There's a law called double jeopardy, that once you have
been tried for a crime and acquitted,
you cannot be re-charged with that crime.
My dad's innocent.
He was proven innocent -- After my dad actually
finally confessed, it was a true gut punch.
I -- I don't think I've ever had that feeling in my entire life.
I'm not sure if I ever will again.
He did it, and he got away with it,
and how he kept his composure and carried on --
I don't know how you can do that.
He let us down as a father.
We absolutely knew she had everything to do with it.
She's been a liar all her life and a manipulator.
No doubt in my mind, she was responsible for this.
I have such hatred for Mary Ann Shore
and what she did to our family.
I have no doubt in my mind that she
was an evil person for the majority of her life.
[The Paper Chase's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" plays]
[strings continue playing sinister tune]
[static crackling]
[knock at door] [creaking]
[banging on door]
[creaking]
[water dripping]
[banging on door] [creaking]
[sinister chord strikes]
When I see these photos of my dad, it still is extremely
hard to believe that he did what he did to another
human being.
I don't see it in him.
My dad always came across as being very happy, you know,
good personality,
you know, he was never a grumpy person or sad.
He would sit on the couch and watch TV,
and he'd laugh and, you know,
he seemed generally happy as a person.
But when my mom and dad got divorced in 1973, and he took
custody of myself and my sisters,
things changed.
[ominous music playing]
Out in public, he was a nice, likeable guy,
but at home, my dad was a little bit different.
I would consider him to be a control freak.
He wanted everything his way.
Chores that you had to do, if they weren't done perfect,
he yelled a lot at us.
When my dad would come home,
he would go immediately into our bedrooms and inspect to see
if they were clean up to his standards.
Junior!
MICHAEL: And when he called me Junior,
I knew something was not right.
It was not going to be good.
I thought I told you to clean up in here!
You can see the stress, you know, his face would get
a little red, veins are kind of popping out on his neck.
He would call me stupid.
The intimidation factor of him being
in your face and yelling at you,
it is a scary thing.
You can't follow simple instructions, can you?
MICHAEL: My dad really never hit us,
but I almost felt like I'd rather have gotten a spanking
and be done with it than have
to be yelled and mentally berated every day,
and he would just say,
"You've got 15 minutes to get this clean, and I'll be back to
take a look at it."
There had better not be a speck of dust in here.
You got me?
And so -- and then he would turn around and leave,
and you would be doing everything you can to get it
fixed the way he wanted it perfectly.
But he would not let us get
the vacuum cleaner out and vacuum the floor.
We had to physically pick up --
Like it was a punishment to us.
It was a tough time in my life.
There were a lot -- A lot of days
it just wasn't fun to be in that house.
[sighs heavily]
[sniffles]
To talk about it, yeah,
you'd just rather be beat sometimes than to have to put up
with that [bleep].
That is crazy.
Okay.
Ooh.
The first time I met Mary Ann Shore
was after my mom and dad got divorced.
Uh, she was his secretary at work.
She was probably in her 20s.
My dad was maybe in his 30s, I guess.
He used to go on business trips, and she
was gonna watch us while he was out of town.
She seemed very nice, but it didn't
take long for her to quickly assert herself.
She let you know that she was in charge.
Big Alice Cooper fan, huh?
Yeah, he's the best.
AS MARY ANN: Yeah. I like him, too.
And one of the first times I realized that
Mary Ann Shore was not quite who I thought she was
was one time she said I would...
I will buy you every Alice Cooper album
if you tell your dad how much you
like me and how much you want me around.
Sound good?
MICHAEL: And if you don't, I will tell him about
the cigarettes that I found in your room,
and that kind of took me by surprise.
Where did you get those?
I basically pleaded with her to stay out of my room.
It's none of your business. This is my stuff.
She looked at me and laughed
and said, "I can do whatever I want",
"and if you don't do what I tell you or ask you to do,
I will tell your dad."
Who's he gonna believe, you or me?
MICHAEL: That's scary.
What are you gonna do as a young kid?
If he found out that I was smoking,
I couldn't even fathom how mad he would get.
I was scared to death.
Your dad comes home tomorrow.
- Let me know what you decide. - MICHAEL: I did...
whatever Mary Ann asked me to do.
I would tell my dad great things about Mary Ann Shore...
all the time,
any time I could.
I would say, "You know, I really like Mary Ann."
"She's a really nice person.
"She treats us well.
"She takes care of us. She's really fun to be around.
I really like her. You should keep her."
And it was just a flat-out lie.
That was a huge turning point in me realizing
that she was not to be trusted at all.
There were some things that were happening around our house
that were causing a lot of tension,
things that we couldn't really explain.
And a lot of it happened when my dad was gone.
- What did you do with my shirt? - What shirt?
MICHAEL: My sisters shared a room,
and my oldest sister would have a shirt, you know,
a really nice shirt, and somehow, it would
end up in my other sister's drawer,
and it would have a burn hole in it.
I didn't touch your stupid shirt.
- Then how did he get ruined? - How the hell should I know?
MICHAEL: It would start this fight between them.
It seemed sort of normal, you know, sibling rivalry.
But these things with the clothes would happen
a lot.
Mary Ann Shore really never did anything
to stop this at all.
She just was there in the background.
It almost seemed like she sat
back and just let it keep escalating.
- Get off me! - Stay out of my stuff.
Then you stay out of mine.
MICHAEL: Later down the road,
we figured out that Mary Ann was doing things
like this to us in order to cause tension,
because I think in her mind,
she really wanted my dad for herself.
Why do you always accuse me of stuff I didn't do?
We told my dad it was Mary Ann.
He absolutely did not believe us.
He called us liars. "You're lying."
And I think that played into Mary Ann Shore's hands.
She was manipulating the whole situation so
she could get rid of us kids.
She really wanted us gone at that point
so she could have my dad, you know, in the house
to herself.
But, you know, we didn't know that she was
just out of control.
MICHAEL: Once my sister and I figured out that, you know,
we weren't doing these things together.
We were saying this is not us, Mary Ann is doing this to us,
and he absolutely did not believe us.
Mary Ann was around a lot during these times,
and she was in charge
of us kids during those 2-to 3-week periods
that my dad was gone.
This one time, mysteriously,
a hole got cut in
the back of a brand-new couch that we'd got.
It was a physical hole.
It was about this big.
So, how was everything?
Not great.
MICHAEL: Guess who found this hole? Mary Ann Shore
found it while my dad was on one of these trips,
and, of course, she told my dad.
Junior, where are you?!
And that was one of the
worst, worst days of my life as a child.
My dad was so mad.
- Can you explain this? - What?
This!
I've never seen my dad this man in his life,
I mean, I think his veins were out 2 inches on his neck.
He was purple red.
He yelled at me
easily for an hour.
I just told him, you know, constantly over and over,
I didn't do it. Why would I do it?
It doesn't make sense that I
would just cut a hole in the back of a couch.
Why would you do that?
And then there was Mary Ann Shore.
She was just quiet as a mouse, looking down with this sort of
uncomfortable smirk on her face,
not saying a word, not looking up.
Look at her. She probably did it.
Stop trying to blame Mary Ann for everything.
MICHAEL: As smart as a man as my dad was,
he couldn't see through his rage.
Get out of here now!
Mary Ann Shore essentially truly succeeded in
driving these massive wedges
between me and my sisters and my dad.
I am so sorry.
MICHAEL: I just remember sitting in my room and crying for
hours, and, I mean, really, your mind starts to get dark.
What can you do to her to turn the tides?
I think it was probably as close as I've ever
thought to ever killing somebody in my entire life,
like really wanting somebody dead at that point.
Now, I'm a smart guy.
I'm not gonna kill somebody,
but man, your mind goes into some dark places at that point.
I just wanted to escape.
WOMAN: And also, I mean...
I'm gonna have to take a break for a second.
Dang. I didn't expect that.
[sniffles]
[exhales heavily]
Wow, that took me back to a very dark place.
They broke up several times, and it never lasted that long.
They always were back together.
But when they broke up for good, I'm pretty sure I was 15
or 16 at the time, it was just me and my dad.
My older sister graduated high school, and she had moved out,
and my other sister followed
shortly thereafter when she graduated.
- Going away again? - Yeah.
MICHAEL: My dad said, "Hey, I've got to go on a trip"
"overseas, and it's gonna be a little longer than
my normal trip, about 30 days."
He said, "I'm not sure when I'm gonna be back."
This time is gonna be a little different.
I should be back in about a month.
Is everything okay?
- Everything's fine. - And normally when my dad would
leave, and he would always call a couple
of times to check on us, and then he would always have
somebody staying with us.
Well, that time, he actually gave me money for groceries
and just said, "Take care of the house,
I'll see you when I get back."
He didn't have anybody checking in on me.
So it was weird. It was very strange.
He was gone, and we did not hear from him until the day
he showed back up.
Years later, talking with my dad's lawyer,
I found out he actually went to prison during that time for
30 days.
He was charged and convicted of tax evasion,
and Mary Ann,
apparently, when they broke up for good,
she was gonna get revenge.
Mary Ann had turned him in on the tax evasion charge.
I'm not sure my dad knew at
the time she was the one that turned him in,
but when my dad showed up in the taxi to come home,
Mary Ann Shore was with him.
The first time I met Brenda, uh, was --
I was bartending, and, uh, he --
He brought her in and introduced me to her,
and they had a couple drinks.
Girlfriend?
Brenda, my son, Michael.
MICHAEL: She was a very quiet person.
Didn't really say a lot, beautiful smile,
very nice -- she seemed so different from Mary Ann.
It was like a breath of fresh air.
I was like, wow, he's actually met somebody that seems
very cool,
very nice, genuine.
They seemed very happy together.
We've been dating for a little while now.
- That's great. - Maybe that's the last
we'll see of Mary Ann Shore.
This is a picture of him and Brenda.
He looks...
really happy, but she doesn't have
this big smile on her face.
She kind of looks indifferent to me.
Which, you know, I don't know if this was
at the time where they were having some issues.
I feel like maybe she's not
as happy about their relationship as he is.
And I could be wrong, but that's
kind of what I read from her face.
There was a night that my dad, you know, wanted me to
come over for dinner, because he had an announcement to make.
We were all sitting at the table.
My grandmother was there, my aunt was there.
I have some big news.
And he made this announcement that he had asked Brenda to
marry him, and she accepted, and he gave her a ring.
I proposed to Brenda, and she said yes.
MICHAEL: We were like, wow, congratulations.
But the odd part about that was, she wasn't there.
Usually, when you make those announcements,
your significant other is there.
That's great news dad. Uh, where's Brenda right now?
She couldn't get out of work in time to be here.
MICHAEL: Looking back on that,
it was very, very strange that Brenda was not
with him when he made that announcement to our family.
But I just thought it was the way he did things,
you know? That's just the way my dad is.
You know, I wrote it off to the quirkiness of
his personality.
We haven't set a date yet,
but as soon as we do, we'll let everyone know.
I had no idea that she had given him the ring back
or told him that she wanted to call off
the engagement.
We didn't know that at the time.
That was never made clear to any of us
and only came out in the days after
Brenda disappeared.
I was working a bartending shift at the restaurant,
and I got a call. - Morty's Tavern.
MICHAEL: And it was my dad,
and he was crying, saying that Brenda was missing,
they can't find her.
Whoa, whoa! Dad, slow down -- What's going on?
I never heard my dad cry before,
and he was sobbing crying, like crazy crying.
Okay, I'll be there as soon as my shift ends.
I finished my shift,
and I went over to my dad's house, where my grandmother was,
and my aunt was there,
and they are sitting around the kitchen table,
and my dad is crying hysterically.
Dad, are you okay?
- What happened? - My Brenda's missing.
MICHAEL: I had never seen my dad in this state.
He was telling us the story of how they had spent the day
together, and then they went
out to eat at one of their favorite places to eat, and then
she left to go home.
[voice breaking] She said she'd call me when she got home
but never did.
MICHAEL: The police found the car on the highway that night.
The car had a flat tire,
and the car had been broken into, and there
had been blood found, and the radio was stolen.
They said there's no sign of her.
They don't know what happened to her, and he feared the worst.
I mean, the whole situation was extremely uncomfortable,
seeing my dad just sobbing incoherently
about how she's missing,
she's gone, you know, she's probably dead.
- Calm down. - And he kept saying, you know,
"I don't know what I'm gonna do without her, I love her
so much."
She's gone.
I know it.
Looking back on it now, it was almost over the top.
When they found Brenda's car on the highway,
there was blood on the seat, and the stereo was gone.
That was not Brenda's blood.
It was not my dad's blood.
It was somebody out of the blue saw a car on
the highway, and they broke into and stole the stereo, and that
threw their investigation off from the very beginning.
Brenda's family really didn't like my dad,
so they were very adamant that they absolutely
knew it was him that did it.
They just kept reiterating in the press
that he was still their number-one suspect.
The focus turned on my dad.
The newspaper every day had
articles about this investigation and my dad.
But my dad was never --
Never came across as -- As worried about anything.
He was very adamant that he
was innocent, and that's what he portrayed.
When I got done getting ready for work
and dressed, I opened up my door,
grabbed my paper, and when I unfolded my paper,
they had found Brenda's body.
It was the picture of my dad, "Mel Ignatow arrested for
the murder of Brenda Sue Schaefer,"
big headlines, and your heart sinks.
You know, you're just like, oh, my God.
And of course, I turned on the TV, and the news is just
nonstop about my dad and the arrest.
He was charged with murder.
I still didn't believe it, but it's devastating
to see this.
It just seems so surreal, like, this couldn't happen.
Mary Ann actually led the police to
the body, so now they had a body.
And that was a shocker, because, you know, we had no idea
Mary Ann Shore was in the picture in my dad's life
at all.
The FBI and the police had been tracking my dad, and they
had his phone bugged, and Mary Ann Shore,
she lived in a house that had woods behind it.
She called my dad and said she was really concerned because
they were gonna develop this land, and that they
will find that site that my dad and Mary Ann buried her in.
The police started putting pressure on Mary Ann Shore.
She finally cracked and said, "I can
take you to where the body is."
Mary Ann Shore told them my dad murdered Brenda,
killed her with chloroform
is how she actually died,
suffocated her, supposedly after
sexually assaulting, torturing her.
It's just horrific.
When we found out that Mary Ann Shore had been
involved some way, and she led the police to the body,
it was like a light bulb.
She did it.
My dad had nothing to do with that.
That was Mary Ann Shore.
She is crazy enough to have
killed Brenda, because she wanted my dad.
The body was buried in
the woods behind the house she was renting.
There was no doubt in our minds that he was innocent.
He was innocent. It was not him.
It was Mary Ann Shore.
The first time I saw my dad after he got arrested,
the things that my dad said were very reassuring to me.
I had nothing to do with this.
MICHAEL: "I didn't do this."
"This was the work of Mary Ann Shore.
"I'm absolutely convinced of this.
"Stay strong. Don't worry about a thing.
This is all gonna work out."
You and I both know who did this.
She is setting me up.
MICHAEL: You know, didn't show any
signs of being distraught or distressed.
It was that calm facade that he had, and confident.
I felt very good
about what was gonna happen with my dad.
- I'll be out of here in no time. - Okay.
I'll see you soon.
MICHAEL: But, looking back, he really didn't
mention a whole lot about Brenda.
It was more about Mary Ann and how he
couldn't believe she -- She could have done it
as opposed to grieving about Brenda.
And I don't think that I ever
really questioned my dad if he killed Brenda.
I never asked that question --
Did you kill Brenda?
During his original trial for the murder of
Brenda Sue Schaefer, May Ann was their star witness.
I was not in the courtroom for her testimony,
because I was a character witness for my dad.
But with the press covering this quite heavily in
the newspapers, we heard about this testimony.
Mary Ann alleged that he sexually abused,
assaulted, tortured,
and murdered Brenda Sue Schaefer.
She was testifying about helping dig the hole
for Brenda that my dad
and Mary Ann buried her in.
My dad drove that car to the freeway,
and she followed him in another car, and he got out
and took a regular, like, household steak knife,
stabbed the tire, and then they drove off,
and they left the car.
But where was the evidence of all of this?
They didn't find any DNA evidence on Brenda.
No proof whatsoever.
Mary Ann Shore told them they took pictures of it.
But the police searched that house... twice.
They didn't find anything.
She's been a liar all her life.
We did not trust her at all.
And we had no doubts in our mind
that she was the one that killed Brenda.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
That was my father's defense.
If Mary Ann Shore couldn't have Mel Ignatow,
no one can -- she set him up,
and we believed it, we just thought
that she was gonna take my dad down any way she could.
Now, this is Mary Ann Shore
during the trial, on the stand.
And telling the story of what they did to her,
she didn't shed a tear.
She was emotional-less.
But she's pretty adamant here that
she did not kill Brenda Sue Schaefer
and trying to pin it on my dad.
"I had nothing to do with it, he's guilty,
and he knows it, and I know it."
And nobody believed her.
Nobody, the jurors didn't believe her at all.
When they first came out with the not guilty,
I mean, you talk about the weight of the world
off your shoulders.
I mean, it was amazing, uh, that feeling, that you
were vindicated,
you know, that we knew all along
my dad didn't do it.
This proves us right.
You could tell he was extremely
emotional, and then the joy sets in.
The picture of joy,
um, this picture was the day after my dad was acquitted.
There was a big press conference on the steps of
the courthouse,
and man, is he happy.
I mean, the look in his face of relief.
I'm standing right by his side.
We were absolutely ecstatic.
He was proven innocent.
We stood by him.
This is a great day -- Looking at this picture now,
knowing what we know,
I just want to punch him in the face.
You know, I hate to say that -- He's my dad,
but you just want to be like, man, what a -- what a liar.
You know? Oh, my gosh.
Mary Ann Shore had cut
a deal with the commonwealth's attorney
in order to testify against my dad
that she would get, uh, leniency.
I believe she thought she wasn't gonna serve any
time whatsoever,
but I believe she spent at least 2 -- 2 to 3 years in --
In the federal penitentiary.
When my dad was arrested, we came to realize that we had,
you know, to sell his house,
his car, his boat, his possessions to come up with
money for his lawyers.
So when my dad got out, he came to live with me.
He didn't really go out in the community too much.
He pretty much stayed at home.
Nine months passed.
Thursday night was my bowling night.
So my dad was sitting on the couch, watching TV.
My dad would be up all hours of the night,
so I knew he'd be up when I got home.
And I guess I got home about 11:30 at night,
and I walked in, and the lights are on,
and the TV's on, and there's
my dad's partially drank coke on the table next to the couch,
and he wasn't there.
Hey, dad, I'm back.
MICHAEL: I'm like, that's weird.
He's probably downstairs doing laundry.
Good night.
MICHAEL: And I went to bed.
And
when I woke up, the lights were still on,
and the TV was still on.
Dad?
MICHAEL: And my dad wasn't there,
and I happened to look, and I saw
all kinds of messages on my phone.
"Mike, have you seen the news?
You know, give us a call."
I think one of them was my aunt -- called my aunt.
She said, "Mike, your dad's been arrested again."
What do you mean?
She was like, they found the evidence
that implicates him in the murder of Brenda.
They found the film that Mary Ann Shore told them
they took pictures of -- It was in his old house.
How is that possible?
The new owner of his house had wanted to replace the carpet,
and so the --
They had a carpet company come in, and they were tearing out
the carpet when they uncovered
a hidden air duct in the floor.
The carpet company found this bag of jewelry and undeveloped
film, and knowing that the history of the house,
they immediately called the FBI.
- I gotta call you back. - And they developed it,
and it was everything that Mary Ann Shore told them.
She was telling the truth, but nobody believed her.
I hit the floor.
I really felt like the biggest heavyweight boxer punched me in
the stomach, and I couldn't stand, and I just hit the floor.
Once they discovered the true hard evidence,
the smoking gun, as you will,
that showed my dad, you know, doing these things to Brenda,
they couldn't re-charge him with murder.
Once you have been tried for a crime and acquitted,
you cannot be re-charged with that crime.
But the federal government wasn't giving up.
They were now charging him with perjury.
I went down to the courthouse.
My dad had agreed to admit everything, and he stood up on
that stand in court and admitted everything,
said he was sorry.
That was a tough day.
It was arguably the worst...
moment in my entire life.
I can't tell you how mad, how upset,
how disappointed
that we all were.
When my dad was convicted of the two charges of perjury in
the federal trial,
he was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.
He ultimately ended up spending
a little less than seven years in prison.
I'm a little torn on that, because
I am a believer in the death penalty.
I think, you know, if you kill somebody,
you know, you should -- You shouldn't live.
I mean, I really, truly believe my dad should
have been put to death for that -- Brenda's family,
they really, really got cheated out on
what should have happened to my dad.
I did not see my dad for seven years.
I did not go visit him in federal prison.
I didn't want to -- I felt so betrayed and so used.
There was no way I was making a trip to go see him.
He can rot in hell.
He asked if he could come and stay with me.
I had to do some serious thinking about it and, you know,
I just decided it was probably the right thing to do.
He was my dad, he needed a place
to live, and he had nowhere to go.
My dad and I had some conversations about what had
happened, and he did apologize to me during some of those,
you know, face-to-face conversations, but we really
never got into it very deep.
I don't think I ever really believed
that he truly accepted the responsibility.
My dad ended up staying with me
for probably about, you know,
nine months to a year after he got out of federal prison.
I'm not sure I ever really forgave him.
I love my dad enough to take care of him
and do what I felt like I needed to do,
you know, in his later life.
I'm not sure I've ever forgiven him for what he did.
Once my dad moved out, I would go by and check on him
all the time -- on Monday morning, on my way into work,
I decided I'm gonna stop by and make sure
everything's okay.
- Hey, dad, open up. - I knock on the door.
You know, nobody's answering.
His van is out in the driveway.
So I opened the door, and what I see
is just -- it's just a horrifying scene.
I see this broken glass table, and there's blood everywhere
and I'm like, ah, crap, this is not good.
His walker was laying on the ground, and the leg was bent.
You know, you could tell that he was probably walkin' on
it, and it collapsed, and he went in to this coffee table.
I followed this trail of blood into his bedroom,
and I walked into his bedroom,
I turned around, and there he was
up against the wall, on the ground.
He crashed through a glass coffee table,
cut his arm really bad, and ended up bleeding
to death in his apartment.
He didn't grab his phone to call for help.
I think he just decided it was time for him
to lay down and die.
When I saw my dad on the ground and the scene,
you know, uh...
I honestly felt relieved -- In my mind,
I felt like is this finally over, you know,
can we, as a community,
finally move on from this nightmare that he caused?
That was a tough way to die,
but I'm a big believer in Karma.
When Mary Ann and my dad murdered Brenda,
they had her taped to this glass coffee table,
and it was ultimately a glass coffee table that did him in.
That is Karma -- The definition of Karma.
It got him.
I recall hearing about Mary Ann Shore's death --
Really didn't happen too long after she had been released.
She died of either cancer or a heart attack.
Mary Ann Shore's role in this,
it's really hard to -- to wrap my mind around -- to this day,
I still believe she's the one that got my dad to kill Brenda.
Her ultimate goal in life was to be
with my dad, and she would do anything
and everything possible to make that happen.
He did it, but I think
it was her that pushed him to do it.
Over the years, I've, you know,
put a lot of thought into what was going through my dad's mind
when he decided to kill Brenda.
The only thing that I can think of is that
she was the icing on the cake to this perfect life
that he'd created, with the nice house,
the nice car, this ultra-successful man
who's on top of the world.
And when she decided to break up with him,
I think it crashed his dream.
I just think he lost his mind,
and to this day, I still can't really understand it.
I try not to harbor all that, you know, anger.
It's just not good for you.
But I have such hatred for Mary Ann Shore
and what she did to our family.
She was an evil person for the majority of her life,
and I don't know how she convinced him to do it.
But I, in my heart, believe she was ultimately
pulling the strings.