Transcript of Bad Romance: Death at the Door (Revisited)

This is Deborah Roberts. We're taking a few weeks off from new podcast programming on Wednesdays while we work on a new interesting series to share with you. So in the meantime, we're bringing back some of our installments from our classic series, Bad Romance. Here's this week's episode. Am I ever going to love again? Am I ever going to love again? Killed while she was opening her own kitchen door, an NFL great's longtime girlfriend is dead, and the suspect list is long and complicated. Could it be a crazed fan, a jealous lover, a robbery gone wrong? Whoever pulled the trigger, it ended with death at the door. Am I ever going to love, going to love, going to love? Am I ever going to love, going to love, going to love? Again. 33, take. A hometown champion. 37, take. A pro-sports celebrity. Take six, push. Leads a very public life in front of the cameras. Sean Gale. Nfl defensive back, Sean Gale, is beyond famous in Chicago. Off the field, he's sharing his life with a woman he loves. Roni Ryder has been with him now for almost two decades, for 18 years. It wouldn't have mattered if she had been with a guy who was selling peanuts on the corner as long as she was happy.

Was it a true love affair? She loved him with every ounce of her heart. I know that. Sean and Roni. Back in 2007, they have no idea that ahead of them is a murder story that to this day isn't over. This story really starts in 1985. Mike Dydka and the Chicago Bears ruled the town of Chicago. The 1985 bears, arguably one of the greatest football teams in NFL history, there's no question. The Bears, old enough to remember it. That's going to be intercepted. Sean Gale. Sean Gale was a great contributor, a starter, just a rock solid, really well respected player that knock you out. Sean Gale, number 23, scored the countdown. He wasn't just celebrated in Chicago. He was celebrated across football. We're not going to break our arms patting ourselves on the back by what we've done so far. We know we have a long way to go. Of course, he's super attractive, and everybody just falls all over him. Sean, of course, you're a bachelor. Still a heartthrob among female Bear fans. What do you do after a football game? And players. You got to watch him. Usually, the single guys, we just get together, maybe go out and get a bite to eat.

Burial. Everybody assumed they were going to win the Super Bowl, and they did. Mike Ditton, Hungary Chicago, finally champions on this January Every day in New Orleans. They just destroyed the New England Patriots. It was sheer ecstasy, delirium in a city that has waited a long time for a national champion. The thing you need to know about Sean Gale is after football, he was still a success. What do you think about that? He was a commentator. He was doing different things in the community. This was a guy who had a major profile after the game. He always seemed to know what he was doing. Sean was seen as a ladies' man, very smooth. He looks like an eligible bachelor. Actually, he has that long-term relationship with a woman who works at Macy's, Roni Ryder. Roni was from Wisconsin. She's in the area between bears fans and packers fans, but obviously, she became a bears fan when she started dating John Gale. I first started digging into the story more than 10 years ago. That's when I met Roni's family. She was a big city woman, but she never lost that small town girl quality. I'm going to zoom in.

Oh, you're my sister. She just had a big smile, and she would always hug you and greet you, and she just made you be comfortable no matter where you were. So here's your sister. She's dating a professional football player. What was your reaction? It was great for me being a Chicago Bear fan. We were happy for her. I really just wanted her to be happy. Sean and Roni never live together. They never get married. And friends say her family found that a little awkward. Why do you think they weren't married? I know Roni wanted to be married. I'm thinking it was probably because Sean wasn't ready. At a certain point, you just stop asking. But then, at the age of 41, Roni got an unexpected gift. Something she'd always dreamed of, actually. She found out she was pregnant. Tonight, ABC's 2020 has an exclusive interview with Sean Gale. 9 o'clock right here on ABC7. I was the only reporter that Sean Gale granted an interview to in 2009. Sean Gale speaks very openly with you, it seems. He said he only ever wanted to be interviewed once, to be broadcast and aird once. In that interview, I asked him how he and Roni were feeling about the pregnancy.

Sean told me we were both excited about it. There was some disappointment between the two of us because our relationship wasn't at a point where we hoped it would be in having a child. We were so looking forward to her having a kid because she never had one and always told us how to raise our kids. I mean, that was what she wanted to be, was a mother. Roni's pregnant with a girl who's going to be named Skyler. And then one normal morning, Roni Ryder opens her kitchen door to go to work. Deerfield Police Department. I'm calling about that shooting in Deerfield? Yes. Was it Roni Ryder? Is she okay? Yes, it was Roni. No, she's not. She's dead? She's dead. Almost like beach weather here, instead of Oktoberfest, we're calling it Summerfest. That morning, it's strangely warm in Roni's Chicago neighborhood. Roni lived in Deerfield, Illinois, which is a quiet, affluent, beautiful little suburb of Chicago. It's a very relatively safe place to be. Roni was in her kitchen on her way out to work, grabbed her stuff, opened her door. In the shadows, gets hit with seven bullets. Forced back in her apartment from the blast.

Two shots were directly to the fetus. It's just she's executed. I heard a woman screaming and then a pop, pop, and it went totally silent. I I'm being called, and she does not answer. The phones are ringing off the hook at the Deerfield Police Department. Deerfield Police. I heard about a shooting. Because the town is in a panic. Can you tell me what's going on? What is this? A helicopter We had some police activity, ma'am. When officers enter her apartment, they see pictures of Sean Gale throughout the condominium. The officers knew those pictures of Roni and Sean Gale because Sean Gale is a celebrity. He's in Chicagoland area. Sean got a phone call by a sports reporter who had heard that a pregnant woman in Deerfield had been murdered. So Sean calls the Deerfield Police Station. Deerfield Police Department. I'm calling about that shooting in Deerfield? Yes. Listen, I've been getting calls from the Is it the media? This is Sean Gale, and they're trying to say they're naming me as a suspect. Hold on, please. Was it Roni Ryder? Is she okay? Yes, it was Roni. No, she's not. She's dead? I don't think that she was.

She Come to the police Department. Do you know where it is? Okay. I got to call her parents. The minute I picked up the phone and heard my mom crying, I knew that something had happened. Dad said, You need to come down immediately. Your sister has been taken. And I dropped my phone and headed out the door. I still think I'm going to wake up and it's going to be just a dream. Hello. Oh, it's We just knew she was gone, and we didn't understand why. A woman was shot to death in Deerfield this morning. Police say the victim was the girlfriend of former bearers player, Sean Gale, and that she was pregnant with his child. No suspect information is available at this time. It seemed obvious from the beginning, it wasn't a random crime. Whoever did this was after not only Roni, but after the unborn child. Investigators say that someone reported seeing a teenager running across the street shortly after she was shot. Another witness said this person was wearing a disguise and that it was a A very petite person. Was it a robbery? Was it a contract killing? It just didn't add up.

It didn't make sense. The Lake County Major Crimes Task Force headed up this murder investigation. Detective Scott Frost is soon on the case. When we got to the station over in Deerfield, the media was already there, and reporters wanting to get something in. We had to look at Sean. Sean Gale was the first guy. Remember Sean already talked to the police. I can't believe it. So Sean hangs up the phone with Deerfield police, and he voluntarily goes down to the station. Okay, bye. The police are going to look at Sean calling them from two different directions. It's a logical thing to do. A loved one's been harmed or killed. Sean Gale calling us right away within hours of this murder was a little suspicious. But when he arrives at the station, the police notice that he is distraught. He was visibly upset. He was shaken. But by the time he sat down for questioning, Detective Scott Frost said that Sean Gale had become strangely composed. I figured I would see more of us sobbing Sean. He was very reserved, very calm. We're having issues with his timeline from what he did the night before, the time did he go to bed?

What time did he leave? And it's just like, Well, I'm not asking you what you did two weeks ago. I'm asking you in the last 24 hours. On the morning of the murder, Sean says he slept in, worked out with a trainer, and then went and got a haircut at a barbershop about 10 minutes from Roni's house. The problem is it's not air tight exactly where he was when she was killed. During the questioning of Sean, police learned that Roni wasn't the only woman in his life. He was playing the field, so to speak. Here, he, kindly enough, gives us a list of almost 18 or 16 different women that he either went on a date with, got a phone number from, or had something romantically involved. He's given us, Here you go. Talk to everyone. These were 18 women over the three-year period. Granted, it's still a lot. I wouldn't think that my sister would have put up with that relationship. No, she loved Sean with her whole heart, and I think she expected the same back. But Sean has said that as close as they were in their relationship, for him, it wasn't exclusive.

To be thorough, you're going to have to look at each one of these women that he dated or has had a relationship with. You have several women that could have been jealous of Roni. Sean staunchly maintains his innocence with police, so they ask him who he thinks might be responsible, and he says it might be a woman he had a relationship with the year before. She's beautiful. She's a trainer. A relationship he says ended badly. So police have to ask the question, could a bad breakup possibly be a reason to kill? Have you waiting for the perfect time to upgrade your tech? Good news, the wait is over. Dell Tech Day's annual sales event is here, and they're celebrating their best customers with fantastic deals on the latest PCs like the Dell 14 plus with Intel Core ultra processors. Dell's also got incredible perks like Dell rewards, fast free shipping, premium support, price match guarantee, and more. And while you're upgrading your PC, you may as well go all out because Dell is offering huge deals on its premium suite of monitors and accessories. You know what that means? That's right. You can get a whole new setup with amazing savings.

Clearly, this is a sale you don't want to miss. Visit dell. Com/deals. That's dell. Com/deals. It's The Paradise podcast. I am your host, Ryan Michelle Bathé with my husband, Sterling. What's up? Join us here on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, where we'll discuss each episode with the cast and crew of Paradise. I'll be getting all the secrets from Dan Fogelman, James Marsden, Shaline Woodland, Elite Julian Nicholson, and Sterling Calvi-Brown. Paradise, the official podcast, premieres February 16th, and stream Paradise on February 23rd on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. Chicago has a world of charity events, fancy restaurants to offer a sports celebrity like Sean Gale, and he's a popular man. Sean and Roni had been together for 18 years, but there were a a lot of other women he was seeing. Now he's sitting in the Deerfield police station, and his whole life is about to become an open book. During Sean's marathon 10-hour questioning with police, they eventually ask him who he thinks could have killed Roni. And he gave them the name of Monica Kuroska, who was a woman that he had a relationship with in the months prior to that.

Monica Kuroska was from Poland. She was beautiful. She was very, very fit. She was a personal trainer and a model. Sean says he dated Monica for about six or seven months. But here's the thing. It didn't end well. He said that she was harassing him In fact, Sean Gale got an order of protection against Monica, and in court papers, makes a number of allegations. One of them? He says that she had punched through a window at his home. In 2020, Monica told ABC in a statement that she was upset when she got to Sean's house and saw him with another woman. She said she wanted to speak to him, but he wouldn't open the door. She knocked on his window. And in the heat of her frustration, she said she accidentally broke it. She said she decided to end the relationship, and she never saw Sean again. Sean also told police that he believed that for months, Monica had been sending a number of harassing letters to a variety of women in his life. These letters were intended to tell all of these women that, Oh, by the way, you're not the only one dating Sean.

In fact, there's this whole list of other women. One of the reasons that he thought these letters were written by her was because they were written the way she spoke, which was in broken English. One of the letters reads, I think maybe you would like to know what your boyfriend, Sean, is doing with a lot of other women. He knows some of these women and been sleeping with them for many years. Those letters, as you can imagine, wreaked havoc in Sean's personal life. Roni gets one, her mother gets one, and calls Sean about it. She wanted to know if Roni was safe. That's what she said. Because? If there's some woman out there sending letters I know she may want to get rid of the women, other women in his life. And so what did Sean say when she asked the question? Don't worry about Roni. This is a craze fan that has made up these letters, and Roni's very safe. Roni had one of those letters in her purse at the time she was killed. I mean, one of the first things that you're doing when you're investigating murder is seeing if somebody has an alibi, a legitimate alibi.

And it turned out that Monica, at the time, had been trading an older gentleman. Police clear Monica Kuroska, who denies ever sending those letters. But that raises an interesting question. If she didn't write them, who did? While the family is grieving Roni's death. Police are still looking for leads. They know that the bullet casings on the floor are 9 millimeters. And there's also that neighbor describing the gunfire as a popping sound. That means a silencer may have been involved. Suddenly, there are three hot tips that come into the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force. They're all urging police to look at the same woman, another woman that Sean Gale had a relationship with. Her name, Marnie Yang. They've been seeing each other a while, and she's someone Sean told police he'd met the night before the murder. Marnie was a single mother who was very devoted to her children. She was a hard She was a working woman. She was an intelligent woman. My mom had three jobs at one time. She was a real estate agent. She was an inspiring a fitness model. She worked as a cocktail waitress. My mother has always tried her best for us.

I wanted to provide my children as much as I possibly could. I didn't ever want them to feel a lack of anything. Marnie met Sean at a bears convention. She was working as a security person at that and would have had access to some of the celebrities. I just remember him approaching me, introducing himself just by his first name. I didn't know who he was. I remember him mentioning that he was looking for some investment property because it had come out that I was a real estate broker, and I just remember giving him my business card. About two hours after the event was over, my phone rang, and it was him. So they meet, they start talking, and they start doing real estate deals together. She was spending a lot of time with Sean because they had this real estate transaction that she was basically brokering. Two months after Roni was shot, Marnie's in the police station. How are you doing? I'm Marnie. I'm Detective Chuck Schwartz. Chuck is going to ask me some basic questions about who you are, where you live, stuff like that. I didn't feel like I needed an attorney. It was pretty much just anything I can do to help.

They ask about how she knows Sean, where they met. If there's anything else comes up or we have any information that we get, you don't mind coming back in. No, that's fine. We're talking to us. Okay. The police said they started talking to everyone, and they kept hearing a similar story. People who knew Marnie said that she was telling everyone that she was Sean's girlfriend. She bragged about it all the time. She was very proud of it, and she made a lot more out of the relationship than it actually was. I don't think the word boyfriend was ever used, really. I asked Sean back in 2009 if Marnie had been his girlfriend, and he emphatically said, No, she was not. He said, Not even the craziest stretch of the imagination. But he did admit to me that their professional relationship did get friendly. In the investigation, Sean is cooperative as detectives execute a search warrant of home and take his computer. Now, they're about to drop a bombshell on him. Unbeknownst to Sean, Marnie seems to have access to his emails, to his computer, and that all this time for years, she might have been stalking him online.

Investigators believe that Marnie had been tracking Sean and Roni. And those letters that Sean thought came from Monica, police believe he was wrong and that it was Marnie who sent them. Marnie Ang discovered through her penetration of his email account, this Polish woman's emails. She would then study them, master the broken English with which the Polish woman spoke, and write the letters in that broken English in an effort to frame her. He knows some of these women and been sleeping with them. I already talked to some of them. Marnie has denied the claim of online stalking and tracking. She also denied sending those letters. But when it comes to Marnie Yang, investigators say it's just the tip of the iceberg. When you hit the gun, did you hide it real well? I put it into a bucket of cement. I threw it in a dumpster. Sag mal, Nikola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl bei der Steuererklärung, mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen? Boah, nee, gar nicht. Wieso Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann? Wow, das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. Wieso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht?

Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben: Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen. Stimmt, nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuer This is a whole new chapter for me. No more sad sac. That's what I'm talking I want both of our sacs to be fun. You two idiots are perfect for each other. From executive producers of Ted Lasso and Shrinking. We were all a part of this victory. Now get those nachos out of the premium warmer. Nachos. It feels like there's more applause for the nachos than my speech. The new season of Scrubs. Wednesday, February 25th, 8: 7 Central on ABC and stream on Hulu. Police are searching for a suspect suspect in the murder of a pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bayer, Sean Gale. Sean Gale has been subject to rumors and watched his reputation become blemished. Sean has always maintained his innocence. And finally, after weeks of investigating him, police clear him. But what people didn't know was that behind the scenes, he was working with law enforcement because they believed Marnie Yang was obsessed with him. But here's the thing. There's no physical evidence tying to the crime. So one of the things the police do is they start pulling her trash, looking for incriminating information.

They find a bank statement that they read, and it says, Purchase on her debit card, Ray Raleigh's Arms. So they call Ray Raleigh's Arms. And that's when they find out about the book, How to Make a Disposable Silencer, and the fact that she ordered volume one and volume two. She actually went to Home Depot and purchased the items to build the silencer. She's got the drill, a circular clamp, a one and a quarter inch metal pipe, some PVC piping, and the duct tape, and a hacksaw. That's evidence, incriminating evidence, certainly enough to get Marnie back in for questioning. On the morning of the murder, Marnie says she and her son, Andrew, stayed home. What happened? I looked at my phone and there was a message there. Andrew was calling me from the basement to let me know that he was in appointment. I remember checking to see if he had a fever or not, and he felt warm. So he stayed home from school that day. Marnie says that after checking on her son, she went to the garage to try to get her truck to work, and it wouldn't start. That's her alibi. She was stuck at home.

Police spoke with 16-year-old Andrew. Marnie Yang said that she was home during the murder, and interviews with her son revealed that she was not home. Police then introduce the information they have about that she had ordered this book about how to make a silencer. Now, why would you purchase a book on how to make disposable silencers? It was a joke. A gag gift, she says. If it was a joke, her friend didn't get it. She gave it to him, and his reaction was, What is this? And ended up just leaving it at her house. He said he had no idea why she would have given that to him. As the interrogation progresses, police ask her about owning guns. I have four guns, actually. My thing is a 40 caliber. My loomer is a 40 caliber, and mine is a 38. Police already know that Marnie owned another gun, a 9-millimetre Beretta, which happens to match the caliber of the gun that killed Roni. She leaves out the 9-millimetre, and all of a sudden it was, Are you sure that there's no more guns? Oh, you know what? I think there was another one. It was black.

It was on the automatic. I don't know what it was. Where's that one at? That one? I do not know. I want to say about a year and a half ago, some things disappeared out of my house. Police had conducted a search warrant in Marnie's house. So they say to her, In your home, we found mailing labels with the names of the women in Sean's life who received those harassing letters. You don't have any idea why these labels or packets of letters will be your house? You know, you had said that if there was a question, then I didn't feel up to answering it, then I could. Okay, that's fine. They held me for what I now know to be three days. We had the evidence of the silencer. We had the evidence of her having had a nine millimeter. Still wasn't enough. She still was able to walk out the door. After we have to let Marnie in go, we spent a good year and two months revisiting everything. And they talk with one of Marnie's friends, Christie. Now we're looking really hard at Christie passion. Christie was just part of my mom's life.

I just knew that was a friend of my mother's, and that was pretty much it. I wouldn't refer to her as a friend at all. She was an acquaintance. An acquaintance? But clearly, there seems to be a long record of pretty intense friendship. Well, I mean, I was looking at real estate for her as well. Christie tells police that Marnie had come to visit Christie at her house the night before the murder. She was going to go ahead and kill Roni. I was like, Don't do this. What are you going to do? Go kill all the women? But she's the one that he spends all the time with, so she's got to go. That's when they ask Christie if she'll work with them, if she'll set up a meeting with Marnie. The two ladies meet at Denny's, but unbeknownst to Marnie, there's a full sting operation that's about to place. Do you give your permission for the following conversations to be overheard and recorded? Yes. This overheard will now commence. And what follows? The story of a cold-blooded murder. She started screaming into the first shot. It was a black friend. I realized we are on the point in no big town.

Today's date is March first, 2009. For voice identification, please state your name. Christie Passion. Marnie Yang is on her way to a local Denny's to meet her friend Christie. Christie is wearing a wire. The investigator's goal: to see if Marnie has anything to say about the murder of Roni Ryder. They're about to get an earful. Christie Passion's there. There's two police officers undercover at another booth somewhere. When you hit the gun, did you hide it real well? I went into a bucket of cement. I threw it in a dumpster. It has gone under a year and a half's worth of Chicago garbage at the city dump. This is good chocolate. They're sipping tea and eating ice cream and talking about a murder like it was going grocery shopping. It was surreal. Detectives are eager to keep her talking to gather more intel. So they repeat the sting operation the following night back at Denny's. Marnie starts sharing the details about how she says she killed Roni. Roni was leaving for work, and she was met at the door by Marnie Yang. Okay. We have dirt, makeup, and my face is beautiful. Okay. Marnie is describing her elaborate disguise, which seems to match witnesses' description of the suspect on the day of the murder.

She started screaming, I took the first shot. It was a black line from my eyes. We are reporting to the town. And it just started empty. The matter of fact tone with which she described it is terrifying. Then she went down, she took her foot, and she took one good kick at me, got me in the shin. It was weak by that time. It was like, oh, like that. That was it. I just took one last shot. The final wound, the kill shot to Roni itself was right at the head. I slammed it off. That was it. With Marnie's confession securely on tape, they decide they now have enough evidence to move in and arrest her. When they told us that they had made an arrest, it was just like, Thank you. She eluded police for nearly a year and a half. Marnie Yang, the 41-year-old, has been charged with the murder of Roni Ryder. Roni, I need you to have a seat over here, please. Thank you. We brought her into the station. We provided her a segment of The Wire with her and Christie. All she was doing was screaming until she went down.

She basically lawyers up and has done with us. And she's seen on tape after we leave the room, crawling up in the corner of the room, probably in the fetus position. I think she realized she lost. Was like, Got you. Finally. Nearly three and a half years after the murder, Marnie Yang is going to trial. She is charged with killing the girlfriend of former Chicago Bayer, Sean Gale. When I really sit down and just think that this all happened because someone had a crush, it makes no sense to me. Yang has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, Marnie Yang faces life in prison. Marnie Yang's main goal was to eliminate the competition, and the evidence showed that she was obsessed with Mr. Gale, and her obsession was mainly directed at the other women. A big part of the prosecution's case was that Marnie sent these letters to other women that Sean was seeing. And as part of that, they put Marnie's daughter, Emily, on the stand. And she says exactly that. Emily says that her mom had told her that she had sent those letters so that the women could find out about each other.

I was really hesitant. That said, testifying could not have been easy for either mother or daughter. It hurt to see her there. The court heard testimony today from Christie Pastian, who says that she's a friend of Yang's. She was on the stand for a day, and she said a lot. And much of it was damning evidence against Marnie. Marnie's defense at the trial was that she had no idea she was being recorded, but that she was just spinning a tale for her friend Christie Pashin. She started screaming, and I just started empty. The prosecution showed the medical examiner's report. Two of the bullets fired were aimed at Roni's pregnant belly. I'm the mother of three girls seeing baby Skyler with a bullet that ran through her. I just I have chills. I will never get that picture out of my head, ever. A jury finds Marnie Yang guilty of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. I can't even begin to tell you how difficult this has been for me and, of course, Roni's family. At least I feel that Roni and the baby, they're at peace. Marnie Yang now has been sentenced to natural life in prison with no chance for her role.

So Marnie is sent to prison, but this story isn't over yet. Eight years later, she files a petition claiming she was wrongfully convicted. The only evidence that convicted Marnie is the Denny's tape. On that tape, it sounds very much to me like someone's confessing to a murder. The NBA is happening now on ABC and the ESPN app. Right now, this season is unpredictable. We know this rookie class is special. This MVP race is tight, and this crew is the best. So for inside, primetime, showcase, finals, and everywhere in between, There's one place to call home. The NBA on ESPN, presented by State Farm. All season long on ESPN and ABC. Marnie Yang has been in prison more than eight years, just a fraction of her life sentence when her case is in the news again. Marnie Yang is breaking her silence from prison. So now we're in? In 2020, we spoke with Marnie at an Illinois women's prison. She had already sent the court a petition seeking to overturn her conviction, but the court hadn't yet ruled. Every prison has a different look. She sat down with us to speak on camera for the first time.

Hello, Marnie. This will be an interesting conversation. You haven't spoken about any of this for more than a decade. That is correct. Why speak now? I feel like prior to this, I don't think it would have mattered. I feel like there's a time. That time is now. I have to ask you, did you kill Roni Ryder? I did not. And I am not capable of doing anything. I'm a mother myself. That's unconscionable to me. Absolutely not. It took a jury only four hours to convict Marnie Yang. Today, she continues to maintain her innocence. Now, she has a high-profile lawyer and a team of experts committed to proving the state got it wrong. We filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging Marnie's actual innocence. An attorney says he has numerous pieces of evidence that jurors never heard when they convicted Marnie Yang for the murder in 2007. It's everyone's right to appeal a verdict, and there's a reason for that. If we're going to send someone away for life, to prison for life, take away their liberty, remove them from their children, we need to be absolutely sure we're right. Now, in 2024, after five years of legal arguments, the court has ruled that it will hold a hearing to review some of the defense's claims.

Marnie's attorneys argue for one thing, that her Denny's confession isn't what it seems. She started screaming it to the Prishet. My mother was forced to confess to something she didn't do. Things just need to be set right. At trial, Marnie's defense argued that she was just spinning a tale for Christie, but her new attorney claims that she knew she was being recorded all along. You met up with Christie Denny's. You basically described the perfect crime. I knew perfectly well that I was being recorded. I saw the wire. We may have trouble, folks. The piece came out and was hanging down. I don't know if she saw it or not. I believe she didn't see the piece. You're a very convincing actress because on that tape. It sounds very much to me like someone's confessing to a murder. I wasn't confessing to her. I was confessing directly to law enforcement. And why? Her lawyer now claims in the petition that Marnie was making a false confession because she thought investigators were targeting her son. What made you think that the police were going to be able to pin it on your son? That's what they told my children.

When it came to the interrogation, one of the task force investigators came into the room. It was like a movie, almost. He poked, he poked his hands onto the desk and told me, It's either going to be you or your mother that's going to go down for this. And that's when I really started getting scared. The state's attorney's office denies Andrew's claim and says they never treated him as a suspect, and that they repeatedly told Marnie during her interrogation that he wasn't a suspect. They maintain that Marnie's recorded conversation was a true confession. They also point out that Marnie's trial lawyer never raised this claim in her trial. If you're facing life in jail, wouldn't you say, Guys, I was kidding. I was confessing on behalf of my son. But that was never brought up at trial. I can't account for the trial lawyer's strategy at that trial. You're telling me now that you lied when you confessed to all those things that led up to the murder of Roni Reuter and the cover-up. I did. I lied. So you're saying you lied then, but how do I know So you're not lying now? I have nothing to lose at this point.

But you have everything to gain by lying. Prosecutors talk about how this is all coming forward now after Marnie Yang has exhausted every other type of appeal that she can. The court will also review new claims in the defense's petition, including some about forensic evidence. It It will be my job with every breath that I take to get a judge to understand that this woman is innocent, and we will get her a new trial. The prosecution says they firmly believe that Marnie is the one who met Roni at the door that morning and ended her life. It's been almost 17 years since Roni Ryder died. During our interview, one of the most poignant answers Sean gave me was to the question of whether he blamed himself. And he told me the issue was not so much blame. It's the fact that I have to live with knowing that Roni and the baby died because I knew this Marnie Yang. Marnie Yang, who sits in prison, convicted of murder. She took a piece of all of our lives. She took a piece of all of our hearts. She got one of her cameras. How did you know?

She got one of your cameras. It goes through the hole. Roni, it was the hub of the family. She brought us all together. Really cute. We were so happy for Roni, and we were preparing to bring a new life into this world. We were preparing a celebration, and we ended up preparing a funeral, a double funeral.