[3][17] Likewise, he questioned how a woman who had lost two husbands to poisoning would not seek help for a daughter in Ashley's state. Ashley Wallace, daughter of Stacey Castor and Michael Wallace, spoke with ABC News in 2009 after her mother's conviction. Would love your thoughts, please comment. Until her death of a heart attack in 2016 in prison, Castor continued to attest her innocence. Castor offered to get drunk again to celebrate her 21st birthday early, according to former Det. How can you hate someone and love them at the same time? All these things, she took away from me," Wallace said at the opening of her victim impact statement. Advertisement Where are Ashley and Bree Wallace now? [24] He stated that while most suicide notes focus on themes of remorse and the person not being able to go on with life, the note supposedly written by Ashley was focused on taking the blame off of Castor. She was rushed to the hospital, and the authorities found a typewritten suicide note that appeared to be written by Ashley. Stacey's antifreeze killings and homicide plots are retold in an episode of 20/20 titled 20/20: Fatal Flaw - On The Rocks. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. She becomes, you know, lethargic and eventually passes out and winds up in her bedroom., Sept. 13, 2007: Wallace drinks with mom again. To Stacey Castor, human beings are disposable. When her sister came in to check on her later, she was unresponsive. As for Bree, she seems to have moved on with her life as well. As hard as you tried, I survived and I will survive because now I'm surrounded by people that love me. Detective testifies about Castor's mispronunciation [33], 2007 mugshot, Onondaga County Sheriffs Dept, Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 19:46, Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, "Exhumed Body Reveals Stacey Castor's First Husband 'Didn't Just Die': Exclusive Look Inside Anti-Freeze Murder Mystery; What Brought Two Men to Rest in Neighboring Graves. And then she took that all away, Wallace said. None of Ashley's fingerprints were found on the note which she purportedly wrote, but the print expert said there was some additional "ridge detail" on the document that was insufficient to test for identification purposes. In 2000, Michael succumbed to a heart attack and died. They began to suspect she was involved in their murder. Stacey called 911, claiming that her daughter drank and took some medication. Her mother kept telling her Ashley was tired and taking a nap, Bree said. She said it was normal for her sister to take an early-afternoon nap but not to be asleep in her bedroom as long as she was that day. [24] Knoll said that killers may have many different motivations. [3][9] Given evidence of the evolution of David Castor's illness, they concluded that Castor had for four days fed her husband antifreeze through the baster before trying to make it look like a suicide. She currently lives in Syracuse, New York, and is engaged to Nick Galoni. While the authorities initially ruled it a suicide, they later learned Stacey was responsible for poisoning David. [15] She had said that her husband got the idea to kill himself with antifreeze while both were watching a news report about Lynn Turner, who murdered two past lovers by using the poison. Hear Stacey Castor's frantic 911 call to police about daughter who overdosed. He described Castor as a "black widow" type rather than a typical serial killer. Stacey is at the center of a web of lies linked to the deaths of David and a previous husband, as well as the overdose of her daughter, Ashley Wallace, 21. Expert says David Castor's DNA was on turkey baster, which prosecution says was used to kill him She had murdered her husbands partly to collect on their life insurance and estates,[16] and had changed David's will to exclude his son by a previous marriage from the money left to him by David. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. According to Castor, Wallace was very close to Bree, showing a favoritism that Castor made up for by becoming "best friends" with elder daughter Ashley. Once Ashley returned home from picking Bree up from school, her father seemed unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Ashley felt tired after that and went to sleep in her bedroom. Stacey Castor, 40, gave her 20-year-old daughter a tainted drink the night of Sept. 13, then typed a note to make the poisoning look like a suicide, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said. They were blaming Stacey for this," she said. In this image made from video Stacey Castor appears in court after hearing she was found guilty in Syracuse, N.Y., Feb. 5, 2009. [15] With a "jam-packed" courtroom, most were focused on Castor. Eight years later, those close to Wallace began to notice symptoms of illness- Wallace coughed incessantly and seemed swollen. [3], Castor's defense teamattorneys Charles Keller and Todd Smith[14]was set on creating reasonable doubt in the jury's minds about Castor having committed the murders. As police were investigating both deaths in September 2007, the family suffered another emergency. As his inexplicable sickness persisted over the holiday season, his family encouraged him to seek medical care, but he died in early 2000 before he could do so. [3] In a final attempt to convince the jury that she was not guilty, Castor took the stand. On April 24, 2009, ABC aired a two-hour 20/20 special about Castor and the trial, which included interviews. Along with being suspected of killing her first husband, Castor was found guilty of poisoning her second husband with antifreeze and attempting to murder her daughter, Ashley Wallace. In addition, she is suspected of having murdered her first husband, Michael Wallace, in 2000; his grave lay next to David Castor's until David's remains were disinterred in 2016 and buried elsewhere by his son. The gruesome tale earned her the nickname The Black Widow in the news. Ultimately, her daughters, Ashley and Bree Wallace, struggled to understand why their mother did what she did. [3][9] The note appeared to be Ashley's "murder confession", in which she "admits" to having killed her father and stepfather. [3] They noted Ashley's father, Wallace, showing favoritism toward his younger daughter rather than Ashley and cited jealousy as a possible motive for Ashley having murdered at such a young age. [19], Bree, like Ashley, never spoke to Castor after the trial. Prior to the 20/20 broadcast, the true crime events were previously chronicled in Lifetime's Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor Story. The outlet also notes that Ashleys overdose occurred just days after police exhumed Wallaces body. Stacey met her second husband, David Castor, through her boss in 2001. Our editors handpick the products that we feature. Bree also offered other details about the August 2005 weekend leading up to the discovery of her stepfather's body in his bed at their Wetzel Road home. As hard as you tried, I survived. Courtesy of the Onondaga Prosecutor's Office. This is how she said goodbye. April 22, 2009 -- Stacey Castor wanted people to believe that she was simply an unlucky wife after her first husband died of an apparent heart attack in 2000 and her second of an apparent suicide in 2005 by poisoning himself with anti-freeze. Stacey Castor defends herself during cross examination Watch on In June 2016, seven years into her 51-year sentence, Castor was found dead in her prison cell in Bedford Hills, New York. I'm going to do good things in this world despite making me in every sense of the word an orphan. [24], Forensic Files had an episode titled "Freeze Framed" regarding Castor. She would not frame Ashley.. [31] It was later determined by the D.A. "He wasn't a drinker; he didn't go out at night," she told Snapped. [3] For her stepfather, they noted his and Ashley's tumultuous relationship and how they did not get along with each other. One of those times was to let Bree look in because the teenager had been asking if her mother was sure he was okay. Wallace woke up with a hangover, went to school, and returned. Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) plays Castor, whose likable demeanor hides her dark side. But doctors told Stacey they thought it was a heart attack, Benson said. Castor told David Muir in 2009 that, in the moment, she couldnt believe was happening. 2005 to 2006: Det. Upon waking up, Wallace denied writing the confession letter. One night, the former served the latter an alcoholic drink loaded with a lethal dose of painkillers. [3][10] An upset Ashley called Castor. [3] On the stand, Ashley retold how her mother had convinced her to drink the two nights before she almost died. He said there were certain similarities in the two husbands' deaths. Ashley and Bree testified at Stacey's trial, where Stacey was convicted of murder and attempted murder. [17], Fitzpatrick asserted that Castor's behavior during David Castor's and Ashley's illnesses made no sense, given the years she had worked for a paramedics company. "I was trying to get her to wake up, but she wouldn't wake up," 17-year-old Bree Wallace said of her sister, Ashley. You can check out the video here. But she was the one who did this," Wallace said. Since Castor died in 2016, Wallace now has to live without her apology, or answers. Where Are Ashley and Bree Wallace Today? Castor quickly took the note from the sister and later gave it to the paramedics. She had noticed his ill appearance that day, but thought nothing of it. It seemed more important for her to tell them about the suicide note than to be talking about the condition of her daughter., She had a cornucopia of drugs in her system," Fitzpatrick said. "It had DNA evidence. In fact, he said they had talked about the issue about a month earlier and both agreed suicide was selfish and unfair to the loved ones left behind. There are so many things that she has ruined. In 2003, three years after Wallaces death, Stacey married David Castor. I do not believe Stacey did it. In an interview outside the courtroom, Wallace and her sister said they had already moved on, and had no interest in speaking to their mother again. She'll never be able to see Bree graduate. Have a tip? The worst thing that ever happened to him was he had a hernia.". Ashley agreed because Castor was not only her mother but her "best friend". Though it initially appeared that he had committed suicide, police later came to the conclusion that his wife had killed him. Each had children from a previous marriage. Fortunately, the young woman survived the scare. According to District Attorney Fitzpatrick, Castor died of a heart attack, and no foul play was suspected. Courtesy of the Onondaga Sheriff's Office. That's the closest I've ever come to a brush with the law. But whats the real deal? "I never got my answers because Stacey died. David was very conscientious, very work driven, very into outdoors, Castor said. The following day, Stacey made her another drink. [19] Castor, who professed to being shocked at the guilty verdict, maintained her innocence during the on-air 20/20 special,[3] as well as in unaired parts of the program. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. CONVICTED murderer Stacey Castor used duplicitous methods to victimize her own family members. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The movie's speech is pulled verbatim from the statement the real Wallace read, through tears, in the courtroom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, who prosecuted the case, said there was compelling evidence against Castor. Ashley Wallace, daughter of Stacey Castor and Michael Wallace, spoke with ABC News in 2009 after her mother's conviction. I did not kill Michael Wallace, I did not kill David Castor, and I did not try to kill my daughter, period," she told Muir in 2009. The jurors also heard Friday from Ashley Wallace's boyfriend, Matthew Gandino. It had forensic linguistic analysis, which is you know, who wrote the note? Eventually, Stacey started dating again and in late 2001 met a recent divorcee named David Castor. [3] They argued that the "suicide attempt" had actually been a planned-out murder attempt by Castor against Ashley. [17] Prosecutors argued the "typing sounds" were those of one of the several drafts Castor had written of the suicide note. Hey there, welcome to my channel. [3] The investigators soon felt the only way to prove Castor responsible for both homicides was to have Wallace's body exhumed. As Wallace herself said at the trial, "I just want it to go away, but I know it will never go away.". During her mother's trial, Ashley reads an emotional statement to the judge. SYRACUSE, NY -- Stacey Castor's youngest daughter broke into tears today as she told a jury about finding her older sister staring glassy-eyed into space the morning she was rushed to the hospital for treatment of a near fatal drug and alcohol overdose. I asked Stacey, Do you remember which glass it was that you poured the cranberry juice in? and she looked at it and said, Well, when I poured the anti-free-- I and then she stopped and said, I mean-- I mean, the cranberry juice.. "[19] Ashley said, "I would have done anything for her. She was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of David Castor, attempted murder of her daughter, and forging Castor's will. "What gave her the right to play God with people? As Poisoned Love shows, Ashley and Bree Wallace were once very close to their mom. Bree said she looked in on her sister at one point only to have her mother suddenly appear and shoo her out of the room. "Your honor, [Castor] is a monster and a threat to society," he said. Stacey Castor was born on July 24, 1967, in Clay, New York. Four years after David Castor's death, Stacey Castor, who'd become known as a "black widow" in the press, was arrested for murder and for attempted murder of Ashley Wallace. In August 2005, Castor called emergency services to report that her husband David had locked himself in his bedroom and that she was worried for his safety. Ashley did have fond memories from her childhood. [3] They listened in on phone calls for any unusual conversations. The jurors today also heard that Stacey Castor's fingerprints were found on the glass containing antifreeze found on her husband's bedside nightstand in 2005. Willoughby says he remembers that Castor screamed, "He's not dead, he's not dead. They were married in August 2003 and she took his surname. [19] She indicated that her mother, stepfather and some other relatives still support her. Bree Wallace, of Clay, testifies in the murder trial or her mother, Stacey Castor. And being my children, they questioned everything., Aug. 22, 2005: Castors second husband dies. 11 True Crime Novels That Every Armchair Detective Will Love, These Women Committed Brutal Crimes and Are Now Just Walking Around Free, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window). Ashley is engaged to be married and is still close to her sister Bree. April 20, 2009, 9:22 AM. Dubbed the "Black Widow," Castor was convicted of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and forging her husband's will in 2009. [2] [3] He had snowmobiles and four-wheelers and a boat David was support and strength and security to me.. [2][3] Despite their closeness with their children, the couple grew apart, and it was rumored that each was having affairs. [3][9] When Ashley woke up, with police questioning her about the murders and the suicide note found beside her, she said that the last thing she remembered was her mother making her an alcoholic drink, something she had never done before.