Chapter 3: Bad Blood

Heads up: This episode has descriptions of violence, strong language, and allegations of sexual assault.

Previously, on Beyond All Repair…

Dispatcher: 9-1-1, how can I help you? 

Rick Buckner: I've seen a lot of crimes in my, you know, years as a detective. But to see this one where this woman was just beaten beyond recognition…

Sean Correia: And it turned out to be my sister.

Sophia Johnson: I wanted to tear his head off his body. Just the blatant lies.

Shane Correia: Even if my sister committed murder, I know that I still love her. But she also needs to be held accountable if she committed murder. 

Sophia Johnson: And I never want my son to think that, ‘Mom, I love you anyway.’ That is not the right answer. That's not the right answer.

Shane Correia: This is Shane. I am just getting ready to read the psychology report.

Shane Correia is, once again, recording a voice memo for me. He’s the lawyer in New York City, remember… and like you’d hope a lawyer would be, Shane is or-ga-NIZED. He’s been a thorough record-keeper for pretty much his whole life. It’s kept him safe, he says. Like a fortress against gaslighting, helping him believe a life full of unbelievable family events. And Shane has in front of him right now… a document that I’m not sure anyone in his family even knows still exists...

Shane Correia: I've read this so many times over the past I guess almost two and a half decades. 

Shane is about to re-read a court-ordered psychological evaluation of the Correia family. HIS family. It was done in 1997… 5 years before Marlyne Johnson was murdered. Shane was 9 years old at the time of this report. Sophia was 18. Twice his age. Sean, his brother, was 14. So, in the middle, more or less. None of the Correias were in Washington state, where the murder occurred, yet. They were all still living in the Bronx, but they were not all living TOGETHER. This psych eval… explains a LOT.

Shane Correia: All right, so I'll just read the reason for referral. This is in the matter of Correia v. Correia. 

Shane’s parents — referred to as Mr. and Ms. Correia throughout the report — were getting a divorce. They had already been separated for a few years. The kids were separated, too.

Shane Correia: The couple's only daughter, Sophia, lives with her mother and Shane. Mr. Correia expressed hostility toward the two women.

Hostility that, like father like son, Ms. Correia says was passed down to Sean.

Shane Correia: Ms. Correia blames Mr. Correia for Sean's delinquent behavior. She and Sean got into a battle and Sean called the police who sided with the mother. At that time, Sean went to live with the father and stopped going to school. According to Ms. Correia, Sean was dealing with drugs. In relating the story about her son, there was an icy cold quality, particularly when she stated that Sean cannot come back to her, that he steals from her.

Sean steals, his mother says. But also, that he’s gotten physical.

Shane Correia: Eventually, Sean struck her, so she filed for a PINS petition. A PINS petition, by the way, is in the state of New York, a person in need of supervision. It's if law enforcement hasn't come to intercept your kids, then you try to go to family court and get the court's help.

That PINS petition… didn’t go anywhere, Shane says. Sean went to go live with his dad. But Shane, the youngest? He was staying with their mom. And she was there, talking to a psychologist for the state of New York, to make SURE of it.

Shane Correia: George Correia, the father of Shane Correia, me, is petitioning for visitation rights. He states that the mother is pressuring the boy not to visit with him.

This pressure — if that is, in fact, the right word here — seems clearly out of concern. Because as Sophia told this psychologist…

Shane Correia: She believes that the father is responsible for Sean's antisocial behavior and that, given Shane, the father would accomplish the same. Thank you, Sophia!

The gratitude Shane feels… is because, in Correia vs. Correia 1997, Mr. Correia wasn’t granted visitation rights. Shane credits Sophia and his mom for that. For protecting him from his dad… Because, as he himself told the psychologist,

Shane Correia: He stated that he's afraid that he would become like his brother Sean.

Who is the Sean that Sophia was afraid of Shane becoming? That Shane was afraid of becoming? So much so that the Correia family remains divided TODAY. Physically… emotionally… intentionally. How do Sean and Sophia, siblings at odds since childhood, end up accusing each other of murder? I was starting to get an idea…

I'm Amory Sivertson. From WBUR and ZSP Media, this is Beyond All Repair.

Chapter Three: Bad Blood.

Judge: Ms. Lavallee. 

Therese Lavallee: Thank you, your Honor. I stand here on behalf of Sophia Johnson to deliver this opening statement. 

You know, at least in part, how this sibling he-said-she-said turned out. With Sophia on trial in 2003, a year after her mother-in-law’s brutal murder. In her opening statement, Sophia’s lawyer, Therese Lavallee, made the point that Sean and Sophia had been estranged up until just one week before Marlyne Johnson was killed.

Therese Lavallee: Sophia and Sean had not spoken to one another. For months. 

Sophia Johnson: Just because we have the same two parents Does not mean we like each other. 

Those same two parents… who didn’t like each other either. And who also had a history of he-said-she-saids, according to the family psych evaluation.

Shane Correia: Regarding visitation, Mr. Correia stated that he sees both Sophia and Shane regularly while the mother, Sophia and Shane insists that there have been no visitation for more than three years. Thus, there are many indications of contradictory data.

The case against Sophia rested on Sean's word… that he saw his sister standing over Marlyne with fireplace tongs.

Therese Lavallee: This is a story that was concocted by Correia to save himself from the charge of murder in the first degree.

Shane Correia: He would do anything to save his own skin, so I definitely don’t trust his testimony at all. 

According to Shane, AND Sophia… if you wanna understand WHY Sean said what did on the stand, you need to know who he was to them … growing up.

Sophia Johnson: There's a reason this little son of a bitch who I happen to be related to is up here lying. 

In some ways, Sophia and Sean have been through a lot together. They were both born in Guyana. It’s the only South American country where English is the official language — sandwiched between Venezuela and Suriname. The Correias have a rich ethnic background, as many Guyanese people do. There’s Chinese heritage, Indian, Portuguese. You’d never be able to visually pinpoint the Correia siblings to a particular nationality, but you’d connect ‘em to each other, alright. Light brown skin, dark brown eyes, jet black hair. An attractive bunch with a deeply complicated history… and maybe an even MORE complicated present? Little teaser for ya: Sean ran for president of Guyana at one point… and he’s contemplating another run right now. He’s made his presence known down there. And on YouTube. Buuuut I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Correia family came to the U.S. from Guyana when Sophia and Sean were pretty young. 6 and 2 years old maybe?, Sophia thinks. They eventually settled into a brownstone in the South Bronx with other relatives.

Sophia Johnson: There was constant screaming in the house

This is Sophia in our very first conversation back in 2021. Remember her analogy for her life up to this point? A house full of boxes. Not knowing where to start unpacking. How about your parents, I suggested.

They, um, they created the two of them, a very toxic environment for all of us. 

Both Sophia and Shane attribute much of this toxicity to their father, specifically. 9 year-old Shane described violence in the home to the psychologist conducting the family evaluation in 1997.

He also stated that the last time he saw his father, Mr. Correia slapped his sister and called his mother a whore.

Sophia and Shane have separately told me many of the same stories about their father’s aggression. Thrown fists. Thrown plates. Shane told me about a time his dad threatened him with a knife, which his dad DENIES, but Shane DID call the police on him at the time… and he’s kept that report, too. Still… it’s clear the emotional scars of the Correia kids’ collective childhood run deeper. There was name-calling by their dad, Sophia and Shane say. Often of a misogynistic or denigrating nature. Once Shane came out to his dad…

Shane Correia: I was cocksucker or faggot. Like that was my name from 13 to 18. 

Sophia Johnson: And that really, that really does something to a child. 

The Correia parents worked long hours, so Sophia took on the role of guardian. Not legally, but literally. Mostly to Shane. As for Sean…

Shane Correia: Sean is dad's kid, like 100% 

If Sophia was the protector, Shane says Sean was the instigator.

Shane Correia: He was, selfish, advantageous, and didn't give a shit about the impacts

And, as their mother claimed in the psychological evaluation, Sean could get physical, like his dad. Shane told me about a time that he went after Sophia.

Shane Correia: I remember him picking up a bat, and he took it to my sister, to the point where my sister is screaming. Shane, call the police and I run downstairs. Call nine one one. They're like, what's your address?

Shane was young enough at the time that he didn’t actually KNOW their address.

Shane Correia: and I'm screaming to Sophia while she's like, fighting off Sean with a baseball bat. Sophia, what's our address? I, I called the cops before I knew where I lived because of Sean.

Shane Correia: When I was growing up, my sister raised me. My sister made sure to get me to school. She took me an hour out of her way to take me to my special school so that I didn't miss it and I could keep going. 

But Sophia couldn’t do it alone. And when help came literally knocking… Jehovah’s Witnesses going door to door… she answered.

Sophia Johnson: And so I made the decision. I made the decision to go to the Kingdom Hall with them three times a week, which is what their meetings are, and take Shane with me so that we would be safe while my mother was at work. It was peaceful. It was safe, and at times boring as hell. But, it taught me to be a little bit more confident.

Eventually, Sophia met her first husband through the religion. This guy… wasn't the love of her life, Sophia says, but marriage was an opportunity to get out of the Bronx and further from her father and Sean. MUCH further. Her husband’s family was from Washington state. And she agreed to move there…IF… her mom and Shane could come with them.

Sophia Johnson: And we made this agreement and moved across the country. 

It was 1998. A year after that family psych evaluation was done. Sophia was now 19 years old and newly married, and she, Shane, and her mom felt like they’d been given a fresh start. Things seemed hopeful for the first time in a LONG time. But within 6 months, one of their problems would follow them to Washington.

Sophia Johnson: So it was my grandmother who called and she said, you guys are so far away and Sean really needs help. Can you please help your brother? 

Sean was getting into a lot of trouble in New York, Sophia says. And he had either dropped out of school or gotten kicked out. He needed a chance at a fresh start too, their grandmother pleaded.

Sophia Johnson: I know that if he just got away from his father and all of this stuff in New York, the influence that maybe he can have a shot at a life. 

As much as Sophia disliked Sean, she loved her grandmother, her dad’s mom. She lived with them when they were all in the Bronx brownstone. It was for her grandmother that Sophia says she got Sean enrolled in high school out in Washington and convinced her mother to take him in. Give him a second chance. It was for grandmother that she brought Sean to the Kingdom Hall with her to try to give him more of a community and moral foundation. And Sophia thought it was working… until one day, Sean came to her in the middle of a school day… and he wasn’t alone.

Sophia Johnson: And he said, this is my girlfriend, Cynthia. We're in trouble. And I'm like, okay, what is it? He said, um, I think she's pregnant.

Cynthia: I was like, head over heels for this boy at 16.

This is Cynthia.

Cynthia: he would walk me to class. He would carry my books and he used to say that he used to sing, so he started singing something. Don't ask me what it was cuz I did not understand it. And I was like, oh, he sang to me. 

That’s how Cynthia remembers Sean in the beginning of their young love. THIS is how she talks about him today.

Cynthia: He's somebody that's manipulative, um, a pathological liar. Somebody that, uh, it's abusive. Uh, somebody that doesn't take no for an answer.

It took starry-eyed Cynthia a little while to see what her parents seemed to pick up on right away about Sean.

Cynthia: My family did not accept Sean whatsoever. Um, My family basically disowned me because of him for, you know, a while. 

Even Sean's mom took Cynthia's parents’ side.

Cynthia: She told me, she goes, your mom's right, your mom's right not to like Sean. He's not doing anything good with his life.

One example of this? Pretty soon after moving out to Washington state when he was 16, Sean was found guilty of a hit-and-run, which he’d gotten into using his mom’s car, taken without permission, and without a driver’s license. So yeah, a bad boy… in a long, black leather jacket, talking smoothe to Cynthia.

Cynthia: There was times where he kind of spoke in like a, a different accent and half the time I was like, I don't know what you're saying, but it sounds so good. You know, just because–

Amory Sivertson: What kind of an accent? 

Cynthia: Kind of like the people that sing reggae. That type of accent. 

There’s this one picture of Cynthia and Sean from around this time that may as well be captioned: Rebels in romance. They both have these satisfied, closed-mouth smiles. Sean has one arm around her, the other clasped in her hand. The epitome of teenage toughness… except for one little dimple that gives Cynthia away.

But she really did get disowned by her parents when she got pregnant, Cynthia says. Or at least, kicked out of their house. The young couple hopped around. They stayed with some of Cynthia’s friends, who sent ‘em packing when they suspected Sean was stealing from them, she says. They spent some time in a shelter. Sean had trouble holding down a job, Still, they got married. Cynthia says Sophia let her wear her wedding dress and planned a baby shower for her.

But things got even worse between Sean and Cynthia after their daughter was born. Cynthia says he would force himself on her sexually. Punch holes in walls. When she’d confront him, Sean would have a seizure in the heat of the argument, Cynthia says. One time, it seemed like he’d hit the ground hard.

Cynthia: And one of the paramedics actually pulled me aside and he goes, you, I need to tell you this, but he's faking it. And that's the first moment where I was just like, what?

According to Sophia, Sean’s own mother has claimed that he would FAKE seizures, by the way. But real or not, Cynthia was starting to worry about safety. Sophia took her and her infant daughter in for a period of time.

Cynthia: She treated me like a sister. She never, ever like looked down on me. I, I do remember when I first met her, she said, why are you with my brother? 

When Sean found out Cynthia was staying with Sophia, he was livid. Sophia says he’d call her house, accusing her of trying to keep him from his daughter. It got to the point where Sophia ended up changing her home phone number. It was the beginning of a months-long estrangement in a sibling relationship that had been strained practically their whole lives.

But it was not the end for Cynthia and Sean… and she says his aggression escalated.

One incident in particular led her to try to get a restraining order. She dates it in her petition for an order of protection to July 29, 2001. Their daughter was 10 months old. Cynthia says she was holding her when an argument with Sean turned violent.

Cynthia: He picked me up, he pulled me up by the hair and then he slams me to the wall and he picked me up by the neck and slammed me over and over with my daughter and arms.

Cynthia says she feared for her life in that moment. She details another incident a couple months earlier when she says Sean punched her and threatened to kill her, saying he was going to take their daughter.

Cynthia’s restraining order was denied. “Insufficient evidence of imminent danger of physical harm,” the report concludes. It was another he-said-she-said. But she was DONE.

Fast-forward 6 months… to January of 2002. Cynthia and Sean are separated, but still technically married. Sean is eager to get a divorce because he has a girlfriend, Susie… who’s 5 months pregnant. He doesn’t have the money for the divorce, though. Sean is 19 at this point, he’s making minimum wage at Wendy’s, he’s living with Susie in her mom’s apartment, he’s soon to become a father of two… AND he’s upwards of $40,000 in debt from unpaid medical bills. Seizure-related… he claims.

Cynthia says she gets a call from a friend one day around this time… who tells her to sit down and turn on the news.

News Clip: Clark County Sheriff's deputies believe Sophia Johnson and her brother, Sean Correa, murdered a brush prairie woman. 

Cynthia: And my first reaction was like, wow. Like, he almost killed me. And then I have to like face my parents to be like, you were right. He… I could have been his first victim. 

Cynthia went to her parents, but that’s about it, she says. She’s really only talking to me now because her daughter’s an adult.

Cynthia: I've never told her everything, never told her that her dad raped me time and time again, which at the time I thought it was my duty cause that was his wife. I never told her that he hurt me.

Sean has DENIED this allegation. And others of a similar nature. And you WILL get to hear from him in his own words down the line…

But you know who else never heard about the Sean Cynthia says she knew? The JURY in Sophia’s trial. Despite Sophia pleading with her attorney, she says, to put Cynthia on the stand.

Cynthia: I don't know why Cynthia did not testify, why she was never called by the defense.

I do. Or… I at least have an idea. Sophia’s lawyer, Therese Lavallee, hasn’t wanted to talk on the record. But I have a window into her strategy with regards to Sean: Sophia’s trial footage. Which includes the pre-trial hearings, where decisions were made about what evidence and testimony the judge would, and would NOT, allow the jury to hear.

Therese Lavallee: Your Honor, to reiterate, our argument is that this all goes to his motive to lie and to commit this crime. 

That’s Therese in a particular hearing that her opponent, the prosecutor, referred to as a “character impeachment” of Sean.

Tom Duffy: It's an attempt by the defense to besmirch and portray Sean Correia as this bad character. 

Sean, remember was the key witness testifying AGAINST Sophia. The prosecution needed him to appear credible. Reliable. A victim in this whole mess. But Therese, AKA the defense…

Therese Lavallee: The evidence we can show directly contradicts that.

SHE had information suggesting that Sean was none of those things leading up to Marlyne Johnson’s murder. She’d heard the stories of impulsive violence, she knew about accusations and recent charges against him for theft. About the debt hanging over Sean’s head. About the bad blood between the siblings turned worse,

AND… Therese had spoken to Cynthia and her mother, who’d told her about a time when Sean tried to extort her for $50,000, saying…

Therese Lavallee: If you write me a check for that amount of money, I'll divorce your daughter and not ever fight for custody of the child.

Therese was ready to share the many shades of Sean with the jury — all of which she said potentially motivated him to burglarize the Johnsons’ home, made him capable of killing Marlyne, AND… blaming it on the sister who’d betrayed him by taking in the wife who’d fled him in fear. And Therese WANTED Cynthia to be able to share her experience with Sean on the witness stand. An opportunity that, Cynthia says, she would have taken. Especially given whose character Sean was about to impeach at trial.

Cynthia: There's no way. There's no way Sophia was a part of that.

But the prosecutor argued… that all of this… was PREJUDICIAL.

Tom Duffy: Our courts have defined unfair prejudice as quote, ‘more likely to arouse an emotional response than a rational decision by a jury. ‘

Therese Lavallee: I should be entitled to explore Sean Correia’s motivation, his own personal motivations for committing this crime. Because if I'm not allowed to do that, then essentially what we're dealing with is a kid who says, I was just tagging along with my sister. You see, your Honor, and once he gets caught, once he gets caught, then he starts pointing the finger at my client. 

Ultimately, her Honor… sided with the prosecutor. Sean’s history? Irrelevant. He wasn’t on trial for murder. His sister was.

Judge: Granted he's not necessarily a very nice person, But what does that have to do with the particular facts of this case other than his admissions to the behaviors and the crimes that he's committed?

Therese Lavallee: Then my client is being denied a fair trial.

This story, in large part, is about which of these two siblings you believe. And after learning more about Sean’s backstory, I did find myself questioning his version of events. But the jury… wouldn’t know any of it. They'd just hear Sean telling his side of the story. They wouldn’t get that… for Sophia. Not in her words, anyway. But you will. In a minute.

Cynthia, who says Sean was her high school dreamboat-turned-husband-turned-nightmare… wasn’t the only one exiting a relationship in the early aughts. Sophia’s “arrangement” with her husband in the Jehovah’s Witness community was starting to feel… about as exciting to her as any relationship you might refer to as an “arrangement.” Sophia was getting attention from a guy she’d met through work. His name was Brad Johnson. She was 21 at the time. He was 33.

Sophia Johnson: And I'd never experienced that level of attraction in my life. 

Sophia fell hard and fast. She filed for divorce from her husband, not realizing how much she’d end up divorced from. Because adultery in the eyes of her Kingdom Hall was grounds for expulsion from the religion. Disfellowshipment it’s called. And it meant that other Jehovah’s Witnesses weren’t allowed to maintain contact with her. Even the two people who, up to that point, Sophia had been closest to.

Shane Correia: First Corinthians 1533: Do not be misled. Bad associations spoils useful habits.

Sophia Johnson: My mom and Shane, I couldn't understand that one. because we're still family. And yet I gave them the space because I knew that they were doing what they were being told was the right thing to do and didn't hate them for it. I was just really hurt by it. 

This was the beginning of a really isolating period in Sophia’s life. Amid all the hostility and volatility of her upbringing, she’d always, ALWAYS, had her mom and Shane. So now, Sophia looked to a new, chosen family.

Sophia Johnson: Marlyne was my best friend.

Marlyne Johnson, Brad’s mom.

Sophia Johnson: I started to not just love Brad, but I really loved his family.His mom and I started playing dress up and she totally got into it. She had all these wigs with all these styles and I was like, oh, this is so great. 

Brad was an only child, which meant Sophia was like the daughter Marlyne never had. And Marlyne was… not the mother Sophia never had, but a mother she never had. One who didn’t work all day. Who let her do her make-up. Who watched movies with her and gossipped. Who let her feel just… like a DAUGHTER after so many years of being a motherlike figure to her kid brother. And, Marlyne was the mother who was actually talking to her, which she desperately needed as a young woman in arrested development – playing dress-up by day with her future mother-in-law and diving deeper by night into her relationship with her older, irresistibly attractive future husband.

The not-too-distant future, either. Within months of separating from her first husband…

Sophia Johnson: We were newlyweds and then I was pregnant.

Flip it and reverse it, but yeah. Marlyne was going to become a grandmother the following Spring.

Sophia Johnson: She was so excited about her first grandchild.

That’s an understatement, from what I’ve heard from some of Marlyne’s friends. And this mother and daughter-in-law were about to go into business together. An event planning business… called Best Friends. For real. It was like Sophia had been given another chance to start over. She didn’t have her mom and Shane with her this time, but she had the Johnsons…

Sophia Johnson: All of them were incredible to me. 

She was just about ready to put that other life — and maybe, that family? — behind her… when she got a call. From her grandmother. Again. Saying her brother Sean needed her help. Again. This time with his divorce paperwork. He also wanted to start over. And Sophia, her grandmother suggested, just might need him, too.

Sophia Johnson: Your mother isn't speaking to you, Shane isn't speaking to you. You have only this new man's family. Why don't you try to cultivate something with your brother who's so willing and his girl is pregnant and maybe you guys can form a relationship. You need to have a support system.

But the last time Sophia had heard from Sean, she says, he was spewing vitriol by phone for taking Cynthia and his daughter in. She and Brad had, in fact. Why should she help him out now, after 6 months of Sean-free living? The same reason she did last time, Sophia says. Grandma Correia mind tricks.

Sophia Johnson: And so I did, despite my best judgment. And if there's one thing I could change in my life right now, where I know I made the wrong choice, it was that. That decision altered the course of my life.

January 10, 2002 was a pretty typical Thursday. Brad went to work, like usual, Sophia says. She stayed home, like usual. But unlike usual, Sean and his pregnant girlfriend were expected at her house at 8:30 in the morning to go over his divorce paperwork. So the siblings’ stories match, so far. Including the part about Sophia agreeing to give Sean the money to file his divorce papers, and realizing… she didn’t have it.

Sophia Johnson: And I thought, oh, shoot, okay, well I'll have to give this to you tomorrow because I left my, I was over at Marlyne's last night and I left, I must have left my coat there because I couldn't find it anywhere at my house. 

Now, as someone who has experienced Washington state in winter, it’s a litttttle hard to imagine how you forget your coat in January. But Sophia says… there was a reason for this.

Sophia Johnson: I know exactly. 

Amory Sivertson: Oh, really? 

Sophia had spent the day before at Marlyne’s house. This was pretty common. She was waiting for a ride home from Brad when her in-laws… started arguing. Also pretty common, Sophia says.

Marlyne suspected that her husband had started drinking again. Sophia says things got heated between Marlyne and her father-in-law. And when Brad arrived to pick her up from his parents house…

Sophia Johnson: I'm like, we gotta get outta here. This is not good. We gotta get outta here. They're fighting. And uh, he's like, oh, great. Okay. 

And so, Sophia says, in trying to get out the door quickly… her coat didn’t make it with her.

No big deal. Marlyne is coming over for lunch that afternoon.

Sophia Johnson: And in fact, I called Marlyne And she informed me that she was going to do a yoga class and that she'd come home and shower, get ready, and she'd make a note to bring my coat.

But Sean can’t wait around for the cash coat. He has to go to work, his girlfriend has to babysit. And THIS is where the siblings’ stories diverge. Remember, Sean says this is when his girlfriend drives him and Sophia TO her in-laws' house to get the coat. SOPHIA says, Sean and his girlfriend just… leave. But not totally empty-handed. Sophia says there are bags of clothing by her door.

Sophia Johnson: And I mentioned to Sean, ‘Hey, you know, these are going out for donations. They're good stuff. It's just that it cannot fit us, or we know we won't ever need it or use it. Maybe you guys can use some of it.’ He took a few things, I cannot remember what, and left. And that was it.

Side note: This is an interesting detail for Sophia to remember. Think back to Sean’s version of events for a minute. Sean told the jury that, after the murder, Sophia gave him a pair of Brad’s pants to change into. Which were submitted as evidence.

Sean Correia: They didn’t fit me. I think the legs were too short. 

But here, Sophia is saying that Sean took some of Brad’s clothes from a giveaway bag before he left her house that morning. So could THAT be how Sean ended up with a pair of Brad’s pants? Ok, back to Sophia’s version.

It’s now late morning, and Sean and his girlfriend have just left her Sophia’s house. Sophia says she’s blasting 80s love ballads on her living room stereo, and rockin’ out… while rockin’ out.

Sophia Johnson: I was in the nursery in the rocking chair.

The nursery for baby boy Johnson, who’s due in just a few months. She’d just recently finished setting it up with Marlyne, who’s due at her house for lunch pretty soon.

The music is so loud, apparently, that Sophia doesn’t hear a knock on her door… sometime after 1 o’clock. But she knows it happened, she says … because the door-knocker comes back a little later. And it isn’t her mother-in-law… It’s…

Sophia Johnson: My mother. 

Sophia’s mother… whom she hasn’t seen much of since being disfellowshipped from their Kingdom Hall about a year earlier. But her mom is having a problem with her bank account. And Sophia is still listed on her account… so she needs her daughter to go to the bank with her and get it sorted out.

But Marlyne is going to be at her house any minute, so Sophia leaves a message on her cell… saying she’ll be back soon, she’s left the door unlocked, Marlyne can just go right in.

Sophia Johnson: That was the last call I made to her.

Sophia and her mom get back from the bank sometime after 2 o’clock, she says. And as they pull onto her street, Sophia notices something immediately.

Sophia Johnson: There's no car in my driveway and Marlyne's car should be there. So I said to my mom, I don't understand. She's not here cause she was always on time.

Sophia calls Brad. He hasn’t heard anything from his mom. Her father-in-law? Nothing. Someone needs to check on Marlyne.

It’s about 3:30 now, and Brad and Sophia are pulling up the long driveway from a dead-end street to her in-laws’ house in Brush Prairie, Washington, about 20 minutes from their own house. It’s an A-frame, made of beautiful dark wood with a big deck. It’s surrounded by evergreens with enviable floor-to-ceiling windows. And through those windows, Sophia sees something… kinda frustrating actually.

Sophia Johnson: All of the lights are on in the house.

Sophia is like, “Wait a minute, she’s home?!”

Sophia Johnson: What in the world, you've been here this whole time, you couldn't answer your phone, you couldn't let me know you're okay. You couldn't just say, I'm not coming, I'm gonna be late. Nothing? You say nothing?

Sophia says her irritation quickly subsides as they get further up the driveway. The garage door is open, but Marlyne’s van… is gone. Brad gets out of their car.

Sophia Johnson: I said, ‘Wait, let's call the police. Where are you going? Something's wrong. Something's wrong.’ He's like, ‘Oh no.’ I was afraid that there was someone in the house and that he could get hurt. I didn't know what we were walking into.

Brad heads for the door leading from the garage into the basement of the house and tries to open it.

Sophia Johnson: But the door is stuck and he pushes his weight against this door 

Marlyne is just on the other side of that door, on the floor. Her son has only gotten a glimpse of the situation.

Sophia Johnson: And he started screaming that his mom was on the ground and she was hurt. I called 9 1 1 immediately. 

But Sophia says she doesn’t know what’s actually happened.

Sophia Johnson: She’s lying on the floor and I don’t know what’s wrong. 

“She’slying on the floor, and I don’t know what’s wrong,” Sophia tells the dispatcher.

Dispatcher: Ok, Take a breath. Deep, deep breath. Ok?

Sophia eventually hands the phone over to Brad, who has now gotten a better look at the body on the basement floor. He knows it’s his mom, despite the fact that she’s virtually unrecognizable.

Sophia Johnson: And I throw up. I remember just throwing up. I was sick.

Sophia Johnson: It was in a state of crying and disbelief and shock and is this real? Did this really happen? Wait, what happened today? And, and I, I felt like we kept checking ourselves to make sure we didn't lose our minds. And that's how the night was spent.

If you’re thinking back to the version of events we heard Sean tell on the stand in the last episode and thinking… WHAT. THE. HELL. I’m right there with you. Sitting in the Johnsons’ house while Sophia looks for money, hearing a scream of some sort, nervously descending the steps to see his sister, standing over Marlyne with a stocking over her face, holding fireplace tongs. Aside from the divorce paperwork and the abandoned coat, the siblings’ stories diverge so drastically it’s like they moved through January 10th in parallel universes. And when they returned to reality, one of them was discounted by detectives. The other, believed. Or at least, believed enough, according to the lead detective, Rick Buckner.

Rick Buckner: Was he actually believable? I have no idea. 

Amory Sivertson: Because this just feels like such a he-said, she said.

Rick Buckner: And that's all we have.

But that wasn’t all they had. The physical evidence in this case was thin. Frustratingly so. But it wasn’t ABSENT. And despite all the things Sophia’s lawyer, Therese, COULDN’T tell the jury about the person accusing her client of murder, she could absolutely tell them this…

Therese Lavallee: The only physical evidence that you will be presented with in the course of this trial points to Sean Correia.

After Sean started cooperating with law enforcement, and telling them his version of January 10, 2002, they made a discovery… that was inconvenient for their leading theory of the case. Marlyne's blood was found on one of Sean's boots.

Therese Lavallee: The good men and women of the law enforcement team that investigated this case made a mistake and their mistake was is that they fell into the arms and embraced the story of Sean Correia on January 13th before the physical evidence have been analyzed. 

Eventually, all the evidence would be analyzed, of course. So I asked Detective Buckner…

Amory Sivertson: Was there any physical evidence connecting Sophia to the crime scene, the way that there was the drop of blood on Sean's boot? 

Rick Buckner: Physical evidence? No.

To this day, 22 years later, the only person physically PROVEN to be at the scene of Marlyne’s murder… is Sean. And yet…

Rick Buckner: All we know is that there was really no connection between Sean Correia and the victim, Marlyne. The only connection was Sophia Johnson. 

The only connection?... Or just the obvious one?

Sophia Johnson: I know that I wasn't there.

And if Sophia wasn’t with Sean… was someone else?

Linda Dillard: You know, people always think the husband did it, and that thought came across my mind. 

That’s next time.

Beyond All Repair is a production of WBUR, Boston’s NPR, and ZSP Media.

It’s written and reported by me, Amory Sivertson, and produced by Sofie Kodner. Additional reporting in this episode from Dean Russell.

Mix, and sound design by production manager of WBUR Podcasts Paul Vaitkus. Original scoring by Paul Vaitkus and Matt Reed

Theme and credits music by me.

Our managing producers are Samata Joshi for WBUR and Liz Stiles of ZSP. Our editors and executive producers are Ben Brock Johnson of WBUR and Zac Stuart-Pontier of ZSP Media.

If you have questions about the case, the people at the center of this story, or anything else about this series, we want to hear ‘em. Email beyondallrepairpod@gmail.com. Voice memo or written message, you do you: beyondallrepairpod@gmail.com.

Do me a favor, will ya? Go for a little walk, tell someone you love ‘em, and then tell them about this show. In that order.

THANK YOU for listening.