The Mortician (2025) s01e03 Episode Script
Episode 3
1
[eerie music playing]
[Elie Estephan speaking]
And that's how he died.
But that was not
the only death
that people were talking about.
Also, there was Ron Jordan.
Back in '85, Ron Jordan
worked for
Dave Sconce.
I knew Ron, I knew
the whole family, his family.
He transported bodies to
the crematory to be cremated.
He saw what Dave is doing.
[cremation furnaces rumbling]
Ron decided, "I don't wanna
have anything to do with it.
I'm quitting.
I'm done."
But he was scared
of Dave Sconce.
So, he told Dave, "Listen, you
have nothing to worry about it.
I know nothing, I saw nothing."
He was looking forward
for the next phase of his life.
He was a handsome guy,
he had a gorgeous girlfriend.
Young, educated.
He wanted to be a fireman.
Two weeks later, we hear that
Ron was found hanging.
He committed suicide.
[dark somber music playing]
[crickets chirping]
Coroner came in,
did an investigation.
Not enough evidence to blame
anyone other than hearsay,
but we all had no doubts that
he didn't do that to himself.
[dark music continues]
Everyone knew Ron,
everyone knew Dave,
everyone knew the business,
said that cannot happen.
There's no proof, of course,
but a couple weeks
before, Ron
he mentioned it, not realizing
that it's gonna come true.
You know, "If anything happens
to me, just look for Dave."
[sinister music playing]
[David Sconce]
Certain people said
that I killed Ron Jordan,
who I-- okay.
Somehow, I had done
something to him.
I remember Ron
was clean-cut.
He was a good employee,
he was a hard worker.
I-- I later heard he
was a gay guy,
but I don't care if a guy's
a gay guy. Big deal.
It means I don't tie my shoes
in front of him.
Okay, that's fine.
I can't think of one bad thing
I ever heard about Ron.
Why would I want to kill him?
Seriously?
You know.
[Elie]
This man has no conscience.
[sinister music continues]
He deserved to be
locked up for-- for life.
For life.
That's where he belongs.
[music intensifies]
[music fades out]
Good evening,
I'm Ted Koppel,
and this is Nightline.
I don't even know
if I've got my husband's ashes.
Let alone, I know that
they mutilated him
to get the corneas,
but I don't even know
that it's his ashes
that I've got.
[dark mysterious
music playing]
[Bella Shaw]
From California, a story
that sounds like a plot
from a horror movie.
A ghastly tale
of funeral attendants
who allegedly
dismembered bodies,
secretly sold human organs.
[reporter] 32-year-old
David Sconce and his parents,
Jerry and Laurieanne
Lamb Sconce,
who own the mortuary,
face trial
beginning later this year
on 68 counts.
[David Sconce] All the stories
about me and my parents,
that was sensationalized
to the max.
There was a bad story about me
every day in the news.
[narrator]
The cremation business
was a goldmine
for the owners of Lamb's.
[David Sconce]
It was such a gut-churning,
emotional kind of a case.
Maybe part of it was irrational.
Maybe, just maybe.
What better way to vilify a guy
than to, uh, compare him
to Hitler?
Come on.
The all-time bad guy.
I'm innocent of everything
that I'm being accused of.
The guilt I focus on myself
might be for me not being
on top of situations
as much as I should have been,
simply because I was overwhelmed
with the number of things
I had going.
The preliminary hearing in
the Lamb Funeral Home case
was the longest
preliminary hearing
in the history of Pasadena,
encompassing six months--
a little more--
and 99 witnesses.
It was a number of counts,
a litany of 'em.
Most were for the mortuary.
A couple of 'em in there
dealt with robbery and assault.
Maybe 80% of 'em
were misdemeanors.
You know, it just seemed
like it would never end.
[Walter Lewis]
We're charging, uh, 26 counts
of taking, uh, brains,
hearts, and lungs
from cadavers without
the permission
from the next of kin.
[David Sconce] Walt Lewis,
the district attorney
he kept bringing in witness
after witness after witness.
[dark music playing]
[Johnny Pollerana speaking]
So, I did it,
but I didn't want to,
'cause I knew
he was in a lot of trouble.
You know, he was getting ready
to take the blunt
of whatever it was going on,
it was gonna be his fault.
[David Sconce] When they put
Danny Galambos on the stand,
this big, hulking, huge guy
Walt Lewis, "Are you scared
of David Sconce?"
And Daniel Galambos goes,
"Oh, yeah.
Oh, uh, he used to be
almost as big as me."
[laughing]
And I'm thinking, wow.
I couldn't laugh
in the courtroom,
but I wanted to.
I wanted to.
[dark music continues]
All these former employees
testified against me
because it was
"Testify against David,
or you're going to jail."
That's what it was.
So, none of those guys
went to jail.
None of 'em did.
[Andre Augustine]
I gave my testimony.
I had to do it.
And it was partially to kinda
clean my slate a little bit.
And I said, David Sconce
was a-- a dark, bad guy.
[Louis Quinones]
They would ask me questions.
Uh, David Sconce
always sat by his dad,
you know, and Laurieanne.
They're all three
looking at me, you know.
Every one of 'em.
Evil eyes and just--
their eyes were right at you.
[dark music continues]
It was kinda scary.
I always wondered if they would
do anything to hurt me
for testifying against them.
Shoot me on the freeway
or something, you know.
Break into my home
and stab me or something.
But I-- I felt, uh,
relieved in a way
that, uh, I'm gonna be able
to tell the-- the truth,
you know, 'cause this
is not right, this is inhumane.
And-- and when I went to court,
I was thinking of the families,
'cause some of
the family members were there
at the courthouse.
[dramatic music playing]
[Elizabeth Creamer]
When it came time to testify
my lawyer, he said,
"Now, are you ready,
and are you calm?"
I said, "Oh, yes,
I'm very calm."
What I want to do
is jump over the table
and grab him by the throat
and shake him till he's dead.
[dramatic music continues]
[Darlynn Branton-Stoa]
When I was testifying in court,
I was walking in the halls,
and I saw
David Sconce with his attorney.
Heard him say to his attorney,
"I didn't do it,
my guys did it."
Well, I was livid.
It was all I could do
not to choke him
right then and there.
[dramatic music continues]
[Roger Diamond]
In this particular case,
uh, we deny-- my client
denies having engaged
in either one of those
two practices,
either multiple cremations
or commingling of the ashes.
[Ted Koppel] I mean, he's not
saying he had permission.
He's just saying
that he never did it.
Right.
[dramatic music continues]
[Nancy Hathorn]
I-- I only had one experience
going to a courthouse,
with my sister,
for, I believe
it was a preliminary trial,
and the lawyers
for the Lamb Funeral Home
were-- were really vicious
with her.
"Well, you read the contract,
and why are you saying this?"
And you know, really,
really adversarial to her.
The, uh, the body parts,
the-- were removed,
but with the consent
of the next of kin.
We have forms that
the next of kin signed.
[Darlynn] They were very
belligerent and battering,
and it was this head-butting
kind of situation.
Are you kidding me?
It was just unbelievable.
[dramatic music
continues playing]
[music fades out]
[Barbara Hunt]
David was in jail.
And everybody kept telling me,
"Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
He'll be out, he'll come out."
[somber music playing]
Things were getting worse--
his trial.
Uh, I--
I was running out of money.
And I-- I was
a stay-at-home mom.
So, I asked my in-laws,
Laurieanne and Jerry Sconce,
for a little help.
And they said, "Well, you need
to go on welfare."
Nobody wanted to hear me.
It was all about David
and getting money for attorneys
and trying to get him out.
David was on the news
every single night.
I couldn't get away from it.
And I didn't know 90%
of what was going on
until I was hearing it
on the news.
I was devastated.
It's hard because
you fall in love with a family,
and you wanna support,
you wanna believe.
[somber music continues]
Sitting through the trial
is when I thought
Who is this?
Who did I marry?
David had so many felonies.
I kept thinking,
this is not David.
David couldn't do this.
Father of your kids,
you want them to be innocent.
So, when they started
talking about murder
I did-- I didn't believe it.
I didn't think
that he was capable.
[ominous music playing]
When David would say to someone,
"I'm going to kill you,"
or he would say
to somebody else,
"I'm gonna kill this
other person,"
people took him seriously,
very seriously.
He always carried a gun,
sometimes carried two guns.
The thing is, he was always
threatening to kill people.
[dramatic music playing]
He almost routinely threatened
to kill his employees.
Throw 'em up against the wall,
put his hands around
their throats, you know,
"I'm gonna kill you.
I'm gonna fuckin'
kill you, man."
[dramatic music continues]
By all these accounts,
he was a dangerous person.
And he made plans
to kill his competitors.
[Elie] The case that was
going on in Pasadena
all of a sudden,
I got two detectives pulling in.
[distant sirens wailing]
They said, "We have two men
in our custody
that said Dave Sconce
hired them to kill you."
I had bought the Cremation
Society of California--
that was the name
of the company.
Dave was pissed off at me
because he wanted
to buy the business.
[former employee speaking]
[dramatic music
continues playing]
I thank God how lucky I was.
Because, you know,
I would sit and think,
"I could have been dead."
[ominous music playing]
Maybe not hanging
from my neck
or with poison.
But it came very close.
And all because
of some criminal.
And nothing's gonna stand
in his way.
There are many threats that
have been made in this case,
and also actual assaults
by people who are alleging
that were hired by Mr. Sconce.
[dramatic music playing]
[David Sconce]
Conspiracy of murder,
there's some crap about that.
That was kind of
an ongoing claim.
Walt Lewis, he just hated me.
You know, you feel that
when you read people.
He would put his finger
up to his lips
and he would
have his arms folded,
and he would just be doing this,
looking at me.
Just
Not even blinking
looking at you.
I just kinda thought
he was out of his mind
or he was obsessed with me.
[Victor Persón] I was the judge
during the preliminary hearing.
And at some point,
someone noticed, uh,
the writing on the wall
in the sheriff's department
in Pasadena
in the holding cell.
They figured out
that it was more than likely
that David Sconce wrote it.
"Lewis will die,"
quote-unquote.
They found four inmates
that had been approached
by David Sconce
to kill Walt Lewis.
No!
[chuckles] No.
No, I wrote "Lewis will die
of AIDS" on the wall,
because he's so emaciated.
And I thought, why-- you know,
why has he got this out for me?
But it didn't say
"Lewis will die."
It said "Lewis will die
of AIDS."
[Victor]
The ends justify the means,
as far as David was concerned.
Didn't matter what it was,
who it was,
or how much it cost,
"Just do it."
And so, then it went
to Superior Court
where his mother and his father
would be tried separately.
I'll always remember that when
they walked out of my courtroom,
Laurieanne turned
and very loudly said,
"We haven't gotten justice here.
We'll get justice
somewhere else."
[dramatic music playing]
[people chattering]
[Drina Valentine]
When our trial started,
I had never heard
of the Lamb Funeral Home
or the Sconces.
So, upon hearing the details
of what the trial was gonna be,
I was like, "Oh, my God."
Do people really do this?
The father, Jerry,
I didn't trust him.
He just had the appearance
of being shady.
But the mom, Laurieanne,
was different.
She always looked so innocent.
She just reminds you
of a librarian.
I testified to, uh, my findings,
and they were irrefutable.
We knew that Laurieanne
had embezzled a lot of money.
[dramatic music continues]
She was sitting up at the table
with the attorney.
Pff, she's got this aura.
I mean, I don't know.
It's like somebody standing
behind her with a flashlight.
I mean, it's just the glow.
And once again,
"I didn't do anything wrong.
"All I wanted to do was just
help these families and
[sniffling]
I'm so sorry, I'm just--"
you know, just--
I don't know.
She would have given
Meryl Streep
a run for her money.
[Elliott Alhadeff] The defense
for Jerry and Laurieanne
was that the son
had incorporated them
without their will, uh,
into these illegal activities.
David had made them do it,
that they were essentially
victimized by their son.
[ominous music playing]
[David Sconce] My parents
were part of everything
that was going on there
at the funeral home.
But you know what?
They were never anything
but good to me, ever.
So, I did essentially
lie about that
and say they didn't know
anything about it.
I tried to fall on my spear
because I was trying
to protect 'em.
That's important to me.
They really tried to make us
believe it was all about David.
But the evidence
was overwhelming
that they were
completely involved.
[dark music playing]
The way I recall it,
they would have a document
that the family
would have to sign
to release the body
to the funeral home
to be cremated.
There was a point
where they had changed
some of the language
on the document.
There was a line
that was added.
It was like in the middle
of the paragraph
that would pretty much
give permission for them
to remove organs
without the families
knowing that
that's what they were doing.
It was-- it was horrible.
And then, it came to light
that sometimes Laurieanne
was actually
forging the signatures.
[Elliott] During the trial,
expert witnesses
determined that it was
the handwriting of Laurieanne
on many of the release forms.
And at one point, she even
misspelled the relative's name.
I mean, how does a relative
spell his own name incorrectly?
[Barbara] When Laurieanne
got in trouble for forgery
she said she didn't know
what she was doing.
[dark music continues]
She was controlling,
told everybody what to do,
all the time.
I think Laurieanne
was the mastermind
of the whole family.
[Drina] It's so sad that
there are folks out there
who would take advantage
of people who are grieving.
I remember one of the families
whose loved one's heart
was removed without her knowing.
And she lost it.
She lost it on the stand
'cause it was--
and I'm getting emotional too,
but it was devastating.
I have to admit to you,
when we were deliberating
my thought was,
I hope these people get life.
[soft somber music playing]
[reporter speaking]
[Drina] They only got,
like, three years.
You see, I'm speechless,
because it's like, really?
-[Laurieanne sobbing]
-[Jerry Sconce] Sorry, sweetie.
[Drina] After cheating families
for years,
dishonoring them.
20,000 families
that this happened to,
and all they got
was three years?
No. No justice.
[reporter speaking]
[Johnny speaking]
when I heard that Laurieanne
and Jerry both
went to the county jail.
I couldn't believe it.
I know that must have been hell.
I know, 'cause I've been
in the county jail enough.
And his dad lost all his hair.
Jerry lost all his hair!
[indistinct chatter]
You know what I mean? This
experience just killed them.
It took all the good
out of them.
Man, people can say
whatever they want to say,
but to me they didn't
deserve to go there.
Especially Laurieanne,
she's such a nice lady.
[dark, somber music playing]
[Ashley Dunn]
As this case wound its way
through the courts,
it was just a bizarre
and sort of, um,
nightmarish kind of story.
But it was easy to forget
that the people
at the center of this case
David Sconce's mother
and father,
even though they were convicted
of all these crimes
they were well-known
in Pasadena.
The Lamb family were exactly
part of old Pasadena.
It was a community
with a long history
filled with old families
and mansions that exude
a sense of wealth.
And I think David grew up
with that mentality.
When David's trial
came up in court
my impression of him was that
he was blonde, he was big.
He looked like the ex-football
player that he was.
[ominous music playing]
And he'd carried himself with
a sense of, uh, entitlement,
that he was not a criminal,
but an upstanding citizen
of old-line Pasadena.
I was surprised to-- to hear
what happened in this case.
David's judge dismissed
many of the charges
that I had ordered him
to be held to answer on
including charges
of murder conspiracy.
[ominous music continues]
I got lucky
and I got a better judge.
And he dismissed
half of the counts.
I had to say "guilty" in court
to what was left.
And he gave me five years.
The District Attorney's
sitting down,
just kinda going like
[laughing]
Hand over his face.
[sinister music playing]
[Victor] The judge
had a lot of discretion.
He used it,
and David benefited by it.
It's unfortunate.
More than the deal
of the century, I think.
[David Geary] What people
were talking about was,
"Oh, he got away
with almost everything."
A lot of people
were very disillusioned
with the whole proceeding.
But it wasn't the end.
Prosecutors were still
trying to charge David
with Tim Waters' murder.
[unsettling music playing]
But the Waters thing
seemed pretty clear-cut.
More and more witnesses
at the jail
said David told them
he poisoned him with oleander.
Poison had been found
in Waters' system.
[David Sconce]
While I'm in prison
I get a letter from
Roger Diamond, my attorney,
about the ridiculous, uh,
Waters case.
He says, "Well, they filed
a death penalty case on you."
[laughing] And I go,
"Oh, wait a minute, what?"
[birdsong]
[gentle music playing]
[Dr. Jack Henion] Toxicology
is the study of poisons
in living systems.
Every modern hospital
in the world,
if you will,
has, uh, screening techniques
for measuring the drugs or
metabolites in a-- in a person,
whether they're at the proper
therapeutic levels
or whether at toxic levels.
In 1991, I learned
through a colleague
that there was a court case
going on in the California area
over a poisoning by oleander.
Mr. Waters was the first one
I had heard of
or knew of to have
poisoning by oleander.
A few years earlier,
a toxicologist
had concluded
that the tissue samples
from Mr. Waters
had oleander in it.
Both the defense
and the prosecution
had reason to believe
that they needed
more definitive results.
And so, it was at that point
that they contact me.
During the Tim Waters
death penalty case
that I was charged with
their theory was that
I poisoned
Tim Waters with oleander.
They'd said it was a derivative
as if it had been
distilled oleandrin.
I said,
this is absolutely impossible.
I told Roger Diamond,
my attorney,
I said "Roger,"
I said, "dig him up."
He goes, "What?"
Roger balked at it.
And Roger said, "Oh, David,
what if it's a false positive?
"What if they find something
that might not be that,
but they claim that's it?"
I said, "Roger,
they're claiming I killed a guy
"that I've never seen,
and they don't have evidence
that I've ever even been
around this guy, ever."
I said, "Dig him up!"
The deceased,
we learned was buried
in an above-ground casket
at room temperature.
When you do an autopsy,
you remove the organs
from the body.
And his organs, I was told
were stored in plastic bags.
I don't know whether
they were Ziploc bags or what,
but plastic bags beside his body
in the casket,
and that that's where
the samples came from
that we received
at-- at Cornell.
Mr. Waters' liver
was best described by--
I would say by,
as chocolate pudding.
It was a mush.
It was badly decayed.
So, we rolled up our sleeves
and used some technology
we were in the process
of developing at the time.
A tandem mass spectrometer
to look for oleandrin
as well as oleandrigenin.
Those chemicals
analyzed in that way
have their own fingerprint.
You better have that fingerprint
from the mass spectrometer
to be sure you're right.
[reporter]
Ex-mortician David Sconce,
the man who is said
to have bragged
about poisoning and killing
his arch-rival,
mortician Timothy Waters,
walked into court
to hear two words:
"Case dismissed."
No oleander. Nothing.
Zero. Zippo.
The man died
of a heart attack.
[soft, dramatic music playing]
[Jack] After all the work
that we did
our findings were negative.
We did not find any oleander
or oleandrigenin
in Mr. Waters' tissue.
[dramatic music continues]
One possible explanation
is that this
badly decayed sample
was so chemically complex,
that it didn't work very well.
We-- I gotta tell you,
we tried hard,
but we did not see it.
The motion and application to
dismiss the action is granted,
and the defendant
is just-- uh, is discharged.
-[people chattering]
-[cameras clicking]
I don't care to shake
the hand of a man
I believe
is a cold-blooded murderer.
[cameras clicking]
I'm elated that they have
finally seen the light.
-I'm an innocent man.
-[reporter] Did you ever think
you would see this day
that you would walk out?
I always knew I would walk out.
I'm innocent.
[somber music playing]
It's my unofficial opinion
that David Sconce is guilty.
-[somber music continues]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Jack] The symptoms
that Mr. Waters displayed
the-- all the other details--
the book that was found--
all is circumstantial evidence,
granted.
But knowing the poor nature
of his character, if you will,
it seems entirely possible
or likely that he did this.
It's a shame
he got away with it.
[David Sconce]
Oh, the test results
prove that this was never
in his body,
never could have been there,
and what the hell
are you talking about?
Year of my life
sitting in the county jail
to hear all that.
I was just really relieved.
But I just found out
that night before
that I'd lost my dad's dad.
He died.
So, I called, and, uh,
I talked to my grandmother,
Mommy Thais, and, uh
You know, it's--
[voice breaking]
He's gone, that's it.
You know, he's--
he's gone, and, uh,
I told her, I said,
"It's okay," you know.
"I'm coming home."
And, uh, you know,
that's all she kept saying,
was, "He's-- he's gone."
And, uh
[clicking tongue]
You know, I left it alone, um
Friday goes by,
and then she died on Satur--
[choking up] Excuse me.
She died on Saturday.
Yeah.
Nothing wrong with her.
Nothing.
[clicking tongue]
And, uh, you know,
she was a big part of my life.
You know, it was just, uh,
there wasn't anything
wrong with her.
She married for like 61 years,
and she just died.
Gave up.
And, uh, you know.
Sorry, that was sad.
I was just really sad.
[clicking tongue, sniffling]
Both of 'em were just--
two caskets right there.
Can't say I'm over it.
Don't think
I'll ever be over it.
[birds squawking]
[Skip Jones]
After the Tim Waters trial
it was all over.
A lot of people wanted
to see this family in jail
paying for all of the things
that they did.
But at the end of the day,
they were free.
I don't know how they could
live with themselves.
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music
continues playing]
[water splashing]
[Barbara]
After he had gotten out
we lived at the vacation house
in Lake Mohave.
I just wanted a clean start.
I didn't want to think
about anything
that happened in California.
We can start living
a normal life.
Laurieanne and Jerry
were out of jail.
They were living
right next door.
And David had gotten a job
working for LTI.
It was Laughlin Transit,
and he was driving buses.
[curious music playing]
[bus engine rumbling]
You cross over the bridge
and you go down,
and you pick up people
that wanted to come
to Laughlin to gamble.
Well, they gave him a stack
of bus tickets and said,
"You can sell these tickets
for $20 apiece."
Well, he decided to make
his own tickets
[scoffs]
and sell his own tickets
so he could make
and keep the money.
Well, he got caught.
[jazz music playing]
Why?
Why would you think that that
is gonna help you in any way?
His mother said
[clicking tongue]
"He got caught."
So, they were aware of it too.
Whose idea was it?
Was it David's?
Was it Laurieanne's?
Was it Jerry?
It's so
[scoffs]
[jazz music continues]
David went to jail again.
You just really start thinking
about your choices in life
and who you pick.
[chuckles]
[David Sconce] Barbara and I
just kinda grew apart.
You know, the only reason
I divorced her
was because when I was
in prison in Arizona,
she got herself a boyfriend.
You know,
that's the only reason.
I couldn't trust her.
You break my trust, that's it.
[Barbara]
There's anger, but
you gotta put that stuff away.
[sniffles]
Say a prayer and move on.
[sniffling]
Still hurts sometimes.
[David Geary] After he did
some time in Arizona,
David was supposed to keep
his nose super clean.
So, he walked away from that,
but he didn't walk very far.
[dramatic music playing]
He just kinda kept having
legal issues
with his probation.
Eventually, he was convicted
of stealing a gun
from somebody up in Montana,
and selling the gun.
He was a felon, he wasn't
allowed to have a gun.
[David Sconce]
In 2012, they, uh, gave me
a federal firearms charge
a year after I get rid of a gun
that I never fired,
that was given to me.
'Cause I'm not a gun guy.
I'm really not, never have been.
California said
that was a violation
of my California probation.
So, that's what got me here.
Gave me 25-to-life.
[laughing]
How does that happen?
Who's calling the shots
with that one? Hm?
Really.
And finally, they found me
parole-suitable.
So, here we are.
[ominous music playing]
I have theories
on why the things happened
the way they did to me.
[Scott Brougham] David and I
used to literally spend hours
talking in jail.
And he had excuses
for absolutely everything.
Everything
that he ever did in life
that he failed at was always
someone else's fault.
He's just the
consummate victim.
Had he been left alone,
he would have been
the mortician of the world.
[David Sconce] There's kind of
a domino effect of events
that led up to this, see?
If my parents didn't tell me
about the mortuary school,
had they not thrown it
out there,
I would have gone to the Navy.
That's what my plans were.
It's fallback plans,
'cause I always wanted to teach.
You know,
I wanted to be a teacher.
Um, and everything
would have been different
if I would've just got
that second year
of, you know,
eligibility playing football.
But then I got injured,
and so I didn't get it,
so everything started.
Nonexistent.
Nonexistent.
I've been abandoned.
[birdsong]
My grandfather, Lawrence Lamb,
died of a brain tumor.
In fact, my dad and I
took care of Grandpa
for like the last week
of his life.
My grandmother, Lucile,
died a little while later.
I was told about my dad's death
by a friend of mine in prison.
I wish I could have
seen my dad.
I wish I could have been there,
you know, as he passed away.
But I wasn't.
[soft somber music playing]
My mother was always
a good support system for me
through the years of me
being incarcerated.
But after my dad died,
everything stopped.
I've never heard
from her since. Not a word.
Not a letter, nothing.
[birds chirping]
[soft somber music
continues playing]
[interviewer speaking]
Wow.
Really? [chuckling]
You want me to go there, huh?
Well, you know what?
I didn't think I was doing
anything wrong,
but everybody else knew I was.
And, you know, I had drug use
and stuff like that,
and that didn't help.
[flames whooshing]
[dramatic melancholy
music playing]
It was a part of my life
that was a long time ago.
And I would nev--
you couldn't pay me enough
to do it again.
[melancholy music continues]
Nobody got away scot-free.
Everybody got something
happening to them
because of working there.
We all paid the price for it.
[wind whistling]
[Andre]
I'm the last guy standing
from the, uh,
Big Men Unlimited.
Dave Edwards got hurt.
He was getting
blood transfusions
and he acquired AIDS
from those blood transfusions.
And Danny died
jumping out of a plane.
[wind whistling]
You know what?
I'm 64 years old, okay?
I'm in the fourth quarter now,
you know?
It's not overtime yet,
but you know, hey.
I've had a good life,
you know, I got my kids.
I'm-- you know, I'm okay.
You can look back and say
you would've done
something different,
but at this point, nah.
[laughing]
[hands rubbing]
[droning music playing]
[David Geary]
For the history of mankind
treating the dead
with some respect, you know,
has-- has been the way
human beings
have lived in all cultures.
[Jolena Grande] You could say
that the David Sconce case
was the ultimate
incendiary point
for which we now
have massive regulations
in funeral service practice,
incredible rules
regarding cremation
and more statutes than probably
any other industry.
So, there's more transparency,
more clarity
in the decision-making process
for consumers.
This case served a purpose
because they got it
on the record
all of the things that they did,
and as a result, there were laws
that were passed.
Laws that allow 'em to go in
and inspect the crematories.
And certain things
became felonies.
That's important.
[Jolena]
I would love to shout
at the top of my lungs
that it was one person,
and this one person
does not reflect all of us.
The unfortunate reality
is across the United States,
we still see scandals
involving cremation.
[slow, dark music playing]
[Elie] David Sconce devastated
the industry with what he did.
And, uh
families still don't trust.
[Nancy]
This is the Lamb Funeral Home
everlasting legacy
in my family.
When my mother died,
my husband went
and watched her.
They lifted the pine box,
saw it was her,
and he watched her
being put into an oven.
I mean, imagine physically
watching that,
you know, because he just was
so traumatized,
what had happened.
[Darlynn]
And I felt terribly guilty.
I was supposed to protect him.
I was the oldest daughter.
I took care of him.
And it wasn't just my dad.
There were 20,000 other people
involved in this,
and their families,
and their children,
and their grandchildren.
And their loss.
And their feelings
of-- of grief and
not having closure.
[somber music playing]
[roadway noise]
[David Sconce] You know, I was
guilty of a lot of things.
But when does
the antipathy end?
When is enough enough?
How long do I have
to be punished?
[bird squawking]
You know, I went to prison.
Everything happened to me bad.
I lost pretty much everything.
So, after that, I mean,
what else are you looking for?
Leave me alone.
[chuckles]
I can't change
what happened, see?
So, I move on.
Sun comes up tomorrow
irregardless, so that's it.
[interviewer]
Um
Maybe.
[Scott]
David is the type of person
who believes that he's smarter
than every other person
in the room.
When you get to jail,
you're taught,
you don't talk to anybody
about your case,
you know, you don't
admit to shit.
[sinister music playing]
But David always felt a need
to brag about
his accomplishments.
And he never figured out
when to shut the fuck up.
[David Sconce]
Alright.
So, there was one night
I had to go to the cemetery
with Barbara.
I get out
and I go to unlock the gate.
And some kid
jumps out of the weeds,
and he's got a nickel-plated
thing right at my head.
He says, "Give me your wallet,
give me your watch."
And Barbara's in the
passenger seat watching this.
And so, I said, "Look, man,
I only got, like, 60 bucks,"
and I gave him
my cheesy Casio watch.
Barbara, God bless her,
she's reaching over to my door
because I always kept
my nine-millimeter in there,
'cause she's gonna come out
and cap this guy.
But the gun wasn't there
because I had problems
at the range with
the Luger shells,
the casings,
'cause they're too big.
And so, it was out getting
a ramp-and-throat done on it.
I learned all this when I went
through the stupid sheriffs.
[crew member speaking]
[interviewer speaking]
Mm.
True story. I thought I was--
I was gonna die.
I really did.
I can tell you more of this,
but I can't tell you on camera.
Can't tell you.
All I can say is,
"You think I found that guy?"
[ominous music playing]
It's one of the things
I can't talk about.
The other thing
I'll tell you about too,
but can't talk about
that either.
Really, there's three of 'em
altogether, um
[sinister music playing]
Gotta promise not to tell on me.
-Ah.
-Yeah.
What, the promise?
Oh, yeah.
-Okay.
-Yeah.
Nah, that's never gonna
come back.
Never gonna come back.
Can't come back.
[laughing]
[dramatic music playing]
♪♪
[music fades out]
[eerie music playing]
[Elie Estephan speaking]
And that's how he died.
But that was not
the only death
that people were talking about.
Also, there was Ron Jordan.
Back in '85, Ron Jordan
worked for
Dave Sconce.
I knew Ron, I knew
the whole family, his family.
He transported bodies to
the crematory to be cremated.
He saw what Dave is doing.
[cremation furnaces rumbling]
Ron decided, "I don't wanna
have anything to do with it.
I'm quitting.
I'm done."
But he was scared
of Dave Sconce.
So, he told Dave, "Listen, you
have nothing to worry about it.
I know nothing, I saw nothing."
He was looking forward
for the next phase of his life.
He was a handsome guy,
he had a gorgeous girlfriend.
Young, educated.
He wanted to be a fireman.
Two weeks later, we hear that
Ron was found hanging.
He committed suicide.
[dark somber music playing]
[crickets chirping]
Coroner came in,
did an investigation.
Not enough evidence to blame
anyone other than hearsay,
but we all had no doubts that
he didn't do that to himself.
[dark music continues]
Everyone knew Ron,
everyone knew Dave,
everyone knew the business,
said that cannot happen.
There's no proof, of course,
but a couple weeks
before, Ron
he mentioned it, not realizing
that it's gonna come true.
You know, "If anything happens
to me, just look for Dave."
[sinister music playing]
[David Sconce]
Certain people said
that I killed Ron Jordan,
who I-- okay.
Somehow, I had done
something to him.
I remember Ron
was clean-cut.
He was a good employee,
he was a hard worker.
I-- I later heard he
was a gay guy,
but I don't care if a guy's
a gay guy. Big deal.
It means I don't tie my shoes
in front of him.
Okay, that's fine.
I can't think of one bad thing
I ever heard about Ron.
Why would I want to kill him?
Seriously?
You know.
[Elie]
This man has no conscience.
[sinister music continues]
He deserved to be
locked up for-- for life.
For life.
That's where he belongs.
[music intensifies]
[music fades out]
Good evening,
I'm Ted Koppel,
and this is Nightline.
I don't even know
if I've got my husband's ashes.
Let alone, I know that
they mutilated him
to get the corneas,
but I don't even know
that it's his ashes
that I've got.
[dark mysterious
music playing]
[Bella Shaw]
From California, a story
that sounds like a plot
from a horror movie.
A ghastly tale
of funeral attendants
who allegedly
dismembered bodies,
secretly sold human organs.
[reporter] 32-year-old
David Sconce and his parents,
Jerry and Laurieanne
Lamb Sconce,
who own the mortuary,
face trial
beginning later this year
on 68 counts.
[David Sconce] All the stories
about me and my parents,
that was sensationalized
to the max.
There was a bad story about me
every day in the news.
[narrator]
The cremation business
was a goldmine
for the owners of Lamb's.
[David Sconce]
It was such a gut-churning,
emotional kind of a case.
Maybe part of it was irrational.
Maybe, just maybe.
What better way to vilify a guy
than to, uh, compare him
to Hitler?
Come on.
The all-time bad guy.
I'm innocent of everything
that I'm being accused of.
The guilt I focus on myself
might be for me not being
on top of situations
as much as I should have been,
simply because I was overwhelmed
with the number of things
I had going.
The preliminary hearing in
the Lamb Funeral Home case
was the longest
preliminary hearing
in the history of Pasadena,
encompassing six months--
a little more--
and 99 witnesses.
It was a number of counts,
a litany of 'em.
Most were for the mortuary.
A couple of 'em in there
dealt with robbery and assault.
Maybe 80% of 'em
were misdemeanors.
You know, it just seemed
like it would never end.
[Walter Lewis]
We're charging, uh, 26 counts
of taking, uh, brains,
hearts, and lungs
from cadavers without
the permission
from the next of kin.
[David Sconce] Walt Lewis,
the district attorney
he kept bringing in witness
after witness after witness.
[dark music playing]
[Johnny Pollerana speaking]
So, I did it,
but I didn't want to,
'cause I knew
he was in a lot of trouble.
You know, he was getting ready
to take the blunt
of whatever it was going on,
it was gonna be his fault.
[David Sconce] When they put
Danny Galambos on the stand,
this big, hulking, huge guy
Walt Lewis, "Are you scared
of David Sconce?"
And Daniel Galambos goes,
"Oh, yeah.
Oh, uh, he used to be
almost as big as me."
[laughing]
And I'm thinking, wow.
I couldn't laugh
in the courtroom,
but I wanted to.
I wanted to.
[dark music continues]
All these former employees
testified against me
because it was
"Testify against David,
or you're going to jail."
That's what it was.
So, none of those guys
went to jail.
None of 'em did.
[Andre Augustine]
I gave my testimony.
I had to do it.
And it was partially to kinda
clean my slate a little bit.
And I said, David Sconce
was a-- a dark, bad guy.
[Louis Quinones]
They would ask me questions.
Uh, David Sconce
always sat by his dad,
you know, and Laurieanne.
They're all three
looking at me, you know.
Every one of 'em.
Evil eyes and just--
their eyes were right at you.
[dark music continues]
It was kinda scary.
I always wondered if they would
do anything to hurt me
for testifying against them.
Shoot me on the freeway
or something, you know.
Break into my home
and stab me or something.
But I-- I felt, uh,
relieved in a way
that, uh, I'm gonna be able
to tell the-- the truth,
you know, 'cause this
is not right, this is inhumane.
And-- and when I went to court,
I was thinking of the families,
'cause some of
the family members were there
at the courthouse.
[dramatic music playing]
[Elizabeth Creamer]
When it came time to testify
my lawyer, he said,
"Now, are you ready,
and are you calm?"
I said, "Oh, yes,
I'm very calm."
What I want to do
is jump over the table
and grab him by the throat
and shake him till he's dead.
[dramatic music continues]
[Darlynn Branton-Stoa]
When I was testifying in court,
I was walking in the halls,
and I saw
David Sconce with his attorney.
Heard him say to his attorney,
"I didn't do it,
my guys did it."
Well, I was livid.
It was all I could do
not to choke him
right then and there.
[dramatic music continues]
[Roger Diamond]
In this particular case,
uh, we deny-- my client
denies having engaged
in either one of those
two practices,
either multiple cremations
or commingling of the ashes.
[Ted Koppel] I mean, he's not
saying he had permission.
He's just saying
that he never did it.
Right.
[dramatic music continues]
[Nancy Hathorn]
I-- I only had one experience
going to a courthouse,
with my sister,
for, I believe
it was a preliminary trial,
and the lawyers
for the Lamb Funeral Home
were-- were really vicious
with her.
"Well, you read the contract,
and why are you saying this?"
And you know, really,
really adversarial to her.
The, uh, the body parts,
the-- were removed,
but with the consent
of the next of kin.
We have forms that
the next of kin signed.
[Darlynn] They were very
belligerent and battering,
and it was this head-butting
kind of situation.
Are you kidding me?
It was just unbelievable.
[dramatic music
continues playing]
[music fades out]
[Barbara Hunt]
David was in jail.
And everybody kept telling me,
"Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
He'll be out, he'll come out."
[somber music playing]
Things were getting worse--
his trial.
Uh, I--
I was running out of money.
And I-- I was
a stay-at-home mom.
So, I asked my in-laws,
Laurieanne and Jerry Sconce,
for a little help.
And they said, "Well, you need
to go on welfare."
Nobody wanted to hear me.
It was all about David
and getting money for attorneys
and trying to get him out.
David was on the news
every single night.
I couldn't get away from it.
And I didn't know 90%
of what was going on
until I was hearing it
on the news.
I was devastated.
It's hard because
you fall in love with a family,
and you wanna support,
you wanna believe.
[somber music continues]
Sitting through the trial
is when I thought
Who is this?
Who did I marry?
David had so many felonies.
I kept thinking,
this is not David.
David couldn't do this.
Father of your kids,
you want them to be innocent.
So, when they started
talking about murder
I did-- I didn't believe it.
I didn't think
that he was capable.
[ominous music playing]
When David would say to someone,
"I'm going to kill you,"
or he would say
to somebody else,
"I'm gonna kill this
other person,"
people took him seriously,
very seriously.
He always carried a gun,
sometimes carried two guns.
The thing is, he was always
threatening to kill people.
[dramatic music playing]
He almost routinely threatened
to kill his employees.
Throw 'em up against the wall,
put his hands around
their throats, you know,
"I'm gonna kill you.
I'm gonna fuckin'
kill you, man."
[dramatic music continues]
By all these accounts,
he was a dangerous person.
And he made plans
to kill his competitors.
[Elie] The case that was
going on in Pasadena
all of a sudden,
I got two detectives pulling in.
[distant sirens wailing]
They said, "We have two men
in our custody
that said Dave Sconce
hired them to kill you."
I had bought the Cremation
Society of California--
that was the name
of the company.
Dave was pissed off at me
because he wanted
to buy the business.
[former employee speaking]
[dramatic music
continues playing]
I thank God how lucky I was.
Because, you know,
I would sit and think,
"I could have been dead."
[ominous music playing]
Maybe not hanging
from my neck
or with poison.
But it came very close.
And all because
of some criminal.
And nothing's gonna stand
in his way.
There are many threats that
have been made in this case,
and also actual assaults
by people who are alleging
that were hired by Mr. Sconce.
[dramatic music playing]
[David Sconce]
Conspiracy of murder,
there's some crap about that.
That was kind of
an ongoing claim.
Walt Lewis, he just hated me.
You know, you feel that
when you read people.
He would put his finger
up to his lips
and he would
have his arms folded,
and he would just be doing this,
looking at me.
Just
Not even blinking
looking at you.
I just kinda thought
he was out of his mind
or he was obsessed with me.
[Victor Persón] I was the judge
during the preliminary hearing.
And at some point,
someone noticed, uh,
the writing on the wall
in the sheriff's department
in Pasadena
in the holding cell.
They figured out
that it was more than likely
that David Sconce wrote it.
"Lewis will die,"
quote-unquote.
They found four inmates
that had been approached
by David Sconce
to kill Walt Lewis.
No!
[chuckles] No.
No, I wrote "Lewis will die
of AIDS" on the wall,
because he's so emaciated.
And I thought, why-- you know,
why has he got this out for me?
But it didn't say
"Lewis will die."
It said "Lewis will die
of AIDS."
[Victor]
The ends justify the means,
as far as David was concerned.
Didn't matter what it was,
who it was,
or how much it cost,
"Just do it."
And so, then it went
to Superior Court
where his mother and his father
would be tried separately.
I'll always remember that when
they walked out of my courtroom,
Laurieanne turned
and very loudly said,
"We haven't gotten justice here.
We'll get justice
somewhere else."
[dramatic music playing]
[people chattering]
[Drina Valentine]
When our trial started,
I had never heard
of the Lamb Funeral Home
or the Sconces.
So, upon hearing the details
of what the trial was gonna be,
I was like, "Oh, my God."
Do people really do this?
The father, Jerry,
I didn't trust him.
He just had the appearance
of being shady.
But the mom, Laurieanne,
was different.
She always looked so innocent.
She just reminds you
of a librarian.
I testified to, uh, my findings,
and they were irrefutable.
We knew that Laurieanne
had embezzled a lot of money.
[dramatic music continues]
She was sitting up at the table
with the attorney.
Pff, she's got this aura.
I mean, I don't know.
It's like somebody standing
behind her with a flashlight.
I mean, it's just the glow.
And once again,
"I didn't do anything wrong.
"All I wanted to do was just
help these families and
[sniffling]
I'm so sorry, I'm just--"
you know, just--
I don't know.
She would have given
Meryl Streep
a run for her money.
[Elliott Alhadeff] The defense
for Jerry and Laurieanne
was that the son
had incorporated them
without their will, uh,
into these illegal activities.
David had made them do it,
that they were essentially
victimized by their son.
[ominous music playing]
[David Sconce] My parents
were part of everything
that was going on there
at the funeral home.
But you know what?
They were never anything
but good to me, ever.
So, I did essentially
lie about that
and say they didn't know
anything about it.
I tried to fall on my spear
because I was trying
to protect 'em.
That's important to me.
They really tried to make us
believe it was all about David.
But the evidence
was overwhelming
that they were
completely involved.
[dark music playing]
The way I recall it,
they would have a document
that the family
would have to sign
to release the body
to the funeral home
to be cremated.
There was a point
where they had changed
some of the language
on the document.
There was a line
that was added.
It was like in the middle
of the paragraph
that would pretty much
give permission for them
to remove organs
without the families
knowing that
that's what they were doing.
It was-- it was horrible.
And then, it came to light
that sometimes Laurieanne
was actually
forging the signatures.
[Elliott] During the trial,
expert witnesses
determined that it was
the handwriting of Laurieanne
on many of the release forms.
And at one point, she even
misspelled the relative's name.
I mean, how does a relative
spell his own name incorrectly?
[Barbara] When Laurieanne
got in trouble for forgery
she said she didn't know
what she was doing.
[dark music continues]
She was controlling,
told everybody what to do,
all the time.
I think Laurieanne
was the mastermind
of the whole family.
[Drina] It's so sad that
there are folks out there
who would take advantage
of people who are grieving.
I remember one of the families
whose loved one's heart
was removed without her knowing.
And she lost it.
She lost it on the stand
'cause it was--
and I'm getting emotional too,
but it was devastating.
I have to admit to you,
when we were deliberating
my thought was,
I hope these people get life.
[soft somber music playing]
[reporter speaking]
[Drina] They only got,
like, three years.
You see, I'm speechless,
because it's like, really?
-[Laurieanne sobbing]
-[Jerry Sconce] Sorry, sweetie.
[Drina] After cheating families
for years,
dishonoring them.
20,000 families
that this happened to,
and all they got
was three years?
No. No justice.
[reporter speaking]
[Johnny speaking]
when I heard that Laurieanne
and Jerry both
went to the county jail.
I couldn't believe it.
I know that must have been hell.
I know, 'cause I've been
in the county jail enough.
And his dad lost all his hair.
Jerry lost all his hair!
[indistinct chatter]
You know what I mean? This
experience just killed them.
It took all the good
out of them.
Man, people can say
whatever they want to say,
but to me they didn't
deserve to go there.
Especially Laurieanne,
she's such a nice lady.
[dark, somber music playing]
[Ashley Dunn]
As this case wound its way
through the courts,
it was just a bizarre
and sort of, um,
nightmarish kind of story.
But it was easy to forget
that the people
at the center of this case
David Sconce's mother
and father,
even though they were convicted
of all these crimes
they were well-known
in Pasadena.
The Lamb family were exactly
part of old Pasadena.
It was a community
with a long history
filled with old families
and mansions that exude
a sense of wealth.
And I think David grew up
with that mentality.
When David's trial
came up in court
my impression of him was that
he was blonde, he was big.
He looked like the ex-football
player that he was.
[ominous music playing]
And he'd carried himself with
a sense of, uh, entitlement,
that he was not a criminal,
but an upstanding citizen
of old-line Pasadena.
I was surprised to-- to hear
what happened in this case.
David's judge dismissed
many of the charges
that I had ordered him
to be held to answer on
including charges
of murder conspiracy.
[ominous music continues]
I got lucky
and I got a better judge.
And he dismissed
half of the counts.
I had to say "guilty" in court
to what was left.
And he gave me five years.
The District Attorney's
sitting down,
just kinda going like
[laughing]
Hand over his face.
[sinister music playing]
[Victor] The judge
had a lot of discretion.
He used it,
and David benefited by it.
It's unfortunate.
More than the deal
of the century, I think.
[David Geary] What people
were talking about was,
"Oh, he got away
with almost everything."
A lot of people
were very disillusioned
with the whole proceeding.
But it wasn't the end.
Prosecutors were still
trying to charge David
with Tim Waters' murder.
[unsettling music playing]
But the Waters thing
seemed pretty clear-cut.
More and more witnesses
at the jail
said David told them
he poisoned him with oleander.
Poison had been found
in Waters' system.
[David Sconce]
While I'm in prison
I get a letter from
Roger Diamond, my attorney,
about the ridiculous, uh,
Waters case.
He says, "Well, they filed
a death penalty case on you."
[laughing] And I go,
"Oh, wait a minute, what?"
[birdsong]
[gentle music playing]
[Dr. Jack Henion] Toxicology
is the study of poisons
in living systems.
Every modern hospital
in the world,
if you will,
has, uh, screening techniques
for measuring the drugs or
metabolites in a-- in a person,
whether they're at the proper
therapeutic levels
or whether at toxic levels.
In 1991, I learned
through a colleague
that there was a court case
going on in the California area
over a poisoning by oleander.
Mr. Waters was the first one
I had heard of
or knew of to have
poisoning by oleander.
A few years earlier,
a toxicologist
had concluded
that the tissue samples
from Mr. Waters
had oleander in it.
Both the defense
and the prosecution
had reason to believe
that they needed
more definitive results.
And so, it was at that point
that they contact me.
During the Tim Waters
death penalty case
that I was charged with
their theory was that
I poisoned
Tim Waters with oleander.
They'd said it was a derivative
as if it had been
distilled oleandrin.
I said,
this is absolutely impossible.
I told Roger Diamond,
my attorney,
I said "Roger,"
I said, "dig him up."
He goes, "What?"
Roger balked at it.
And Roger said, "Oh, David,
what if it's a false positive?
"What if they find something
that might not be that,
but they claim that's it?"
I said, "Roger,
they're claiming I killed a guy
"that I've never seen,
and they don't have evidence
that I've ever even been
around this guy, ever."
I said, "Dig him up!"
The deceased,
we learned was buried
in an above-ground casket
at room temperature.
When you do an autopsy,
you remove the organs
from the body.
And his organs, I was told
were stored in plastic bags.
I don't know whether
they were Ziploc bags or what,
but plastic bags beside his body
in the casket,
and that that's where
the samples came from
that we received
at-- at Cornell.
Mr. Waters' liver
was best described by--
I would say by,
as chocolate pudding.
It was a mush.
It was badly decayed.
So, we rolled up our sleeves
and used some technology
we were in the process
of developing at the time.
A tandem mass spectrometer
to look for oleandrin
as well as oleandrigenin.
Those chemicals
analyzed in that way
have their own fingerprint.
You better have that fingerprint
from the mass spectrometer
to be sure you're right.
[reporter]
Ex-mortician David Sconce,
the man who is said
to have bragged
about poisoning and killing
his arch-rival,
mortician Timothy Waters,
walked into court
to hear two words:
"Case dismissed."
No oleander. Nothing.
Zero. Zippo.
The man died
of a heart attack.
[soft, dramatic music playing]
[Jack] After all the work
that we did
our findings were negative.
We did not find any oleander
or oleandrigenin
in Mr. Waters' tissue.
[dramatic music continues]
One possible explanation
is that this
badly decayed sample
was so chemically complex,
that it didn't work very well.
We-- I gotta tell you,
we tried hard,
but we did not see it.
The motion and application to
dismiss the action is granted,
and the defendant
is just-- uh, is discharged.
-[people chattering]
-[cameras clicking]
I don't care to shake
the hand of a man
I believe
is a cold-blooded murderer.
[cameras clicking]
I'm elated that they have
finally seen the light.
-I'm an innocent man.
-[reporter] Did you ever think
you would see this day
that you would walk out?
I always knew I would walk out.
I'm innocent.
[somber music playing]
It's my unofficial opinion
that David Sconce is guilty.
-[somber music continues]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Jack] The symptoms
that Mr. Waters displayed
the-- all the other details--
the book that was found--
all is circumstantial evidence,
granted.
But knowing the poor nature
of his character, if you will,
it seems entirely possible
or likely that he did this.
It's a shame
he got away with it.
[David Sconce]
Oh, the test results
prove that this was never
in his body,
never could have been there,
and what the hell
are you talking about?
Year of my life
sitting in the county jail
to hear all that.
I was just really relieved.
But I just found out
that night before
that I'd lost my dad's dad.
He died.
So, I called, and, uh,
I talked to my grandmother,
Mommy Thais, and, uh
You know, it's--
[voice breaking]
He's gone, that's it.
You know, he's--
he's gone, and, uh,
I told her, I said,
"It's okay," you know.
"I'm coming home."
And, uh, you know,
that's all she kept saying,
was, "He's-- he's gone."
And, uh
[clicking tongue]
You know, I left it alone, um
Friday goes by,
and then she died on Satur--
[choking up] Excuse me.
She died on Saturday.
Yeah.
Nothing wrong with her.
Nothing.
[clicking tongue]
And, uh, you know,
she was a big part of my life.
You know, it was just, uh,
there wasn't anything
wrong with her.
She married for like 61 years,
and she just died.
Gave up.
And, uh, you know.
Sorry, that was sad.
I was just really sad.
[clicking tongue, sniffling]
Both of 'em were just--
two caskets right there.
Can't say I'm over it.
Don't think
I'll ever be over it.
[birds squawking]
[Skip Jones]
After the Tim Waters trial
it was all over.
A lot of people wanted
to see this family in jail
paying for all of the things
that they did.
But at the end of the day,
they were free.
I don't know how they could
live with themselves.
[dramatic music playing]
[dramatic music
continues playing]
[water splashing]
[Barbara]
After he had gotten out
we lived at the vacation house
in Lake Mohave.
I just wanted a clean start.
I didn't want to think
about anything
that happened in California.
We can start living
a normal life.
Laurieanne and Jerry
were out of jail.
They were living
right next door.
And David had gotten a job
working for LTI.
It was Laughlin Transit,
and he was driving buses.
[curious music playing]
[bus engine rumbling]
You cross over the bridge
and you go down,
and you pick up people
that wanted to come
to Laughlin to gamble.
Well, they gave him a stack
of bus tickets and said,
"You can sell these tickets
for $20 apiece."
Well, he decided to make
his own tickets
[scoffs]
and sell his own tickets
so he could make
and keep the money.
Well, he got caught.
[jazz music playing]
Why?
Why would you think that that
is gonna help you in any way?
His mother said
[clicking tongue]
"He got caught."
So, they were aware of it too.
Whose idea was it?
Was it David's?
Was it Laurieanne's?
Was it Jerry?
It's so
[scoffs]
[jazz music continues]
David went to jail again.
You just really start thinking
about your choices in life
and who you pick.
[chuckles]
[David Sconce] Barbara and I
just kinda grew apart.
You know, the only reason
I divorced her
was because when I was
in prison in Arizona,
she got herself a boyfriend.
You know,
that's the only reason.
I couldn't trust her.
You break my trust, that's it.
[Barbara]
There's anger, but
you gotta put that stuff away.
[sniffles]
Say a prayer and move on.
[sniffling]
Still hurts sometimes.
[David Geary] After he did
some time in Arizona,
David was supposed to keep
his nose super clean.
So, he walked away from that,
but he didn't walk very far.
[dramatic music playing]
He just kinda kept having
legal issues
with his probation.
Eventually, he was convicted
of stealing a gun
from somebody up in Montana,
and selling the gun.
He was a felon, he wasn't
allowed to have a gun.
[David Sconce]
In 2012, they, uh, gave me
a federal firearms charge
a year after I get rid of a gun
that I never fired,
that was given to me.
'Cause I'm not a gun guy.
I'm really not, never have been.
California said
that was a violation
of my California probation.
So, that's what got me here.
Gave me 25-to-life.
[laughing]
How does that happen?
Who's calling the shots
with that one? Hm?
Really.
And finally, they found me
parole-suitable.
So, here we are.
[ominous music playing]
I have theories
on why the things happened
the way they did to me.
[Scott Brougham] David and I
used to literally spend hours
talking in jail.
And he had excuses
for absolutely everything.
Everything
that he ever did in life
that he failed at was always
someone else's fault.
He's just the
consummate victim.
Had he been left alone,
he would have been
the mortician of the world.
[David Sconce] There's kind of
a domino effect of events
that led up to this, see?
If my parents didn't tell me
about the mortuary school,
had they not thrown it
out there,
I would have gone to the Navy.
That's what my plans were.
It's fallback plans,
'cause I always wanted to teach.
You know,
I wanted to be a teacher.
Um, and everything
would have been different
if I would've just got
that second year
of, you know,
eligibility playing football.
But then I got injured,
and so I didn't get it,
so everything started.
Nonexistent.
Nonexistent.
I've been abandoned.
[birdsong]
My grandfather, Lawrence Lamb,
died of a brain tumor.
In fact, my dad and I
took care of Grandpa
for like the last week
of his life.
My grandmother, Lucile,
died a little while later.
I was told about my dad's death
by a friend of mine in prison.
I wish I could have
seen my dad.
I wish I could have been there,
you know, as he passed away.
But I wasn't.
[soft somber music playing]
My mother was always
a good support system for me
through the years of me
being incarcerated.
But after my dad died,
everything stopped.
I've never heard
from her since. Not a word.
Not a letter, nothing.
[birds chirping]
[soft somber music
continues playing]
[interviewer speaking]
Wow.
Really? [chuckling]
You want me to go there, huh?
Well, you know what?
I didn't think I was doing
anything wrong,
but everybody else knew I was.
And, you know, I had drug use
and stuff like that,
and that didn't help.
[flames whooshing]
[dramatic melancholy
music playing]
It was a part of my life
that was a long time ago.
And I would nev--
you couldn't pay me enough
to do it again.
[melancholy music continues]
Nobody got away scot-free.
Everybody got something
happening to them
because of working there.
We all paid the price for it.
[wind whistling]
[Andre]
I'm the last guy standing
from the, uh,
Big Men Unlimited.
Dave Edwards got hurt.
He was getting
blood transfusions
and he acquired AIDS
from those blood transfusions.
And Danny died
jumping out of a plane.
[wind whistling]
You know what?
I'm 64 years old, okay?
I'm in the fourth quarter now,
you know?
It's not overtime yet,
but you know, hey.
I've had a good life,
you know, I got my kids.
I'm-- you know, I'm okay.
You can look back and say
you would've done
something different,
but at this point, nah.
[laughing]
[hands rubbing]
[droning music playing]
[David Geary]
For the history of mankind
treating the dead
with some respect, you know,
has-- has been the way
human beings
have lived in all cultures.
[Jolena Grande] You could say
that the David Sconce case
was the ultimate
incendiary point
for which we now
have massive regulations
in funeral service practice,
incredible rules
regarding cremation
and more statutes than probably
any other industry.
So, there's more transparency,
more clarity
in the decision-making process
for consumers.
This case served a purpose
because they got it
on the record
all of the things that they did,
and as a result, there were laws
that were passed.
Laws that allow 'em to go in
and inspect the crematories.
And certain things
became felonies.
That's important.
[Jolena]
I would love to shout
at the top of my lungs
that it was one person,
and this one person
does not reflect all of us.
The unfortunate reality
is across the United States,
we still see scandals
involving cremation.
[slow, dark music playing]
[Elie] David Sconce devastated
the industry with what he did.
And, uh
families still don't trust.
[Nancy]
This is the Lamb Funeral Home
everlasting legacy
in my family.
When my mother died,
my husband went
and watched her.
They lifted the pine box,
saw it was her,
and he watched her
being put into an oven.
I mean, imagine physically
watching that,
you know, because he just was
so traumatized,
what had happened.
[Darlynn]
And I felt terribly guilty.
I was supposed to protect him.
I was the oldest daughter.
I took care of him.
And it wasn't just my dad.
There were 20,000 other people
involved in this,
and their families,
and their children,
and their grandchildren.
And their loss.
And their feelings
of-- of grief and
not having closure.
[somber music playing]
[roadway noise]
[David Sconce] You know, I was
guilty of a lot of things.
But when does
the antipathy end?
When is enough enough?
How long do I have
to be punished?
[bird squawking]
You know, I went to prison.
Everything happened to me bad.
I lost pretty much everything.
So, after that, I mean,
what else are you looking for?
Leave me alone.
[chuckles]
I can't change
what happened, see?
So, I move on.
Sun comes up tomorrow
irregardless, so that's it.
[interviewer]
Um
Maybe.
[Scott]
David is the type of person
who believes that he's smarter
than every other person
in the room.
When you get to jail,
you're taught,
you don't talk to anybody
about your case,
you know, you don't
admit to shit.
[sinister music playing]
But David always felt a need
to brag about
his accomplishments.
And he never figured out
when to shut the fuck up.
[David Sconce]
Alright.
So, there was one night
I had to go to the cemetery
with Barbara.
I get out
and I go to unlock the gate.
And some kid
jumps out of the weeds,
and he's got a nickel-plated
thing right at my head.
He says, "Give me your wallet,
give me your watch."
And Barbara's in the
passenger seat watching this.
And so, I said, "Look, man,
I only got, like, 60 bucks,"
and I gave him
my cheesy Casio watch.
Barbara, God bless her,
she's reaching over to my door
because I always kept
my nine-millimeter in there,
'cause she's gonna come out
and cap this guy.
But the gun wasn't there
because I had problems
at the range with
the Luger shells,
the casings,
'cause they're too big.
And so, it was out getting
a ramp-and-throat done on it.
I learned all this when I went
through the stupid sheriffs.
[crew member speaking]
[interviewer speaking]
Mm.
True story. I thought I was--
I was gonna die.
I really did.
I can tell you more of this,
but I can't tell you on camera.
Can't tell you.
All I can say is,
"You think I found that guy?"
[ominous music playing]
It's one of the things
I can't talk about.
The other thing
I'll tell you about too,
but can't talk about
that either.
Really, there's three of 'em
altogether, um
[sinister music playing]
Gotta promise not to tell on me.
-Ah.
-Yeah.
What, the promise?
Oh, yeah.
-Okay.
-Yeah.
Nah, that's never gonna
come back.
Never gonna come back.
Can't come back.
[laughing]
[dramatic music playing]
♪♪
[music fades out]