Transcript of Concrete Evidence (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE) New

One evening in April of 2006, a person sat at their kitchen table frantically cutting up the page of a newspaper with some scissors. They were working on a very important project and it was almost done. They finished cutting up the final letter from the page and pasted it onto the sheet of paper. Then they leaned back to read the message that they'd assembled from the scraps. It was a warning, and they were sure it would have exactly the effect they were hoping for.

But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, and you've come to the right place because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please rent a huge billboard on the side of the highway and just cover it in embarrassing photos of the follow button. Okay, let's get into today's story.

On Sunday afternoon, March 12th, 2006, 39-year-old Michael Zamitti Jr. drove his ATV across a frozen lake in Freedom, New Hampshire. And even though it was really cold and the air burned his cheeks and his lungs, Mike smiled as he drove. He really just loved it here. Most of the time, Mike lived 2 hours away in the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts. But he'd been coming to Freedom, New Hampshire, for years because his parents had a vacation house here.

And so this tiny lakeside community had always felt like a second home and a peaceful retreat. And Mike had recently bought his own vacation house in Freedom, just down the street from his parents. And the purchase had been a really big deal for him. He ran a cement contracting company called Allstate Concrete Pumping, and he'd worked really hard for many years to build up a nice life for his wife, Michelle, and their 3 kids. And in many ways, the purchase of the second house was proof that he'd done it.

But his work with the concrete company had also created some issues in his marriage. Being in charge of a company meant a lot of responsibility and long hours. So Michelle and the kids were on their own quite a bit, which meant Michelle had to do most of the parenting and most of the household stuff. And she'd recently made it clear that Mike being gone all the time, despite how successful he was, was still really hard on her. Now, out on the lake, as Mike was kind of thinking about his whole life, Mike could see another ATV coming toward him.

And as it got closer, he could see that the driver of the ATV was the other problem in his marriage, Shawn Fitzpatrick. So Shawn was one of their neighbors on the lake, and he'd been a close friend of the family for years. He was retired and he lived in Freedom year round. And when the Zimmidis were there, he'd come over for dinners or barbecues or to take their kids boating out on the lake. He was around so much that Mike's kids actually called him Uncle Sean.

But last summer, Mike had found out that his wife Michelle had cheated on him with Sean. Mike had been obviously completely devastated, but he and Michelle had both agreed not to give up on their marriage and had been going to therapy together ever since. And in terms of Mike and Sean's relationship, well, Mike still hadn't actually spoken to Sean since finding out about the affair. Because mostly he just hated confrontation. It had been easier for him to avoid Shawn and focus on rebuilding his relationship with Michelle.

So seeing Shawn now made Mike want to just turn around and speed off in the other direction. But Mike could see that Shawn was already waving him down. So he came to a stop and waited there as Shawn pulled his ATV up. And Shawn did not beat around the bush. He immediately told Mike that he was glad he ran into him here because he'd been wanting to apologize about last summer and Michelle.

It obviously wasn't okay, and he hoped they could just, you know, put it behind them. And Mike, you know, he was so surprised by how sincere Sean was being that he just said, "You know what? It's all good." Which he didn't mean because it definitely was not okay, but again, Mike's not a confrontational guy. All Mike really wanted to do here was get out of this interaction and get away from Sean because this made him really uncomfortable. And also, he genuinely did need to leave basically right now because he and Michelle and the kids were getting ready to head back to Wakefield soon, and he wanted to go help Michelle pack up.

And so pretty quickly, Mike told Shawn that he really had to go here. And then before, you know, Shawn could protest, Mike turned his ATV around and he gunned it back across the lake towards his house. About 15 minutes later, Mike walked into his house, and the first thing he saw was a bunch of suitcases all packed and sitting by the door. And he realized that, you know, Michelle had already done all the work. But seconds later, Michelle came in and gave Mike a kiss and she said, you know, the kids were just finishing up cleaning their rooms and they could all head out in a few minutes.

And then Mike heard the sound of a car beeping twice outside. And when he and his wife heard that, Michelle kind of rolled her eyes and laughed because they both knew it was clearly Mike's parents. His parents had also been in Freedom for this weekend at their house down the street. And they were also making the 2-hour drive back to Wakefield this afternoon. And Michelle was laughing because it amused her that neither Mike nor his father could manage to go a single day without talking to each other.

So Mike's dad was also named Michael, and the name was not the only thing they shared. They were also best friends and coworkers. Michael Sr. owned the company that Mike ran, Allstate Concrete. So it was like a family operation, and Mike Jr. had never even thought of doing anything else. He'd jumped into the concrete business right out of high school, and he and his dad had been working together ever since.

Now, the Allstate Concrete Company had had some struggles, just like any company would, including a lawsuit from a former employee that had been pretty stressful. But for the most part, the business was a huge success. And right now they were busier than ever, working on an enormous construction project in nearby Boston. So Mike headed outside to say hi to his parents and to talk a little business with his dad. He asked Mike Sr. if he'd called their employee Chester Roberts yet, because Mike and his dad had plans to be at the office first thing tomorrow morning, and Mike wanted Chester to be there too.

Chester worked part-time for them as a driver and also handyman, and he was easily the most reliable employee that they had. So whenever they had a packed week ahead, they always called Chester in. And to Mike Jr.'s relief, Mike Sr. said yes, he'd already spoken to Chester and they were good to go. So eventually they all said their goodbyes, and Mike Jr. told his dad he would see him tomorrow.

Just before 8:00 AM the next morning, Monday, March 13th, Mike Jr. pulled his truck into the parking lot of Allstate Concrete. He was right on time. He could see he was the first vehicle there, so he got out and hustled across the lot because it was raining, and he unlocked a side door by one of the garage doors. So the Allstate building was basically just a, a massive garage with 3 huge roll-up doors for their cement trucks to pull into. But it also had an upstairs office where Mike and his father did all their administrative work.

And so after Mike went in through the side door into the big garage, he headed up a set of steps that led to his office on the second level. And when he got there, he sat in his desk chair and started going over the week's logistics. And just a few minutes later, he heard another vehicle pull into the lot outside. Mike figured that very likely this was his father because Chester often came to the office on foot. Then Mike Jr. heard the downstairs door open and footsteps coming up the stairs.

A few minutes later, Mike's father, Mike Sr., pulled his truck into the Allstate concrete parking lot and parked next to his son's truck. He hopped out and walked quickly to the building's side door to get out of the rain, but when he tried to push open the side door, it got stuck on something and wouldn't open all the way. So he looked through the crack to see what was blocking the door, and he froze. Because there was clearly a man lying face down inside of the building in a huge pool of blood. Now, it was dark inside the building, and so Michael Sr. could not see the man's face.

He had no idea who this guy was, but whoever it was, he knew sort of instinctively that it was not his son. Mike Jr. was a big guy, and even in the dark, it was clear this man had a different build. And so Michael Sr.'s heart was pounding now, and all he could think to do was just back away, grab his cell phone, and call 911. However, after Michael Sr. got off the phone with the dispatcher and they said they were sending people over now, Mike Sr. realized he couldn't just wait for the police to get there. I mean, there was clearly someone either very badly hurt or dead in his garage, and his son was likely somewhere inside too.

I mean, his truck was here, and so he had to go in and make sure his son was okay. So Michael Sr. walked away from the blocked door where he had been standing when he called the police, and he pulled up one of the big roll-up garage doors. And once it was open, he didn't see anyone. He just ran inside and began frantically screaming his son's name. But Mike Jr. didn't answer, and there was no sign of him anywhere.

So eventually, Mike Sr. ran to the staircase and went up to the second floor office. And as soon as Mike Sr. barged into the office, He stopped in horror because there, sitting slumped in the desk chair, was the blood-covered body of his son.

Over an hour later, Massachusetts State Trooper Kevin Baker pulled up in front of Allstate Concrete. He could see the large building was already roped off with caution tape, and there were a dozen or more crime scene techs and officers with the Wakefield Police Department who were moving in and out of an open garage door collecting evidence. So Baker was not a part of the Wakefield Police Department. He was with the state police. But in Massachusetts, state troopers conduct homicide investigations right alongside local authorities.

And Baker had a feeling that this case would definitely need his help because Wakefield, they didn't get many homicides. The town was about 10 miles north of Boston and had a reputation as being a, a really peaceful and safe place. The kind of small town where everyone actually knew each other. Baker got out of his cruiser and looked around for whoever was in charge. And he didn't have to wait long because an officer hurried up to him and introduced himself as Detective Richard Cass with the Wakefield Police Department.

Cass told Baker to follow him, and as they walked towards the open garage door, he quickly briefed Baker up on the situation. There were two male victims inside, and both were deceased. They'd both been shot, and they had been found by the company's owner, Michael Zammetti Sr., a little after 8 AM. Baker followed Cass into the garage and over to the first body, which was face down on the floor just inside a smaller side door. Cass explained that this victim was 51-year-old Chester Roberts, a part-time truck driver for Allstate.

It hadn't been difficult to identify him because Chester did a lot of handiwork around town and was known by all the locals, including Detective Cass himself. When Baker went to the body, he could tell right away that Chester had been shot in the back. It was a single shot and most likely was from a shotgun, since clearly there was a blast radius where there was like a spray effect with a lot of little pellets that entered his body. Chester had no other visible injuries, including no defensive injuries. And when Baker stood and looked around the garage, he also didn't see anything that pointed to a robbery or any kind of struggle.

There was pretty pricey-looking equipment just sitting around, and nothing was toppled over or obviously out of place. So Baker guessed that Chester's killer had likely snuck up on him and shot him in the back before he even had a chance to turn around. Baker spent a couple more minutes looking around at the doors and the windows and again didn't see any signs of, you know, forced entry or anything out of the ordinary. But that didn't mean much. Chester had likely opened up for the day and begun work, and the killer had just come in after him.

And so after a few minutes, when Baker was done looking around the first floor, He told Cass he was ready to go up to the second floor to see the second body.

Moments later, Cass led Baker into the second floor office, where the body of 39-year-old Mike Cimetti Jr. had been found. Detective Cass said sadly that, just like with Chester, he knew Mike personally as well. Mike Jr. had not just been shot in the torso the way Chester had been shot. He had been shot in the face as well as in the chest. And the force of these shots had been so powerful that, like, his desk and surrounding paperwork were also all drenched in blood.

And for the most part, you know, Mike was basically unrecognizable. But what struck Baker the most was not just how gruesome this was. It was the fact that, you know, Mike Jr. is still kind of slumped in his chair. You know, he's in his office. Whoever did this, it's like they went in here to execute Mike really intentionally.

They marched in here, they didn't touch anything else, and they shot Mike right in the face with a shotgun before Mike could even get up. I mean, this seemed very intentional. Somebody came here to kill Mike. And so as Baker was thinking about that, he realized that this likely meant Mike Jr. was the one who actually got shot first, before Chester had even arrived at the building. Otherwise, you know, Mike Jr. would have heard the gunshot downstairs and he wouldn't have been so caught off guard sitting in his chair like this.

And so again, if Mike was the first person shot, it just further suggested that he was the main target of this attack. The crime scene, you know, of course was gruesome, but considering, it was remarkably clean. I mean, there were no bloody footprints or any indication the killer had interacted with the scene. And the Zamittis did fit the mafia stereotype: an Italian-American family involved in construction. Baker told Cass what he was thinking, sort of as he was surveying the scene here.

And Cass, as he heard this, he sort of had this thoughtful look come over his face. He said he knew the Zamidis pretty well, and Mike Jr. and his father were really good people. So he found it hard to believe they were involved in any kind of shady, you know, mafia business deals. But he conceded that it was possible, especially since these Zamidis were contractors on a project called the Big Dig. And this made Baker immediately raise his eyebrows.

So the Big Dig was literally the biggest construction project in the country and involved building a tunnel under the harbor in Boston. But it had been kind of like a total disaster, just a major headache for the city since it was way over budget and had been going on for 15 years and still wasn't done. This huge project had also been famously hampered by mafia dealings and corrupt payoffs. So now Baker had to wonder if the Zemettis had either been involved in these seedy deals or had maybe accidentally upset the wrong person while on the job. But even if the murders had nothing to do with the mob, Baker still thought it was very likely that the killer was somehow connected to their business.

Somebody who maybe had worked at Allstate Concrete, or maybe who had been a client, you know, and would know where Mike worked in the building. And that he'd be there early in the morning. And while the second victim, Chester, was probably not the primary target, Baker wasn't sure yet why he was also killed. He could have been killed because he was just at work at the wrong moment, or maybe he was wrapped up in the, the same conflict as the Zamettis. So for a moment, Baker just stood there staring at the scene, staring at the, the blood-soaked paperwork all over the desk.

And then eventually he turned to Cass and said they would need a list of all all of Allstate's employees and clients. Baker then spent some more time just kind of walking around the office looking for evidence, and he noticed a 16-gauge shotgun shell on the floor. So he grabbed a nearby tech and told her to bag it and see if she could locate any other shells. Baker and Cass then headed outside, where already a crowd of people were gathering outside around the outside of the police perimeter. Once they were outside, Trooper Baker asked Cass if they could start by speaking with the person who actually discovered the bodies.

Michael Zemeti Sr. But Detective Cass shook his head and said no. He explained when he'd first gotten to the scene that Michael Sr. had been so distraught over his son's death that he could barely speak, so Cass had just sent him home. Another Wakefield police officer had done the same thing when Mike Jr.'s wife Michelle Zemeti showed up totally hysterical saying she had heard there was an accident, and they had told her that her husband was dead and taken her home too. Baker understood but was not thrilled to hear this.

He preferred to speak to witnesses and family really quickly and in person. In a murder, a spouse is always a suspect, so he was especially disappointed to have missed Michelle. But there was still plenty to do at the scene, and obviously the Wakefield police knew where the family could be found later. So Baker turned to Cass and suggested they just start canvassing the businesses nearby.

The following morning, March 14th, Trooper Baker parked his car in front of Mike's parents' house in Wakefield. He was with Detective Cass, and they were there to speak with Mike Sr. They'd just gotten the autopsies back for both Chester and Mike, but they didn't reveal anything that they didn't already know. Chester had been shot once, Mike twice, and both died likely within seconds. But the investigators did have one potential lead from their canvas of the neighborhood.

Even though they hadn't found any surveillance cameras at Allstate Concrete, some businesses around Allstate had some. So Baker had some officers scrubbing through that footage now. He also had another team interviewing Chester Roberts' family because there was still a chance that Baker had gotten this all wrong and maybe Chester was actually the target. Besides that, the crime techs had not found much physical evidence at the scene. There were no fingerprints, and since it had been raining, they hadn't been able to collect any footprints or car tracks from outside.

So now Baker reached up and knocked on the front door of the Smitty's house, hoping that Mike Sr. would be able to point them in the right direction. A minute later, Baker and Cass sat in the living room with Mike Sr. and Pat, Mike's mom. Both of Mike's parents seemed incredibly emotional. Michael Sr. was visibly shaking. While Pat just cried.

And seeing how upset they were now made Baker realize that Cass had made the right call in sending Michael Sr. home yesterday. Even 24 hours later, it was still going to be very hard to get any sort of real answer out of them because of how upset they were. So Baker decided he would just have to keep it really brief. The first thing he did is he asked Mike Sr. to just go over the actual discovery of the bodies. Tell me what happened.

And what he said lined up with everything that Baker had heard from CAS and from dispatch. And so after Mike Sr. went over that, Baker moved on to the real reason he was there. He asked if there was anybody in Mike Jr.'s life who might have wanted to hurt him. Mike Sr. took a few shaky breaths as he thought about the question, and then he said that, you know, there were a few people in the industry that he and his son did not necessarily get along with, but mostly they tried to have good relationships with everyone. I mean, getting in fights was just bad business.

But as he was saying this, Mike Sr. suddenly sat up straighter like he just thought of something. And he said, actually, there was a former coworker who did definitely have a grudge against them, his nephew, Hank Jennings. Hank got mad at them a few years ago about unpaid overtime wages and actually filed a lawsuit against them. Now, they'd eventually paid Hank a settlement, but they still all hated each other. Mike Sr. looked over at his wife Pat and, She just nodded and said the whole thing had been really high stress and very volatile.

Baker took down Hank's information and talked with Mike's parents for just a few more minutes, and then he nodded to Cass and they stood to leave. Baker knew he still needed to speak more to the Zamidis, but for now he was going to give them a break, and instead he and Cass would look into Hank. Two days later, Baker sat in Cass's office at the Wakefield Police Department, poring over crime scene photos and witness statements. He was starting to get antsy. I mean, after meeting with Mike's parents, he'd been excited to speak with Hank Jennings, the disgruntled former employee who also happened to be Mike's cousin.

But even though Baker and Cass had sent officers out to track Hank down for an interview, they hadn't been able to get ahold of him yet. However, they had gotten in touch with Mike's wife, Michelle, and had questioned her at her house in Wakefield, but she hadn't given them much. She said that she was at home with her kids at the time of her husband's death and that she really didn't know of anybody who would want to hurt Mike Jr. Also, Baker and Cass had looked into Allstate Concrete's financial statements, and they had found nothing that suggested there was anything shady or mafia-related happening with the company. Still, Baker knew they were better off than they had been a few days ago, primarily because they had had a chance to review a bunch of the surveillance footage from the businesses around Allstate, and one of those security cameras had been aimed at the street right outside Allstate. Now, this angle didn't show the Allstate parking lot itself, but it did show everyone who entered and exited that parking lot from the street.

So this particular camera had picked up Mike Jr.'s truck arriving at work at 7:39 AM, and then at 7:44 AM, so 5 minutes later, an unknown green pickup truck pulled in as well. And then a few minutes after that, Chester Roberts was seen arriving at Allstate on foot. And then at 7:50, the green truck was seen again leaving the parking lot, 12 minutes before Michael Sr.'s red truck arrived at 8:02. So whoever the killer was, it looked like they had driven that green truck and had killed Mike and Chester between 7:44 AM and 7:50 AM. The video wasn't clear enough to show the driver of this mysterious green truck or even see its plates.

And it didn't actually show the driver of this vehicle, the killer, getting out of the vehicle and entering the building. But knowing the style and color of very likely the killer's vehicle would definitely help them narrow down potential suspects. Just then, the desk phone rang, and Baker watched as Cass grabbed it and said hello. And then Cass got a confused look on his face before he thanked the caller and said they'd be right over. He hung up and told Baker that That was Michelle Zemedi, and she'd called to say that she had new information to give them, something that she hadn't mentioned in her first interview, and that it was really important.

About 15 minutes later, Baker and Cass sat down across from Michelle in her living room for the second time. And to Baker, Michelle seemed very different from the last time they spoke. 2 days ago, she'd seemed horrified and grief-stricken. But now, she just seemed really nervous. She kept touching her hair and fiddling with a stack of condolence cards on the coffee table.

Baker commented that there were a lot of cards, and Michelle just nodded. She said, "So many people had reached out and sent cards, all their friends and neighbors in Wakefield and in Freedom, New Hampshire, where their second home was." And then Michelle took a breath and just got straight to the reason that she had called them. She said that she had withheld information about one of her neighbors in Freedom. His name was Sean Fitzpatrick, and she'd had an affair with him. Baker cleared his throat in surprise and then asked her to, to go on.

Michelle's eyes filled with tears as she explained how Mike Jr. worked so much and she and the kids spent a lot of time at their lake house. And so that meant they spent a lot of time with Sean. And eventually, this, this friendship between Michelle and Sean had grown into a romance. Baker couldn't believe he was hearing this. A secret love triangle gave both Sean and Michelle plenty of motivation to want Mike dead.

But before he could ask any follow-up questions, Michelle said her husband actually knew all about her affair and that they had been in therapy and they'd begun to completely turn their marriage around. So, finally, a month ago, she'd officially, totally broken things off with Shawn, and Shawn had been really upset about it. Baker shared a look with Cass and could tell they were both thinking the same thing. Obviously, they needed to speak to Shawn immediately. But also, Michelle was now back to being a primary suspect too.

Maybe she had wanted her husband out of the picture so she could be with Shawn, and maybe the only reason she was telling them this was to get ahead of it. However, they would need a lot more evidence before they could prove any of that. So for now, Baker just got Shawn's number and address from Michelle and told her they would be in touch. Later that night, Baker and Cass were once again inside of Cass's office, but this time they were there with another officer who was there to give them a crucial update. After speaking with Michelle, Baker had sent a team of officers up to Freedom, New Hampshire to speak with Shawn, the neighbor she had been having an affair with.

And now one of those officers was back in Wakefield to tell them what he had learned. And the first thing Baker wanted to know was not about their conversation. It was just, did you see a green truck in Shawn's driveway? But the officer shook his head and said Shawn did own a truck, but it was bright red. Then he went on to say that when they had spoken to Shawn, he had completely denied having an affair with Michelle.

Shawn had admitted that that he had dated a lot of girls, but he'd insisted that he and Michelle were just close family friends. Now, the officers who were there speaking to Shawn just stood there and let Shawn talk, never telling him that they already knew that Michelle fully admitted to them having an affair, and they knew Shawn was lying here. Baker almost laughed when he heard this because he did not believe Shawn at all, and if he was lying like he appeared to be, that made him seem pretty guilty. But before he could say so, the officer added one more thing. He said Shawn actually had a solid alibi.

He'd been at home on the morning of the murders, and one of his neighbors had actually confirmed it. This particular neighbor took her morning walk every day at 9 AM, and she'd seen Shawn outside his house right around then. Baker sighed. It took around 2 hours to drive between Freedom and Wakefield, so Shawn would not have had enough time to kill Mike and Chester by 7:50 AM and then get to freedom by 9. And so suddenly, Sean Fitzpatrick felt like another very promising dead end.

On March 18th, so 5 days after the murders of Mike Zammetti and Chester Roberts, Detectives Baker and Cass stood at the back of a church in Wakefield, Massachusetts. They were there for Mike's funeral, and the church was absolutely packed. But the investigators were not just there to pay their respects. They were also there to speak to Hank Jennings, the cousin of Mike who had filed that lawsuit against the concrete company. Since by that point they still had not been able to officially get a hold of Hank, Cass had suggested that they just corner him at Mike's funeral, which he was very likely to attend because, you know, despite his rift with the Zemetis, he was still family.

And when the service wrapped up and everybody stood to leave, Baker felt a nudge on his arm. Cass leaned over and whispered that they'd been right. And he pointed out Hank right in the crowd. So as the attendees started filing out of the church, the investigators pushed their way over to Hank and got in front of him just before he could step outside. Baker immediately noticed that Hank's whole body went tense when they blocked his way, like he wanted to try to make a run for it.

So Baker just cut to the chase and he said, Hank, you come with us and speak to us, please. And Hank's eyes got really wide and he just said, no way, not without his lawyer. Then, he pushed past the investigators and hurried outside. Baker and Cass didn't follow him. Instead, they just exchanged a look because they knew now that Hank was obviously their primary suspect.

5 weeks after the funeral, in mid-April of 2006, State Trooper Kevin Baker sat in Detective Cass's office in the Wakefield Police Department. He was wearing gloves and he was holding a piece of paper that looked like an old-fashioned ransom note. It was covered in letters that had been clearly cut out of a newspaper and it spelled out a very alarming message. Close business now or more family will die. This message had been brought to them by Mike Jr.'s mother, Pat, who said they had received it in the mail that morning.

For the Zammettis, for so many reasons, this letter was terrifying. It was not just a reminder of their son's murder, but also a promise that there would be more violence. But for Baker, the note was a lead, which they really needed, because it had been over a month since Michael and Chester were killed, and at this point, the two investigators had managed to rule out basically every one of their suspects, and that included Hank Jennings. They'd learned that Hank's clear reluctance to meet with them was not because of guilt, It was because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement during the settlement with the Zamettis and didn't want to break it. And when they did finally speak to him, he clearly had an alibi.

He was at work when Mike and Chester were killed, and Baker and Cass had confirmed it with his employer. And while Hank did own some shotguns, none of them were 16-gauge. So Hank joined the pile of other discarded suspects, like Michelle, who could have had the motive to kill Mike Jr. since she was wrapped up in an affair with their neighbor, but she'd been incredibly cooperative and they hadn't been able to find any evidence that she might have been involved, like maybe if she had hired someone or something. And her ex-lover Sean was also very suspicious and had a strong motive to kill Mike, but his alibi had cleared him. There was no way Sean could have been in Wakefield during the murders because his neighbor saw him about an hour later at his home, which was over 100 miles away.

And so now this, this warning note that looked like a ransom note seemed to point back towards the theory that Baker and Cass had ruled out at the very beginning— that the murders were business-related and the mafia was involved. Cass was a local, and he told Baker that there had been a lot of rumors swirling around about the murders in the community. Because of the Zamitti's role in the Big Dig, the general consensus around Wakefield was that the mob theory made the most sense. But Baker really wasn't so sure. I mean, they'd looked into the Zamitis' books and records repeatedly, and they hadn't seen anything to suggest any shady deals or potential mob interaction.

Also, Baker didn't think this ransom-style note made from newspaper clippings was the mob's style. It just felt kind of silly and performative, like maybe somebody was trying to make it seem like the mob to lead the investigation in the wrong direction. But even if that was the case, this note was still huge, because maybe whoever had sent it had left their fingerprints or DNA on it. So Baker bagged up the note and Cass carried it off to send to the crime lab. Baker knew the results from the lab would not be immediate, so while they waited, he wanted to re-interview all their suspects and all their witnesses in case they'd overlooked anything.

A few days later, Baker sat alone at Cass's desk reading another witness statement. He'd been revitalized by all all the new evidence they'd gathered and was feeling really optimistic about their ability to solve this thing. Aside from conducting new interviews, they had gotten some forensics from that ransom letter. The lab had found both DNA and a palm print on it. Now they just needed a suspect to compare it to.

And just then, the office door flung open and a very excited Cass barged in. An hour later, Baker and Cass walked up the front steps at Michelle Zimmitti's house. And they knocked on her front door. When she answered, they asked her for permission to come inside and take a certain small object from her house. And after Michelle, who was sort of confused by what they were asking for, said, "Okay, come on in," they went right past her, went straight to this object, they bagged it, went right back outside, and sent it off to the crime lab.

And as soon as the lab test results came back, Baker and Cass knew they had solved the case.

Based on DNA, other forensic evidence, and witness statements, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Michael Smitty Jr. and Chester Roberts on the morning of March 13th, 2006.

At 7:45 AM, The killer crept up the stairs that led to Mike's office. They had a shotgun with them and their heart was racing. They were very nervous about what they were about to do, but Mike Jr., he had to go and that was all there was to it. So when the killer reached the office door, they barely hesitated before pushing it open and raising their shotgun. Mike was sitting in a chair at his desk and when the door opened, he turned towards the killer.

And when Mike Jr. saw them standing there with a gun pointed at them, His eyes got wide, but the killer fired two blasts before Mike could even move, hitting Mike in the face and in the chest. Mike immediately slumped over in his seat and stopped moving, and the killer ran back down the stairs to the garage. But before they could leave, they froze because they could hear footsteps approaching the building's side door from outside. And so the killer instinctively just hid, not really sure what they were going to do, waiting for this person to either come inside or leave. And then once this person did come inside, it was a man, it was Chester, the killer leapt out and shot him right in the back and he dropped to the ground dead.

And after killing Chester, the killer felt shocked. I mean, they hadn't planned on killing a second person today. Mike was the target, but they also knew they couldn't just wait around for more people to arrive. So the killer at this point left the building and jumped into the truck they had stolen from one of their neighbors. Then they peeled out of the parking lot less than just 10 minutes after they'd arrived.

As they drove, they gripped the wheel tightly and they knew they should feel guilty about what they had just done, but instead, all they felt was relief because now they could finally be with the love of their life. It would turn out Michael Smitty Jr. and Chester Roberts were not murdered by Mike's wife Michelle or Mike Jr.'s cousin Hank or the mob. They were killed by Mike Jr.'s lakeside neighbor and his wife's lover, Shawn Fitzpatrick. When Michelle tried to break things off with Shawn, she said the only reason she would ever leave Mike was if Mike ended things or if something happened to him. Now, Michelle meant that as an excuse, but Shawn took it as a suggestion.

So then he murdered Mike Jr. to steal his wife. Sean took that green pickup truck from a neighbor who was out of town and then drove it to Wakefield, committed the murders, and then came back. That neighbor who said they saw Sean at his house in Freedom at around 9 AM, that basically made it impossible for Sean based on timing to have gone, committed the murders, and came back, well, that neighbor called to amend their statement saying that actually they had seen Sean later in the day. And that change created enough time, enough of a window on the day of the murders that it was absolutely possible that Shawn could have driven, done the murders, and come back. And so once Shawn's alibi fell apart, investigators remembered that stack of condolence cards at Michelle's house.

So they went over to see if maybe Shawn had sent one, and he had. And when they tested the envelope flap, which he had licked to seal it, they got his DNA. Then they matched it to the very threatening letter that sort of looked like a ransom letter that had been given to the Zamidis which Sean had put together and sent to them in order to throw police off his trail and make them think that, yeah, the mob was involved here. In June of 2006, Sean Fitzpatrick was arrested and eventually received two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Michael Zimiti Jr. and Chester Roberts.

A quick note about our stories: they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr. Ballen Podcast: Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballen. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone, This episode was written by Kate Murdoch. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Xu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan. Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whit Lacascio and Cole Lacascio.

Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham. Production coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Manata and Delaina Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner. Theme song called "Something Wicked" by Ross Bugden.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballen Podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballen Podcast, you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballen YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballen. If you want to listen to episodes one week early and add free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, or visit SiriusXM.com/podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice.

So, that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.

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