Married to Evil (2023) s01e05 Episode Script
Stranger Comes to Town
- Mandy was not allowed
to have any boyfriend growing up.
You had to make sure
you lived by The Bible.
If you didn't, it was a sin.
- The reason
Mandy married Paul so quick
was because they were trying
to do things right.
She seemed happy.
And that made me happy.
- At first,
Paul seemed like a good man.
But the trouble was,
she knew nothing of him.
- The folks who are quiet,
those are the folks
that you may least expect,
but who could prove
to be the most dangerous.
- (POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- This case is one
that involves an act of evil.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- It was a tragedy.
It broke our whole family.
- I would've liked
to have ripped his head off
and fed it to my pigs.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- Mandy was really
outgoing.
She was
an amazing person.
She taught me how to ride bikes,
and we played dolls
and went on trips to Tennessee.
- Mandy was
very quirky,
she was always
being funny.
Being more silly than funny.
You know what I mean?
(LAUGHS)
(SCREAMS)
- She always tried
to make you laugh,
that was how she came across.
She had a real personality.
My grandfather
was the pastor of our local church.
We went to church,
it was like Wednesday night,
Bible study,
Saturday night,
you know, choir practice,
Sunday morning,
morning service, night service,
so that was a big part of our weeks.
This is Mandy's baptising photo.
She was like 15 or 16 there.
I did feel like we were sheltered
a little much.
Dating and boys,
that was not something
that they did in the church.
- Mandy was not allowed
to have any boyfriend growing up.
Paw-paw was very strict on that.
- You didn't have those relations
until you were married.
That's something
in all churches around here,
that's in this whole community.
- It was a very strict way
of growing up.
Couldn't do much of what you wanted.
You had to make sure
you lived by The Bible.
If you didn't, it was a sin.
- Paul Lemay met Mandy online,
they met on Facebook.
Paul Lemay came down
to eastern Kentucky
by way of Massachusetts.
I think
Paul was very smitten
by Mandy.
I think he was very attracted
to the idea
that a woman so far away wanted him.
That's what precipitated
his relocation to eastern Kentucky.
The trouble was,
she knew nothing of him.
- Paul was older. He was 47 or 48.
He'd already lived life,
so she, in her mind,
she thought
he was smarter about things.
- Mandy liked that he was different,
not from around here.
Paul would come every other weekend
to Kentucky or to church.
- Paul was portrayed to me
as a religious person
and a good guy.
He was this big Christian guy
who was really nice.
I was happy for her.
She had said
that they had things in common,
that they could actually talk
to each other for a long time.
She seemed happy.
And that made me happy.
They dated about seven months,
at the most.
And then, they got married.
From what she had told me,
the reason she married Paul so quick
was because they were trying
to do things right.
It was just a little, small wedding,
just a few people from their church
that they went to.
It was a 15-minute ceremony.
It was nothing fancy.
My grandparents thought
it was a good thing, too,
getting married to Paul.
They liked that he had a job,
could provide for her,
and had two vehicles.
- Paul didn't have
much family nearby.
None of his family was there,
I know that.
Looking back,
that was very weird to me.
I've personally never met
none of Paul's family.
- Paul Lemay has
this
mysterious past
where we
don't know a lot
about his
background,
and that may be
by design.
It's possible
that he doesn't want Mandy
or her family or anybody
to know a lot about him.
It's interesting
because we have someone who,
on one hand, has estranged
or distant relationships
from family members,
but, on the other hand,
hasn't identified loved one
that they've idolised.
It sets itself up
for problems in the future.
- Paul and Mandy
lived in Oil Springs,
Salyersville, Kentucky.
Just a little town, a back road.
Paul, he worked at a nursing home,
and he brought home the money.
- He paid for the home
that they lived in.
- She didn't have to work at all,
Mandy didn't.
He'd made sure
she had everything she needed.
Didn't matter what they are.
At first,
Paul seemed like a good man.
From what I seen anyway.
- But, sometimes,
Paul would say a lot
of negative things on Facebook.
That may have been his way
to get his point across,
was through social media.
Say the things on there
that he couldn't say in person.
It's a Facebook post from Paul.
"All my life,
I've been called no good,
"that I'm worthless
"then I will never amount
to anything.
"I finally had enough
and I came here to Kentucky
"where I've got myself a home
that I paid for.
"I have a beautiful, loving wife
"and anyone says otherwise,
they are a liar."
He was very fragile,
I could see that.
He never opened up, wouldn't talk.
Maybe there was a reason behind it.
There was a madness in his old life
that I didn't know about.
- Paul Lemay's Facebook posts
say to me
that this is someone
who's vulnerable
and identifies
with this role of someone
who's been victimised
and has to take on the world.
- At the time, me and my husband
had separated,
my children were tiny.
Mandy, she's like,
"If you want to, you can come here,
you can stay with me and Paul."
She's like,
"We can spend time together,
"get back to being sisters,"
and so, in my mind,
it was an awesome idea,
because I loved Mandy.
She was my best friend.
- Mandy, she loved her hair dye.
She started dying her hair
crazy colours.
It was blue, purple.
One time, she mixed it up,
it was half blonde and half blue.
- One time, we were going to dye,
you know, dye both of our hair
the same night.
And we was going to go
out get the hair dyed,
and Paul wouldn't allow us to do it.
To Paul,
it was an unnecessary thing,
so, she couldn't,
she wasn't allowed to do it.
- (PRODUCER SPEAKING)
- I don't know
why he wouldn't allow her to do it.
I'm trying to answer this for you
but I can't find a rhyme
to the reason
of why he wouldn't let her.
I suppose
he treated her like a child.
The fact that Paul Lemay's
relationship with Mandy
appears to be more like that
of a father and daughter
is indicative
of his controlling nature.
It's also interesting
that in this day and age
where social media and videos
of one another are very common,
that there's actually
very little of that
with Paul Lemay and Mandy.
If he can control the little
day-to-day tasks that she does,
he can ultimately control her life.
- Paul would work
and he would come home,
and I would say, "Hi, Paul,"
and he would say, "Hello,"
and then, you know, that was it.
He would always lock hisself
in his bedroom.
- The folks who are quiet
and brooding
and, kind of, seething underneath,
those are the folks
that you may least expect,
but who could prove
to be the most dangerous.
- He would always lock hisself
in his bedroom.
I thought it was weird.
He wouldn't associate
with the rest of us.
Nobody really knew
what was going on in there.
- Paul could be quiet,
Paul could be shy.
Behind closed doors,
Paul could be a creep.
He would lock hisself
in there like a hermit crab.
One time, she had opened the door
and asked him
what he wanted for supper,
and he told her, "I don't care
what we have for supper,
"I don't care
if we effing eat or not."
In my mind,
she was trying
to take care of him
and do what a wife
should be doing
for her husband.
And he was straight up
disrespectful to her.
When I had moved in,
Mandy had talked to me
about everything
and everything
like that seemed to be good
when I moved in there.
The only problem that she,
she was having was the drinking.
Paul would bring home
a 30 pack every night,
and it wasn't just something
he did after we got moved in,
he did that from the start
of us moving in.
He would come in with his beer
and he would go to his room
and close his door.
And would sit and drink
until it's time to go bed,
wake up for work,
and do it all over again.
It never messed
with his work schedule.
It was something he was used to,
and so Mandy had seemed to think
that he had
that was his routine
before she had married him
and he got into church.
Paul never actually
seemed drunk to me.
I mean, in my mind,
it wasn't really a problem.
It was just like,
something that he did,
you know, something that he did
back in his room in the quiet.
- This is Mandy at a rough time.
About 25, probably.
This was the time
she'd get into arguments
with Paul.
- A lot of the times,
they would argue,
they would argue in the bedroom,
in their room.
And we tried to stay away from that,
'cause I had kids
and I didn't want them to hear that.
So we always tried
to stay out of the arguments.
It was always
behind the bedroom door.
- (DOOR SLAMMING)
- Mandy would go in her room
and she would come back out,
and she'd be like,
"Oh, it's happened again.
"Paul, he's in one of his moods."
(PRODUCER SPEAKING)
- I don't know why she chose to stay
but I think a lot of it
is that she was actually
building a home
and building a life.
And it's just like,
to her, it was nothing much,
she'd grown used to it.
- There's indication
that the arguments
between Paul and Mandy
are escalating.
It begs the question of,
you know, what's happening there.
Is it
that he feels
he's losing
control,
and his
own insecurity
is knocking
at the door?
When someone like Paul
doesn't feel in control,
he may lash out impulsively.
- One day we was going
up to see Mum,
and we had made it
from Salyersville to Prestonsburg.
And we had made it that far,
before he had called her
on his break,
and there was a heated argument
to the point that she pulled over,
then we turned around and went back.
Anytime Mandy had to do anything,
she had to run it by Paul
and make sure Paul was OK with it.
He had came home from work
and he said he wasn't feeling good,
so he went in there
and he laid down and went to sleep.
And me and Mandy and the kids
had went out to Walmart.
And he was so mad when we come back,
because she had left
without saying something to him
that she went into the room
and wasn't allowed back.
She didn't come back out that night.
Here's the situation
where Paul is about 20 years older
than Mandy,
yet, he has, effectively,
grounded her.
When individuals are that
controlling and domineering,
it makes you wonder,
"What else is happening
behind closed doors?"
- Felt like she was trapped
in a prison.
Mandy would say things like,
"I feel like I'm in jail sometimes,"
you know.
Paul was very controlling.
The last two or three months
that I stayed there,
we didn't really go anywhere,
or do anything.
Pretty much the only thing
he allowed Mandy to do
was to do the grocery shopping.
- Um, he wouldn't let her
go anywhere
and do anything or see anyone.
When she stopped coming around,
I knew something was up.
Several times, I told Mandy
that she didn't have to put up
with that,
she could leave.
But she just,
she never would listen.
It's like she,
it was her relationship,
I needed to butt out of it,
it wasn't any of my business.
Me and the kids
would stay in that room
on the opposite side
from where her and Paul would stay.
We'd just kept on back there
unless we needed to come out
and use the bathroom.
It was like, we were walking
on eggshells, so to speak.
Tiptoeing around the house.
I wish I would've stepped in
and done something
'cause I feel like
I could've helped her out.
And I wish
that I'd just let her know
that I cared more, you know.
I wish I'd got her out of there.
- Paul is this
quiet fella
who keeps
to himself.
But as time goes on,
his Facebook posts
starts to get more aggressive.
- Now I'm, kind of,
beating myself up
for not putting him on my Facebook.
I've never seen these.
It just hurts me.
I mean, I didn't,
I've not seen those.
(GASPS SOFTLY)
(SOBS)
From a religious perspective,
Paul maybe referring
to the enemy as Satan.
It's also possible
that the enemy is his rage,
his insecurity.
This is an example of an individual
who seems to be fighting
to control their behaviour.
This Facebook post
is Paul is really trying
to bury those demons
and keep himself
from crossing that line
from verbal aggression
to physical aggression.
Had I seen this at the time,
I'd have been angry.
I'd try to help her.
- It begs the question,
what kind of threats
could Paul may have been making
behind closed doors?
Regardless of which way we go,
we're heading into the abyss.
Things are about to get worse.
- One day, one of the kids
had climbed up on the table,
and had knocked over
a couple plates
and cups
that were sitting
on the table
from when
they were eating,
Paul, he didn't really explode
or anything
he went into the room,
he had hollered for Mandy
to come in there,
and I don't know
what was happening to Mandy.
Like I said, she was in that room,
they were locked in there,
I don't know.
They were in there for over an hour,
and when they came out,
they had got a change or two
of clothes for each one of them,
and she told me that they'd be back.
That's when Paul and Mandy
had left there.
I could tell something was wrong.
It's not often my sister
calls me crying.
She told me she was scared
for him to be around the kids.
If I didn't get the kids
out of there before they got back,
that something was going to happen.
He might hurt them or something.
There's increasing
evidence
that Paul Lemay
is becoming
unravelled.
That's particularly worrisome,
because individuals
who threaten or hurt children
tend to lack remorse
and empathy for others.
- It did, kind of,
scare me at that point.
So the best thing for me to do
for my kids was to leave.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
- When I left there, with the kids,
things with Paul and Mandy
got a lot worse.
The trouble was Paul would act
normal sometimes.
Sometimes, he didn't seem
like a bad guy at all.
He was nice, he was polite.
To me, it was strange.
- We're seeing this Jekyll
and Hyde personality.
We have someone
who's, on one hand, saying,
"Mandy, I love you,
my beautiful wife."
And on the other hand,
someone who is controlling her,
potentially, threatening children,
not giving her money
to go to the store.
So we see these
two diametrically opposed
personality behaviours.
And that's actually
quite common in individuals
who perpetrate
interpersonal violence.
There was a couple of months
after I moved out,
she was telling me
that he was getting
a lot more aggressive.
She was telling me
that Paul was starting
to be more physical with her.
Started out with him shoving her.
And then, it got to where,
he would get in her face
and he would get more violent
with her.
She said that she was scared
that if she didn't get out of there,
that she wouldn't get out of there.
She called me
and told me she did leave Paul.
She said
she was at a friend's house,
that she was scared of him,
and that she didn't want
to go back home.
She told me they were good people,
she was safe.
I didn't really question it.
She was out of the bad situation
so, in my mind, she was good.
And she told me
she was going to come over
for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was really important
to our family,
'cause it's the only time
we actually sit down
around the table and gather around
and pray over the food.
- I was excited.
I'm not going to lie, been months
since I'd got to see my sister,
so I was excited.
- (LINE RINGING)
- The family are ready to eat
Thanksgiving dinner.
Dinner comes
and goes
but there's
no Mandy.
- Nobody could get a hold of her.
Nobody knew exactly where she was.
I was the last one
to know where she was
and she was supposed to be
at that friend's house.
- As the minutes turned to hours,
the hours turned to days,
I could imagine
a whole host of thoughts,
you know, running through their head
about where Mandy might be.
"Maybe she's in the hospital,"
uh, "Maybe she's just out
having a good time."
You know, "Maybe Mandy
has gone to see
"somebody else for Thanksgiving,
"and maybe she'll turn back up."
Couldn't believe what happened next.
- Mandy had told me
she was at a friend's house
and she was safe.
But then, we was having
no luck getting a hold of her.
I tried
contacting her phone,
her Facebook,
her Messenger,
and she just
would not answer.
I didn't even know
where to start to go to look.
I'd went out
and I had printed off some photos
to give the State Police.
- The uncertainty
of it all
was a very
terrifying moment
for that family, just not knowing.
Despite the family's concern
over Mandy being gone
for over two to three weeks,
on December 17th,
there's a post
on her Facebook account.
"I needed to get away
"from the drama
and dry myself out.
"I will contact
the ones
"and my family
"after the first of the year."
- I knew reading that that day
that that wasn't Mandy.
"I love you, please understand,
"I'm going through hard times
right now
but I will contact you
after the first.
"Love you. Later."
That's words of an alcoholic.
Mandy wasn't an alcoholic
and didn't have to dry herself out.
Everything in this is spelled
exactly as it should be
down to every last apostrophe
and everything,
and Mandy always spelled things
very weird.
Her spelling was never correct
and everything in this was right.
And so, reading this
when it came out,
everybody knew something was wrong.
Everybody knew that wasn't Mandy.
- Homer then contacted Paul
asking where Mandy was,
what was going on.
Homer asked him
if he was the one
that posted that letter.
Paul wouldn't speak back.
Then he said he was trying
to find his sister, after a while.
Paul says, "I ain't heard from her
in weeks either."
That's when they got mad
and called the cops.
- (LINE RINGING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- Homer was really annoyed at Paul.
He just wanted to know
where Mandy was.
But she ain't spoke to nobody
in over three weeks.
- We know from the evidence
so far
that Mandy
has been
controlled by Paul.
And the family's probably thinking,
"Maybe it's just
their relationship."
It's very possible that Paul
has Mandy trapped inside the house.
- When the trooper arrives
to Mandy and Paul's residence.
He goes up onto the porch
the blinds are drawn,
he can't see inside the residence.
He hears a series
of what he describes as thumps.
(THUMPING)
It sounded like someone
was moving around in the home,
but nobody ever came to the door.
- So that trooper
immediately radios for backup.
Paul, is, in fact
inside the residence,
and is not coming
out of the residence.
The Kentucky State Police
show up very quickly,
it has escalated
into a, "Barricaded subject,
"who's refusing to come out
"and respond
to law enforcement commands,"
and who's known to own
a .22 calibre handgun.
They were concerned that Mandy
was being held inside the residence.
As the Kentucky State Police
are trying to get Paul Lemay
to cooperate with their commands,
they're looking for folks,
neighbours,
who might have any means
to contact Paul.
One of the neighbours happens to
have Paul Lemay on Facebook
Messenger.
(CELLPHONE VIBRATING)
- And Paul responds.
Paul's still refusing
to come out of the residence.
But as the time goes on,
Paul wants a cigarette.
The Kentucky State Police tell Paul,
"You got to come to us."
Paul is very reluctant to do this.
So the neighbour, Pat,
volunteers
to take the cigarette to Paul
who's standing on the porch.
At this time, when Paul comes
out of the residence,
Paul Lemay is dressed in nothing
but sweatpants and no shirt.
December 17 in Kentucky,
it's very cold,
so the next door neighbour, Pat,
also offers his sweatshirt.
As soon as Paul Lemay
gets that sweatshirt
he is rushed by two troopers
who were lying in wait.
And that's how
the Kentucky State Police,
eventually, got Paul into custody.
The State Police begin a sweep
of the Lemay residence
to look for Mandy.
At that point, they had no idea
whether she was dead or alive.
When the troopers walked
into the Lemay residence
they were met by the smell of death.
They could smell
decomposition in the air.
When they get
into this back bedroom,
they can make out
a pile of blankets.
And sticking out
from the bottom of that blanket
is what is obviously a human foot.
They pull the sheets back,
and there they find
the deceased body of Mandy Lemay.
She had a single gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
What's clear, at this point,
she had been there
for quite some time.
- I got a call from Daddy.
He said, "She's gone.
"She won't be coming back."
I fell to the floor.
My whole body was paralysed
for three days after that.
I never knew she went back there
to even think
that could've happened.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
I'm done.
That's as far as I want to go.
- A family in Johnson County
is wishing they would've seen
the signs after police say,
their family member, Mandy Lemay,
was shot and killed by her husband.
Paul Lemay's statement
to Kentucky State Police
during his recorded interview
tells us
that Paul was obviously
in a very troubled place.
- (POLICE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- My guess is that Paul did it
so that nobody else could have her.
And she can't leave him.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- Paul, clearly,
identifies as the victim.
Individuals
who fail
to take
responsibility
for their
actions
are some of the
same individuals
who are
callous
and lack empathy and remorse.
- She would've been alive now
if she hadn't went back.
But Mandy couldn't make up her mind
whether she loved him or not.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
(POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- We learn through the course
of the investigation,
Mandy had left the marital residence
and hadn't returned
for quite some time.
But, eventually,
Mandy Lemay
returns home.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
- She tells Paul
that she's lost her telephone,
she doesn't have one
and she needs a mean
of communications.
She wants to be able
to reach out to her family
and set up this plan
to go spend Thanksgiving
with her family,
to have dinner with them.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
We know that Paul Lemay
is in the house at that time,
and he's likely hearing
these conversations take place.
He understands
that in a few more days,
when Thanksgiving rolls around,
Mandy is going to be
back out the door again
spending time with her family.
And, eventually, an argument
between the two ensues.
- At this point,
Paul knows that he's lost Mandy.
He's lost control
of the one person in his life,
the source of his ego.
And now he can see
that the dark impulses
are going to seep back in.
It's almost like a volcano erupting,
this is the last straw.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- The evidence, in this case,
shows that Paul Lemay
went to his bedroom.
- (POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- He took that revolver
into the living room.
He put that gun
to the back of Mandy Lemay's head
and he pulled that trigger.
(GUNSHOT)
- Well, from what I was told,
he shot her in the back bedroom
and dragged her to their bed,
and he slept next to her
those several weeks
that she was laying there.
- In the very end, after she died,
Paul still didn't want
to let her go.
This is indicative
of yet another final opportunity
for him to control her.
- I reckon Paul was trying
to preserve the body
because he literally slept
in a freezing house.
Next to her.
We all had the funeral.
It was hard for me
to walk through the funeral doors.
And walked in
and when I seen the casket,
it was closed.
I didn't get to tell her goodbye.
- I could've got Mandy out.
Mandy could've been safe,
Mandy could've been here
with us now.
- It would've been nice
if Mandy could've met
my children more.
I could've explained to them better
how good a person she was
how good of an aunt
she would've been,
how much they would've been spoiled.
It hurts me every day
that she can't be here
with us today.
- Paul was evaluated
by two psychiatrists,
both of whom cleared him
as competent to stand trial.
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- Paul Lemay
didn't actually go to trial.
He pleaded guilty
to one count of murder
and one count of abuse of a corpse.
(LAWYER SPEAKS)
- It's still very frustrating
that he didn't explain
everything in court,
why he did do it.
- (LAWYER SPEAKS)
- And so he thought
he didn't have
to give his explanation.
He didn't have to tell why.
- (JUDGE SPEAKS)
- That's what makes me
lose sleep at night
because I'll never know why.
I'll never know why it happened.
I'll never know.
(SOBS)
- There's likely several reasons
why Paul ended up murdering Mandy.
Paul wanted control
from the very beginning
and he had it until the very end.
- She was an amazing person.
- Mandy would want to be remembered
as the funny, goofy, outgoing,
people-friendly person that she was.
I like
to think
I'm going
to see her again.
(CHUCKLES)
That's what keeps me
going
every day.
We'll see our loved ones again.
Captions edited by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv
to have any boyfriend growing up.
You had to make sure
you lived by The Bible.
If you didn't, it was a sin.
- The reason
Mandy married Paul so quick
was because they were trying
to do things right.
She seemed happy.
And that made me happy.
- At first,
Paul seemed like a good man.
But the trouble was,
she knew nothing of him.
- The folks who are quiet,
those are the folks
that you may least expect,
but who could prove
to be the most dangerous.
- (POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- This case is one
that involves an act of evil.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- It was a tragedy.
It broke our whole family.
- I would've liked
to have ripped his head off
and fed it to my pigs.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- Mandy was really
outgoing.
She was
an amazing person.
She taught me how to ride bikes,
and we played dolls
and went on trips to Tennessee.
- Mandy was
very quirky,
she was always
being funny.
Being more silly than funny.
You know what I mean?
(LAUGHS)
(SCREAMS)
- She always tried
to make you laugh,
that was how she came across.
She had a real personality.
My grandfather
was the pastor of our local church.
We went to church,
it was like Wednesday night,
Bible study,
Saturday night,
you know, choir practice,
Sunday morning,
morning service, night service,
so that was a big part of our weeks.
This is Mandy's baptising photo.
She was like 15 or 16 there.
I did feel like we were sheltered
a little much.
Dating and boys,
that was not something
that they did in the church.
- Mandy was not allowed
to have any boyfriend growing up.
Paw-paw was very strict on that.
- You didn't have those relations
until you were married.
That's something
in all churches around here,
that's in this whole community.
- It was a very strict way
of growing up.
Couldn't do much of what you wanted.
You had to make sure
you lived by The Bible.
If you didn't, it was a sin.
- Paul Lemay met Mandy online,
they met on Facebook.
Paul Lemay came down
to eastern Kentucky
by way of Massachusetts.
I think
Paul was very smitten
by Mandy.
I think he was very attracted
to the idea
that a woman so far away wanted him.
That's what precipitated
his relocation to eastern Kentucky.
The trouble was,
she knew nothing of him.
- Paul was older. He was 47 or 48.
He'd already lived life,
so she, in her mind,
she thought
he was smarter about things.
- Mandy liked that he was different,
not from around here.
Paul would come every other weekend
to Kentucky or to church.
- Paul was portrayed to me
as a religious person
and a good guy.
He was this big Christian guy
who was really nice.
I was happy for her.
She had said
that they had things in common,
that they could actually talk
to each other for a long time.
She seemed happy.
And that made me happy.
They dated about seven months,
at the most.
And then, they got married.
From what she had told me,
the reason she married Paul so quick
was because they were trying
to do things right.
It was just a little, small wedding,
just a few people from their church
that they went to.
It was a 15-minute ceremony.
It was nothing fancy.
My grandparents thought
it was a good thing, too,
getting married to Paul.
They liked that he had a job,
could provide for her,
and had two vehicles.
- Paul didn't have
much family nearby.
None of his family was there,
I know that.
Looking back,
that was very weird to me.
I've personally never met
none of Paul's family.
- Paul Lemay has
this
mysterious past
where we
don't know a lot
about his
background,
and that may be
by design.
It's possible
that he doesn't want Mandy
or her family or anybody
to know a lot about him.
It's interesting
because we have someone who,
on one hand, has estranged
or distant relationships
from family members,
but, on the other hand,
hasn't identified loved one
that they've idolised.
It sets itself up
for problems in the future.
- Paul and Mandy
lived in Oil Springs,
Salyersville, Kentucky.
Just a little town, a back road.
Paul, he worked at a nursing home,
and he brought home the money.
- He paid for the home
that they lived in.
- She didn't have to work at all,
Mandy didn't.
He'd made sure
she had everything she needed.
Didn't matter what they are.
At first,
Paul seemed like a good man.
From what I seen anyway.
- But, sometimes,
Paul would say a lot
of negative things on Facebook.
That may have been his way
to get his point across,
was through social media.
Say the things on there
that he couldn't say in person.
It's a Facebook post from Paul.
"All my life,
I've been called no good,
"that I'm worthless
"then I will never amount
to anything.
"I finally had enough
and I came here to Kentucky
"where I've got myself a home
that I paid for.
"I have a beautiful, loving wife
"and anyone says otherwise,
they are a liar."
He was very fragile,
I could see that.
He never opened up, wouldn't talk.
Maybe there was a reason behind it.
There was a madness in his old life
that I didn't know about.
- Paul Lemay's Facebook posts
say to me
that this is someone
who's vulnerable
and identifies
with this role of someone
who's been victimised
and has to take on the world.
- At the time, me and my husband
had separated,
my children were tiny.
Mandy, she's like,
"If you want to, you can come here,
you can stay with me and Paul."
She's like,
"We can spend time together,
"get back to being sisters,"
and so, in my mind,
it was an awesome idea,
because I loved Mandy.
She was my best friend.
- Mandy, she loved her hair dye.
She started dying her hair
crazy colours.
It was blue, purple.
One time, she mixed it up,
it was half blonde and half blue.
- One time, we were going to dye,
you know, dye both of our hair
the same night.
And we was going to go
out get the hair dyed,
and Paul wouldn't allow us to do it.
To Paul,
it was an unnecessary thing,
so, she couldn't,
she wasn't allowed to do it.
- (PRODUCER SPEAKING)
- I don't know
why he wouldn't allow her to do it.
I'm trying to answer this for you
but I can't find a rhyme
to the reason
of why he wouldn't let her.
I suppose
he treated her like a child.
The fact that Paul Lemay's
relationship with Mandy
appears to be more like that
of a father and daughter
is indicative
of his controlling nature.
It's also interesting
that in this day and age
where social media and videos
of one another are very common,
that there's actually
very little of that
with Paul Lemay and Mandy.
If he can control the little
day-to-day tasks that she does,
he can ultimately control her life.
- Paul would work
and he would come home,
and I would say, "Hi, Paul,"
and he would say, "Hello,"
and then, you know, that was it.
He would always lock hisself
in his bedroom.
- The folks who are quiet
and brooding
and, kind of, seething underneath,
those are the folks
that you may least expect,
but who could prove
to be the most dangerous.
- He would always lock hisself
in his bedroom.
I thought it was weird.
He wouldn't associate
with the rest of us.
Nobody really knew
what was going on in there.
- Paul could be quiet,
Paul could be shy.
Behind closed doors,
Paul could be a creep.
He would lock hisself
in there like a hermit crab.
One time, she had opened the door
and asked him
what he wanted for supper,
and he told her, "I don't care
what we have for supper,
"I don't care
if we effing eat or not."
In my mind,
she was trying
to take care of him
and do what a wife
should be doing
for her husband.
And he was straight up
disrespectful to her.
When I had moved in,
Mandy had talked to me
about everything
and everything
like that seemed to be good
when I moved in there.
The only problem that she,
she was having was the drinking.
Paul would bring home
a 30 pack every night,
and it wasn't just something
he did after we got moved in,
he did that from the start
of us moving in.
He would come in with his beer
and he would go to his room
and close his door.
And would sit and drink
until it's time to go bed,
wake up for work,
and do it all over again.
It never messed
with his work schedule.
It was something he was used to,
and so Mandy had seemed to think
that he had
that was his routine
before she had married him
and he got into church.
Paul never actually
seemed drunk to me.
I mean, in my mind,
it wasn't really a problem.
It was just like,
something that he did,
you know, something that he did
back in his room in the quiet.
- This is Mandy at a rough time.
About 25, probably.
This was the time
she'd get into arguments
with Paul.
- A lot of the times,
they would argue,
they would argue in the bedroom,
in their room.
And we tried to stay away from that,
'cause I had kids
and I didn't want them to hear that.
So we always tried
to stay out of the arguments.
It was always
behind the bedroom door.
- (DOOR SLAMMING)
- Mandy would go in her room
and she would come back out,
and she'd be like,
"Oh, it's happened again.
"Paul, he's in one of his moods."
(PRODUCER SPEAKING)
- I don't know why she chose to stay
but I think a lot of it
is that she was actually
building a home
and building a life.
And it's just like,
to her, it was nothing much,
she'd grown used to it.
- There's indication
that the arguments
between Paul and Mandy
are escalating.
It begs the question of,
you know, what's happening there.
Is it
that he feels
he's losing
control,
and his
own insecurity
is knocking
at the door?
When someone like Paul
doesn't feel in control,
he may lash out impulsively.
- One day we was going
up to see Mum,
and we had made it
from Salyersville to Prestonsburg.
And we had made it that far,
before he had called her
on his break,
and there was a heated argument
to the point that she pulled over,
then we turned around and went back.
Anytime Mandy had to do anything,
she had to run it by Paul
and make sure Paul was OK with it.
He had came home from work
and he said he wasn't feeling good,
so he went in there
and he laid down and went to sleep.
And me and Mandy and the kids
had went out to Walmart.
And he was so mad when we come back,
because she had left
without saying something to him
that she went into the room
and wasn't allowed back.
She didn't come back out that night.
Here's the situation
where Paul is about 20 years older
than Mandy,
yet, he has, effectively,
grounded her.
When individuals are that
controlling and domineering,
it makes you wonder,
"What else is happening
behind closed doors?"
- Felt like she was trapped
in a prison.
Mandy would say things like,
"I feel like I'm in jail sometimes,"
you know.
Paul was very controlling.
The last two or three months
that I stayed there,
we didn't really go anywhere,
or do anything.
Pretty much the only thing
he allowed Mandy to do
was to do the grocery shopping.
- Um, he wouldn't let her
go anywhere
and do anything or see anyone.
When she stopped coming around,
I knew something was up.
Several times, I told Mandy
that she didn't have to put up
with that,
she could leave.
But she just,
she never would listen.
It's like she,
it was her relationship,
I needed to butt out of it,
it wasn't any of my business.
Me and the kids
would stay in that room
on the opposite side
from where her and Paul would stay.
We'd just kept on back there
unless we needed to come out
and use the bathroom.
It was like, we were walking
on eggshells, so to speak.
Tiptoeing around the house.
I wish I would've stepped in
and done something
'cause I feel like
I could've helped her out.
And I wish
that I'd just let her know
that I cared more, you know.
I wish I'd got her out of there.
- Paul is this
quiet fella
who keeps
to himself.
But as time goes on,
his Facebook posts
starts to get more aggressive.
- Now I'm, kind of,
beating myself up
for not putting him on my Facebook.
I've never seen these.
It just hurts me.
I mean, I didn't,
I've not seen those.
(GASPS SOFTLY)
(SOBS)
From a religious perspective,
Paul maybe referring
to the enemy as Satan.
It's also possible
that the enemy is his rage,
his insecurity.
This is an example of an individual
who seems to be fighting
to control their behaviour.
This Facebook post
is Paul is really trying
to bury those demons
and keep himself
from crossing that line
from verbal aggression
to physical aggression.
Had I seen this at the time,
I'd have been angry.
I'd try to help her.
- It begs the question,
what kind of threats
could Paul may have been making
behind closed doors?
Regardless of which way we go,
we're heading into the abyss.
Things are about to get worse.
- One day, one of the kids
had climbed up on the table,
and had knocked over
a couple plates
and cups
that were sitting
on the table
from when
they were eating,
Paul, he didn't really explode
or anything
he went into the room,
he had hollered for Mandy
to come in there,
and I don't know
what was happening to Mandy.
Like I said, she was in that room,
they were locked in there,
I don't know.
They were in there for over an hour,
and when they came out,
they had got a change or two
of clothes for each one of them,
and she told me that they'd be back.
That's when Paul and Mandy
had left there.
I could tell something was wrong.
It's not often my sister
calls me crying.
She told me she was scared
for him to be around the kids.
If I didn't get the kids
out of there before they got back,
that something was going to happen.
He might hurt them or something.
There's increasing
evidence
that Paul Lemay
is becoming
unravelled.
That's particularly worrisome,
because individuals
who threaten or hurt children
tend to lack remorse
and empathy for others.
- It did, kind of,
scare me at that point.
So the best thing for me to do
for my kids was to leave.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
- When I left there, with the kids,
things with Paul and Mandy
got a lot worse.
The trouble was Paul would act
normal sometimes.
Sometimes, he didn't seem
like a bad guy at all.
He was nice, he was polite.
To me, it was strange.
- We're seeing this Jekyll
and Hyde personality.
We have someone
who's, on one hand, saying,
"Mandy, I love you,
my beautiful wife."
And on the other hand,
someone who is controlling her,
potentially, threatening children,
not giving her money
to go to the store.
So we see these
two diametrically opposed
personality behaviours.
And that's actually
quite common in individuals
who perpetrate
interpersonal violence.
There was a couple of months
after I moved out,
she was telling me
that he was getting
a lot more aggressive.
She was telling me
that Paul was starting
to be more physical with her.
Started out with him shoving her.
And then, it got to where,
he would get in her face
and he would get more violent
with her.
She said that she was scared
that if she didn't get out of there,
that she wouldn't get out of there.
She called me
and told me she did leave Paul.
She said
she was at a friend's house,
that she was scared of him,
and that she didn't want
to go back home.
She told me they were good people,
she was safe.
I didn't really question it.
She was out of the bad situation
so, in my mind, she was good.
And she told me
she was going to come over
for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was really important
to our family,
'cause it's the only time
we actually sit down
around the table and gather around
and pray over the food.
- I was excited.
I'm not going to lie, been months
since I'd got to see my sister,
so I was excited.
- (LINE RINGING)
- The family are ready to eat
Thanksgiving dinner.
Dinner comes
and goes
but there's
no Mandy.
- Nobody could get a hold of her.
Nobody knew exactly where she was.
I was the last one
to know where she was
and she was supposed to be
at that friend's house.
- As the minutes turned to hours,
the hours turned to days,
I could imagine
a whole host of thoughts,
you know, running through their head
about where Mandy might be.
"Maybe she's in the hospital,"
uh, "Maybe she's just out
having a good time."
You know, "Maybe Mandy
has gone to see
"somebody else for Thanksgiving,
"and maybe she'll turn back up."
Couldn't believe what happened next.
- Mandy had told me
she was at a friend's house
and she was safe.
But then, we was having
no luck getting a hold of her.
I tried
contacting her phone,
her Facebook,
her Messenger,
and she just
would not answer.
I didn't even know
where to start to go to look.
I'd went out
and I had printed off some photos
to give the State Police.
- The uncertainty
of it all
was a very
terrifying moment
for that family, just not knowing.
Despite the family's concern
over Mandy being gone
for over two to three weeks,
on December 17th,
there's a post
on her Facebook account.
"I needed to get away
"from the drama
and dry myself out.
"I will contact
the ones
"and my family
"after the first of the year."
- I knew reading that that day
that that wasn't Mandy.
"I love you, please understand,
"I'm going through hard times
right now
but I will contact you
after the first.
"Love you. Later."
That's words of an alcoholic.
Mandy wasn't an alcoholic
and didn't have to dry herself out.
Everything in this is spelled
exactly as it should be
down to every last apostrophe
and everything,
and Mandy always spelled things
very weird.
Her spelling was never correct
and everything in this was right.
And so, reading this
when it came out,
everybody knew something was wrong.
Everybody knew that wasn't Mandy.
- Homer then contacted Paul
asking where Mandy was,
what was going on.
Homer asked him
if he was the one
that posted that letter.
Paul wouldn't speak back.
Then he said he was trying
to find his sister, after a while.
Paul says, "I ain't heard from her
in weeks either."
That's when they got mad
and called the cops.
- (LINE RINGING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- (DISPATCHER THOMPSON SPEAKING)
- (HOMER SPEAKING)
- Homer was really annoyed at Paul.
He just wanted to know
where Mandy was.
But she ain't spoke to nobody
in over three weeks.
- We know from the evidence
so far
that Mandy
has been
controlled by Paul.
And the family's probably thinking,
"Maybe it's just
their relationship."
It's very possible that Paul
has Mandy trapped inside the house.
- When the trooper arrives
to Mandy and Paul's residence.
He goes up onto the porch
the blinds are drawn,
he can't see inside the residence.
He hears a series
of what he describes as thumps.
(THUMPING)
It sounded like someone
was moving around in the home,
but nobody ever came to the door.
- So that trooper
immediately radios for backup.
Paul, is, in fact
inside the residence,
and is not coming
out of the residence.
The Kentucky State Police
show up very quickly,
it has escalated
into a, "Barricaded subject,
"who's refusing to come out
"and respond
to law enforcement commands,"
and who's known to own
a .22 calibre handgun.
They were concerned that Mandy
was being held inside the residence.
As the Kentucky State Police
are trying to get Paul Lemay
to cooperate with their commands,
they're looking for folks,
neighbours,
who might have any means
to contact Paul.
One of the neighbours happens to
have Paul Lemay on Facebook
Messenger.
(CELLPHONE VIBRATING)
- And Paul responds.
Paul's still refusing
to come out of the residence.
But as the time goes on,
Paul wants a cigarette.
The Kentucky State Police tell Paul,
"You got to come to us."
Paul is very reluctant to do this.
So the neighbour, Pat,
volunteers
to take the cigarette to Paul
who's standing on the porch.
At this time, when Paul comes
out of the residence,
Paul Lemay is dressed in nothing
but sweatpants and no shirt.
December 17 in Kentucky,
it's very cold,
so the next door neighbour, Pat,
also offers his sweatshirt.
As soon as Paul Lemay
gets that sweatshirt
he is rushed by two troopers
who were lying in wait.
And that's how
the Kentucky State Police,
eventually, got Paul into custody.
The State Police begin a sweep
of the Lemay residence
to look for Mandy.
At that point, they had no idea
whether she was dead or alive.
When the troopers walked
into the Lemay residence
they were met by the smell of death.
They could smell
decomposition in the air.
When they get
into this back bedroom,
they can make out
a pile of blankets.
And sticking out
from the bottom of that blanket
is what is obviously a human foot.
They pull the sheets back,
and there they find
the deceased body of Mandy Lemay.
She had a single gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
What's clear, at this point,
she had been there
for quite some time.
- I got a call from Daddy.
He said, "She's gone.
"She won't be coming back."
I fell to the floor.
My whole body was paralysed
for three days after that.
I never knew she went back there
to even think
that could've happened.
(INHALES DEEPLY)
I'm done.
That's as far as I want to go.
- A family in Johnson County
is wishing they would've seen
the signs after police say,
their family member, Mandy Lemay,
was shot and killed by her husband.
Paul Lemay's statement
to Kentucky State Police
during his recorded interview
tells us
that Paul was obviously
in a very troubled place.
- (POLICE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- My guess is that Paul did it
so that nobody else could have her.
And she can't leave him.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- Paul, clearly,
identifies as the victim.
Individuals
who fail
to take
responsibility
for their
actions
are some of the
same individuals
who are
callous
and lack empathy and remorse.
- She would've been alive now
if she hadn't went back.
But Mandy couldn't make up her mind
whether she loved him or not.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
(POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- We learn through the course
of the investigation,
Mandy had left the marital residence
and hadn't returned
for quite some time.
But, eventually,
Mandy Lemay
returns home.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
- She tells Paul
that she's lost her telephone,
she doesn't have one
and she needs a mean
of communications.
She wants to be able
to reach out to her family
and set up this plan
to go spend Thanksgiving
with her family,
to have dinner with them.
(PAUL SPEAKING)
We know that Paul Lemay
is in the house at that time,
and he's likely hearing
these conversations take place.
He understands
that in a few more days,
when Thanksgiving rolls around,
Mandy is going to be
back out the door again
spending time with her family.
And, eventually, an argument
between the two ensues.
- At this point,
Paul knows that he's lost Mandy.
He's lost control
of the one person in his life,
the source of his ego.
And now he can see
that the dark impulses
are going to seep back in.
It's almost like a volcano erupting,
this is the last straw.
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- The evidence, in this case,
shows that Paul Lemay
went to his bedroom.
- (POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- He took that revolver
into the living room.
He put that gun
to the back of Mandy Lemay's head
and he pulled that trigger.
(GUNSHOT)
- Well, from what I was told,
he shot her in the back bedroom
and dragged her to their bed,
and he slept next to her
those several weeks
that she was laying there.
- In the very end, after she died,
Paul still didn't want
to let her go.
This is indicative
of yet another final opportunity
for him to control her.
- I reckon Paul was trying
to preserve the body
because he literally slept
in a freezing house.
Next to her.
We all had the funeral.
It was hard for me
to walk through the funeral doors.
And walked in
and when I seen the casket,
it was closed.
I didn't get to tell her goodbye.
- I could've got Mandy out.
Mandy could've been safe,
Mandy could've been here
with us now.
- It would've been nice
if Mandy could've met
my children more.
I could've explained to them better
how good a person she was
how good of an aunt
she would've been,
how much they would've been spoiled.
It hurts me every day
that she can't be here
with us today.
- Paul was evaluated
by two psychiatrists,
both of whom cleared him
as competent to stand trial.
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- (PAUL SPEAKING)
- (JUDGE SPEAKING)
- Paul Lemay
didn't actually go to trial.
He pleaded guilty
to one count of murder
and one count of abuse of a corpse.
(LAWYER SPEAKS)
- It's still very frustrating
that he didn't explain
everything in court,
why he did do it.
- (LAWYER SPEAKS)
- And so he thought
he didn't have
to give his explanation.
He didn't have to tell why.
- (JUDGE SPEAKS)
- That's what makes me
lose sleep at night
because I'll never know why.
I'll never know why it happened.
I'll never know.
(SOBS)
- There's likely several reasons
why Paul ended up murdering Mandy.
Paul wanted control
from the very beginning
and he had it until the very end.
- She was an amazing person.
- Mandy would want to be remembered
as the funny, goofy, outgoing,
people-friendly person that she was.
I like
to think
I'm going
to see her again.
(CHUCKLES)
That's what keeps me
going
every day.
We'll see our loved ones again.
Captions edited by Ai-Media
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