wouldn't stop herself from killing herself. And that's what she did. That's what you do because you know that when you kill yourself, your natural instinct is going to be to stop. That ankle is grabbed. And here's what else we know,

in terms of the mastermind criminal mind over here. There's alcohol in the water bottle. Her vape pen is in her left pocket. And the vape pen on her left side within her reach. Do you know what we do? What's common sense? When we're in moments of real stress? We turn to our vices.

Right? We turn to our vices. And? We turn to our vices. And here's else what we do. So if we're going to fill ourselves, we don't want any lotion out. We don't take an orange cord with a brush, because we don't use wine leggings with pockets. It takes something that fits in our pockets,

so that we can go on our walk with our water walk, and no one will think, but it was. But the crux of this case was the suicide being deemed staged by the coroner. Well, coroners can't really give medical opinions, only medical examiners can. So the defense argued the Westerville PD operated under a presumed guilt and validated

their unwarranted suspicions on the opinion of a layman. They claimed the injuries were consistent with strangulation, but those injuries are also consistent with, you guessed it, hanging. The defense rested after seven days and the decision of Matt's fate was handed to the jury. Hurticked on count 1, we the jury being duly in panels for an affinent defendant Matthew Elmore, not guilty of murder as he stands charged in count 1 of the indictment dated 26 August, 2022, signed by all 12 members as a panel. Matt was found not guilty on all counts and was made a free man.

The jury had a reasonable doubt that Matt killed Emily. When Matt heard the verdict, he broke down into tears. The raid when I was father of not guilty is when I started to be able to agree for her. So that's why I probably got emotional with that was her more than anything else. Finally, he could mourn the loss of his wife, now that he was no longer suspected of her murder. In the months since, he's poured his thoughts about this whole ordeal into a book called Emily, a staged suicide in Ohio. He felt that he needed to tell his side of things. You're not going to get the truth from what the West wrote, please, Sparman fed the media.

And if you ever doubted Matt, here's one of the jurors who freed him. I knew from day one I thought he was not guilty and the prosecutors never changed my mind. I didn't falter on how I felt, not for one minute. I just thought Matt Moore seemed very cooperative and wanted to be helpful. And he act like he was very distraught over his wife disappearing. And that was the first thing that I thought

right away that this was, he wasn't putting on a show. He was truly wanting to help. Honestly, I thought he was a nice guy that was totally manipulated and tricked. I just will never believe he killed his wife. The people that are, I think I'm guilty, there's nothing I'm gonna say that changed that. Because there's a lot of stuff that they didn't know

that the book will help them with. I hope her family reads it. There's a lot to unpack in this episode. First, don't talk to cops without a lawyer that is. Second, the police seriously failed in this investigation. The criminal justice system broke down. It didn't work. And sometimes that is the case, unfortunately. Law enforcement, after all, is made up of humans. And these particular humans hyped themselves up that Matt did it because they couldn't find the body.

But they couldn't find the body because they blatantly ignored Matt's direction to the nearest wooded area. After all, it was too thick to traverse. Wow, all that time and money wasted investigating a widower. Not only did Matt have to suffer another family death, but then he suffered being accused of murder. When asked why he thought Emily committed suicide, he answered simply. doctor Emily was a very deep person she had a hard life. You know what my son came in suicide and what did he I mean I don't it's I don't understand it who understands suicide. Now I ask you do you think if Emily knew that Matt would be

accused of a murder what she have followed through with her plan. Well, that does it again for another one. Thank you so much for joining us and we hope we'll see you again next time. But in the meantime, I'll be here trying to fix this fucking computer, which has been serving us quite effectively for the last 5 to 10 years. I don't know. I know I should have gotten a new one, but it's about to die, along with my ability to record. So I better get to it pretty soon.

Uh, boy, when it rains at four, it doesn't it? First the website, then the studio. Uh, I wonder what's next. I wonder if the, uh, government's gonna seize my bank accounts. Who knows? That's why life's a party. You never know what's gonna happen. In any case, we hope to see you next time. Until then, stay safe. Hey Mike, this is Wyatt calling. I just finished your plus episode, of two and man one of the best episodes I've heard crazy fun plus I gotta say I love the podcast man you know sometimes I don't agree with your opinion for sure but a lot of times I do and I think that you know you got a great show and you don't have to Throw someone completely away just because you don't agree with one or two of their opinions or something

They said once And that's a show fantastic, but I Keep getting blown away by that fantastic fun. I keep getting blown away by the episodes that are on plus so feel free to use it to plug your pre-dead description but man yeah great work keep it up love the stories which people weren't so fucking bad but yeah thank you man have a good one. Bye. you