Chapter 9: Someone Is Lying

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

Last time… on Beyond All Repair.

Amory Sivertson: Good morning. Is this Anthony Snow?

Sean Correia: I've been expecting a call actually.

Online video: Papa Snow here coming to you live out of Guyana. 

Esther Sobers: The businessman, who has had questionable business ventures and was incarcerated, maintains that he was never involved in fraud.

Sophia Johnson: Why would you go up there and say you saw me do it? 

Sean Correia: Well I didn’t kill her.

Sean Correia: Nobody wants to address the damn shadow in the background. And the only person who could really address that could be the one person who knew everything. And that was Sophia.

Around the time I called Sean Correia -- AKA Anthony Snow -- there was someone ELSE preparing to call him. The interaction started with TEXT messages back and forth. Then, AUDIO messages. Sean sent the first one.

Sean Correia: Good morning Shane. All right.

Shane, the youngest of the Correia siblings, was trying to keep an open mind about what happened the day of Marlyne Johnson's murder. Which of his siblings was telling the truth — his sister, Sophia, or his brother, Sean.

Sean Correia: I'm happy to see that you're healthy, happy to see that you're living a decent life for the most part, and I'm proud of you to some regards. 

Shane hasn't spoken to Sean in more than a decade. And they've never talked about the murder. Until now.

Sean Correia: In terms of Sophia's case being reopened, I'll put her back in prison. My best advice is, Shane, stay away from that. Please, be mindful, don't become my enemy. 

Sean sounds like he's recording this in his car during a rainstorm, likely in Georgetown, Guyana, where he lives. Shane, from his New York City apartment 2500 miles away, sends a message back.

Shane Correia: Sean, I have no interest in becoming anyone's enemy. I wanted to understand the process that happened to you and Sophia.  And... I'm looking over the investigation files, and honestly, there's a reason why she was acquitted. And frankly, I also am hearing a somewhat implicit threat about being made enemies. 

Sean Correia: Shane, nobody's trying to make any threats towards you. Right? But, if people attack me, I will defend myself. Keep me out of whatever it is y'all people are doing. Keep me completely out of it, or everyone will regret trying to drag me back into their bullshit.

And then...

Shane Correia: Hey, morning, Sean.

Sean calls Shane... and the two brothers talk in real time.

Sean Correia: Dude, listen to me very, very carefully. Shane. Shane, I love you, my little brother, whatever the fuck is said and done is said and done. But let me tell you something, bro. Sophia got her own agenda, my brother. 

Shane Correia: You'll always be able to tell your side of the story. No one's taking that away from you. Um, but Sophia is gonna tell her story. I'm gonna tell my story Sean, like, you know, for that little compartmentalized nugget. And I'm not going after anything, but it's a part of the story. 

This... nugget… as Shane calls it, is the reason he hasn't wanted to talk to Sean for all these years.

Shane Correia: Look, it hurts. I don't enjoy exactly sharing private details with the public, but... I doubt that has anything to do with anything…

What the brothers are talking AROUND... is something from their childhood that's unresolved. Something that informs the way Shane views Sean... that he hasn't been able to ignore as he considers which of his siblings to believe.

Shane has tried to compartmentalize this... set it aside. But if there's any chance of him believing Sean's story about the murder, Shane has to confront him about THIS first.

Shane Correia: This guy fucking… He hurt me growing up. And even I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt around murder.  

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

Chapter nine: Someone is lying.

The day before Shane referenced this unresolved issue from their childhood to Sean on the phone, *I* spoke to Sean about it. With Shane's permission.

Amory Sivertson: There is one other thing that I'd love for you to just respond to because it's more serious and you deserve a chance to respond. 

Shane told me… that Sean sexually assaulted him throughout his childhood.

Sean Correia: I'm sorry? 

A reminder here... that Sean is 6 years older than Shane.

Amory Sivertson: I'm told that this went on for quite a while.

Sean Correia: You're saying that my little brother. My gay little brother…  

Sean has an opinion on Shane’s sexuality, clearly. But yes, I tell him. His brother has told me painful accounts of being sexually assaulted by him.

Sean Correia: Wow. It just gets more interesting. Most of my adolescent and childhood life, I was not around my little brother because I was living with my father. So how and when could something like that have even happened?  

Shane says the FIRST time it happened... was during this period, actually -- AFTER he, and Sophia and their mother had already moved out. Sophia and Shane went to their dad's house in the Bronx together for a visit.  Shane doesn't remember exactly how old he was at the time. They were Jehovah's Witnesses then, so he didn't celebrate birthdays. But he was in elementary school. And he ended up alone with Sean in his room.

When you heard Shane say earlier that Sean HURT him? That's the LEAST explicit I've heard him when talking about the abuse. He alleges it involved unwelcome self-exposure by Sean, unwanted touching, and penetration. Shane says that, even from the first instance, he told Sean he didn't think what he was doing was right. Sean would tell him it was just a dream — that what was happening... WASN'T really happening. The last time it happened, Shane says, was in the months before Marlyne Johnson was murdered. Shane was 13, Sean was 19.

Sean Correia: What I would tell you is just look at how they're lives,  are turning out, and that alone should say something. 

Amory Sivertson: What, what do you, what do you mean by that with regards to Shane? Because I know Sophia has a, you know, she has a very particular circumstance, but how do you think Shane's life has turned out? 

Sean Correia: Hey, you know what? For the most part, you know what? I'm proud of him. I, I, I told him, I said, dude, you know you're gay, you're gay, you're whatever. But, you see, this is what happens. You know? I'm too nice. I think I'm too nice. I gotta stay away from him. I gotta stay complete. First, the girl tries to make me look like a murderer. Now her and her, her little, oh my God, I couldn't even believe I was being nice to him. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Amory Sivertson: Just to be clear, you deny this completely? You deny ever having–

Sean Correia: Of course not. Of course not. 

Amory Sivertson: Okay. 

Sean Correia: What the hell? What the hell?

Now, Shane has made it clear to me that he doesn't equate Sean's alleged actions toward him as a child... with murder.

Shane Correia: My brother sexually assaulted me, and I can state that because I experienced it. And even I can draw the distinction of, he might not be a murderer. Is he a child molester? Yes. Is he a person who can cause physical harm? Yes, he can. 

But Shane also thought this first conversation with Sean in many years MIGHT be an opportunity for them to clear the air. Shane was willing to forgive Sean, and maybe even believe what he had to say about Marlyne Johnson's murder, IF... Sean ADMITTED to the abuse. As it started to sink in that that WOULD NOT be happening, and as Shane listened to voice messages from Sean, and heard things like...

Sean Correia: And as it deals with anything that you said against me,  I forgive you, and I understand.

Sean forgiving him... Shane had heard, and had, enough. He sent one more audio message back to Sean.

Shane Correia: Sean, the only interactions that we've had with one another, you're telling me that I'm lying. You're referring to it as a lie.  Because you won't even acknowledge it, but it really doesn't make me trust you, Sean. And in fact, it makes me kind of angry. Because I know that you're telling me that something that I experienced is a lie. And you're very good at holding that truth to you and communicating that. And that really fucked with me, Sean, because when I told Dad all those years ago. Do you know that he went around telling people that he took me to a doctor who said that they couldn't show anything so I'm a liar?

There are many themes in this larger story. Memory is one, for sure... especially given that the events in question — from allegations of abuse, to murder — they all happened more than 20 years ago. But maybe just as important... is everyone's relationship to the truth. I'd read the Correia family psychological evaluation we heard earlier in the series, I'd heard from Shane and Sophia that Sean believes his own lies. And that he learned that from the master, their dad… George.

Amory Sivertson: Hi, is this George? 

George Correia: Speaking.

I felt like I needed to talk to him myself.

Amory Sivertson: How are you? 

George Correia: Okay, well I'm easy wondering where the world is going right now while we are in it. 

Amory Sivertson: Wondering where the world is going? Where do you worry it's going? 

George Correia: You know, I don't want to say I see or predict, but for some reason, like feelings about things I, when talk about it,  I see it happen. Many people who know me will tell you that even for the Word Trade Center…

George is saying here… that he had a premonition about nine-eleven before it happened. And that he called his ex-wife, Grace, in 2001 to warn her that their kids were going to be involved in something bad.

George Correia: Leave Vancouver, Washington within two months with your children. I swear to God if I, I drop dead, I said, they're going to jail for a crime don't belong to them and it'll be murder. 

Amory Sivertson: You're saying that a couple months before the murder happened, you had a premonition that there was going to be a murder and that your son and daughter were, were going to be either involved or blamed for it. 

George Correia: Yes. Yes.

George still doesn't believe Sophia or Sean committed the actual murder, but he does believe Sean's story that there was a third person at the scene... someone only Sophia would be able to identify. George pins the murder ON this illusive third person. But he also doesn't seem to know the details about Sean's potential involvement.

Amory Sivertson: He had, he there was Marlyne's blood was found on him. 

George Correia: No. 

Amory Sivertson: Yes, there was. Yes, there was. There was, there was a drop of Marlyne's blood on his boot. And so he, he was, you know, he was there at least. You have Sean saying one thing about Sophia. You have Sophia saying something about Sean. And both of them, both of them, George, feel like the other one has, has betrayed them. 

George Correia: I would like to give him a lie detector test because let me be honest, I have never seen something like this in my life, traveling all over the world in the past. 

Amory Sivertson: You wanna give Sean a lie detector test? You're saying? 

George Correia: All of them. All of them. 

Amory Sivertson: All of your kids. 

George Correia: I want a sign. 

Amory Sivertson: Can I ask, were you kind of a tough dad? Were you a, were you a strict dad with your children? 

George Correia: No. The most important thing I will do. No smoke, no drinking, no sleep out. Don't bring no friend for party here.

Sophia and Shane have said that it was, it was a pretty, there was a lot of name calling and, and yelling in the house growing up. 

George Correia: No. 

Amory Sivertson: And that you would, that you would thr— that you would call your sons things like, like thieves. And you would call Shane, um, slurs because of his sexuality. 

George Correia: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.  

Amory Sivertson: Did, would you ever, would you ever throw things in the house? Did you have kind of a temper? 

George Correia: No, man. What would I, no. Okay. All this allegation. Now why would I throw something in my house?

Amory Sivertson: I don't know. I'm just, I'm putting it to you because these are things that have been said to me. I've heard that it was a pretty turbulent household to grow up in and that there was a lot of yelling and name calling. 

George Correia: No, no, no, no, no, no. Was nothing like that. Nothing like that. 

Amory Sivertson: Okay. So was, is there anything that could have been interpreted like that? Because I, I don't know why they would, I don't know why they would make something like that up.

George Correia: My friend. Between you and I, I am wondering myself, I even leave a message for Miss Sophie. I said, you have to disappoint us. Change your way around. Stop it. Stop lying. 

And Sophia — or Miss Sophie as George calls her here — forwarded that and DOZENS of other messages from her father, to ME.

George Correia:  Your days are numbered if you don't change. Please, stop your bullshit. Get off of that if you want to live to see your son.   

“If you want to live to see your son,” George says. Having a shot at meeting her son, Eathen… is Sophia’s main reason for wanting to revisit the murder of her mother-in-law — her son’s grandmother— … to try to right the narrative ship, she might say. But after my conversations with George and Sean, Sophia started getting a LOT more of these voicemails from her father.

George Correia: You're wicked,  corrupt, covetous,  vindictive. 

Which I imagine… has only made the hurdle between her and her own child feel higher. If the family she knows is against her, what chance does she have with the son who doesn’t?

George Correia: If you was not my daughter, I'd keep a million miles away from you. 

And Sophia wasn't the only one being barraged, as you may remember from the verrrrrrrry beginning of this series...

George Correia: Mr. Shane, good morning. Listen to me carefully. If you do not want to get yourself a lawsuit, stop joining with Sophie to accuse people. You don't know nothing. You're not ready for what will come down if you don't stop your nonsense and keep away.

It's hard to know whether George is FORESEEING bad outcomes for Shane and Sophia in these messages... or if he's threatening to CREATE them. But it doesn’t feel good knowing that I might have stirred the pot just in trying to hear him and Sean out.

George did say SOMEthing that resonated with me, though… that he wants a SIGN as to which one of his children is being honest about Marlyne's murder. I did, too. I wasn't sure I believed any of the versions Sophia and Sean had given at this point, but I was — and AM — sure, that the truth lies with one of them.

Okay, so I have officially talked to Sean and George. UGH.

AH-gh... in a minute.

Sophia Johnson: Gosh, I want you to know I am so nervous about this. I've been sick with anxiety over it. Probably just because it's gonna hurt my feelings. 

I'm talking to Sophia a few days after speaking to Sean and her father, George, for the first time. She's been receiving a tsunami of voice messages from her dad in the intervening days that make it pretty clear where he stands...

George Correia: It's a shame to see how you're destroying your life.

You're looking for trouble, you're going to get trouble.

Try to lie, to set up your own brother.

Stop this bullshit. Stop living in a dream. 

Sophia Johnson: I don't think my dad will ever believe that my brother did it. You can show him videotape evidence and he'll say that's the Johnson's in costume or the tape was edited. It's not going to matter. 

Meanwhile, that brother — Sean — is making it clear to the youngest brother, Shane, that he's not going down for Sophia's mother-in-law's murder, 22 years later.

Sean Correia: If she puts me in a situation where it's me or her, she's, it's her. 

Sophia feels the same... but about her family. Her dad, her mom, Shane... they can't be on the fence about who-did-what anymore, even if that means cutting off contact with them forever.

Sophia Johnson: It's him or me, and if it's him, that's fine, because it can't be both. There is not a world that can exist where you think we're both good people. There just isn't.

I'm at an impasse, too. With different versions of events swirling around in my head. The latest of which, from Sean, I share with Sophia. The “shadow in the background” he told me about.

Amory Sivertson: He said there was a third person there, in the same room at the time that Marlyne, there was a third person there. He didn't see who it was. 

Sophia Johnson: Wait, as she was being killed or after she died? 

Amory Sivertson: He said that as he was coming down the stairs, he saw a shadow of another person, saw another person flee, but he didn't see who it was. And what he says to me is that you, Sophia, are the only person on earth who knows who that third person was. 

Sophia Johnson: Yeah, okay.  I love the new twist. I do. I love the new twist.

The new twist that Sean, remember, would say is neither a twist, nor is it NEW... but the proof of it being part of his ORIGINAL story for the detectives is... indiscernible. But as Sophia and I talk, the new twist loses its humor. Because the more details Sean offers up... the more certain Sophia becomes that HE is the only person on earth who knows what happened to Marlyne. The more hurt she is by the story he told about her. That he CONTINUES to tell about her.

Sophia Johnson: It's not just that you killed her, it's that you traded my life for your fuck up. And then you exploded a bomb in the middle of our family, and you made it seem as though I did it.

Someone is lying. But who? What if that liar is so convincing... they've convinced themself of their own lies. And what if that convincing liar isn't Sean or George, as Shane and Sophia had warned me they'd be. What if it's Sophia?

Amory Sivertson: If there was a theme for what both Sean and George told me, there is something you are not fessing up to, that you know more than you've said, and you're lying to yourself, and you're lying to me and I don't know where the truth is right now, but I do believe with my whole heart that if this is not the truth coming forward, the effort to rebuild, to re-explain, to kind of reconfigure your life. It's not a lost cause. It's a harmful one.

As I listen back to me saying this to Sophia, I realize that what started as a statement about what Sean and George assert... turned into me settling into the uncomfortable possibility that...  maybe Sophia IS lying to me. Maybe she has been all along.

Recording: Hello? Hello. Is Sophia there? Yes, just a minute. Thank you.  

And so, it's time to listen back to something else. Something YOU heard near the beginning of this series, but the last time SOPHIA heard it was 20 years ago. In a courtroom. I played it for her, in full.

Recording: Hello? Hey, Sophia. Hi. How you doing? Doing good. How are you? I'm doing great. Um, hey, uh, like I need to talk to you.

This is the call Sean made to Sophia on the day of Marlyne's funeral, when he was already in police custody, and she was at home with a house full of Marlyne's family members. Sean was following a script, written by Clark County detectives. The excerpts you’ve heard… are the parts that stayed with me, initially.

Sean: I don't want to be a part of this, Sophia. 

Sophia: Sean, what are you saying? You are really scaring me, stop it. 

The unraveling brother. The unsettled sister, who, to me, seemed genuinely shocked at what she was hearing.

Sean: If these people find out that we had anything to do with this.

Sophia: Excuse me? What? 

Sean: If these people find out that we had anything to do with this. We could go to jail. 

Sophia: Sean, what are you saying? 

Maybe I had selectively zero’d in on these parts of the call… as someone who had heard SOPHIA's side of the story first and wanted to think I wasn't being lied to.  What stood out to the DETECTIVES -- the people who got useful information from SEAN first and were trying to build a case around HIS story -- was this...

Sophia: Okay, listen, our phones are probably being recorded.

Rick Buckner: She kept saying, Sean, you know, the cops are listening. You know, the cops are listening. 

YOU know him: Lead detective, Rick Buckner.

Rick Buckner: She said that a couple of times during the conversation. 

Sophia: Sean, I told you our conversations being recorded. Our phone conversations are being recorded. Did you know that? 

Sean: No. 

Sophia: Yes, I said that three times. 

Sean: How? How? How do you know? 

Rick Buckner: How in the hell would she even know that we were listening in?

What Sophia told ME... was that Brad recorded ALL their calls -- a product of his FBI and communications backgrounds. Brad denied this to the detectives, by the way, but it almost doesn't matter. Because the part that was more concerning to ME in this much later listen-through... came even before that… when Sean mentioned his girlfriend Susie, who — remember — he says drove them over to Marlyne’s house. 

Sean: The cops, the cops came here earlier, but you, I think they know Sophia. 

Sophia: Mmm mmm. Don’t say anything over the phone. 

Sean: Sophia. Sophia they asked Susie. Okay. And I don't think she's gonna lie. Sophia, I don't want. Sophia, I'm not trying to go to jail for something I didn’t do, Sophia…

Sophia Johnson: God. That was a terrible call.  

Amory Sivertson: Yeah.

Sophia Johnson: Man, I sound so fake. 

Sophia and I went through it... revisiting the moments that I felt needed some explaining.

Sophia Johnson: Ah, okay, go ahead. 

Amory Sivertson: Okay. So he says, I think they know Sophia. You say, mm-hmm.  And he starts to say, I think they know. And you say, don't say anything over the phone.  

Amory Sivertson: And it really sounds like you know what he's talking about. And like you're trying to shut him up in that moment. 

Sophia Johnson: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I can, I could definitely see that. Um, listen, being and, and I'm really trying to put myself in that moment and remember it. And it is not an easy thing to do because so much of it seems like a blur. I don't know. I, I honestly didn't think he was calling about Marlyne Johnson's murder. There would've been no reason for that. But I knew he did something wrong and I could hear it in my own voice. I knew he did something wrong.

Amory Sivertson: The fact that he says, you know, I don't think Susie's gonna lie for us. And your reaction is a big sigh instead of, what are you talking about? She's not gonna lie for us. It's like the moments that you're not saying something that feel more telling than if you did say something.

Sean: All I was supposed to do is go with you that day. You know, you told me you were gonna help me by giving me the money. Sophia. And now. And now look what happened. Okay. Somebody's dead, Sophia. Okay?

Amory Sivertson: It's, it's tough. Um. 

Sophia Johnson: It is, and, and I, I completely agree with you. I agree with everything you said. It looks bad. Um, and again, uh, of course I wish I, I did it different and I had no idea it was being recorded the way it was being recorded, that it was a wire tap and anything like that. I just, I don't know. Honestly, Amory even conversations that I have with you and I sometimes, if my anxiety is so high and I'm in a different place, it's difficult for me to retain what you have said. And at times, even though I can answer you, it is white noise to me. And that's really what this sounds like to me. An auto response to a problem person at a very high stress time. And I wasn't then trying to hide or cover anything up as I'm not now. And of course, I wish that call had gone differently. I wish I had the right words, but I didn't realize that I was being at that time, to me, framed for someone's murder. 

Now that Sophia DOES know EXACTLY what Sean was doing to her then with an audience of detectives... what she says Sean and her father are doing to her NOW with an audience of me... and YOU... she made sure she had the right words when I suggested that THEY might be telling the truth -- That she IS lying to me... flat-out, or… by omission.

Sophia Johnson: I told you everything I possibly could that I know to be true. And if there's something out there that's missing, that you have not heard from me, it's because I don't know it. So definitely I agree with everything you said. This would be more harmful than anything if I'm telling a lie about it, but I'm not. And. And I just hope that you can find your way to really finding the truth and staying on course, because they're going to do everything they can to distract you. They just will. So, stay the course. 

I did. I kept reading and re-reading the case file, and looking for people whose names I’d come across. Including another detective, Kevin Harper.   

Sophia had told me that, in 2010 — 8 years after Marlyne’s murder — Detective Harper had come to see her at a federal facility in California where she was being held for trying to come into the U.S… despite having been deported after her second trial.

Sophia told him she had NEW information to offer about the murder. But when I finally tracked down the now-former Detective Kevin Harper and asked him about this visit…

Kevin Harper: Well, let’s see…

He didn't remember ANYTHING of value coming out of his conversation with Sophia. No admissions of any kind. A waste of time, Harper said. But he ALSO told me...

Kevin Harper: If you ever run across my notes, uh, I would love to review, 'cause that can trigger all sorts of memories for me or the written up the report 'cause that'll, that I'm sure will help trigger my memory.

I put in a request for that report, but with Detective Harper not remembering anything happening during that 2010 interview with Sophia... I couldn't imagine it really changing anything for me.

But I got it, I read it, and I... was wrong.

Amory Sivertson: I just, I didn’t… oh my fucking god. 

The report… in a minute.

Amory Sivertson: Okay, I don't even know where to put this, so that will pick us both up the best. 

This is me… talking to my husband... moments after reading Detective Kevin Harper’s report. The one he wrote in 2010 right after hearing the NEW INFORMATION Sophia had to offer about Marlyne Johnson’s murder.

Amory Sivertson: This is a full confession. 

Sophia offered Detective Harper… a confession. Not a FULL confession as you might be imagining it — as in, Sophia saying she physically bludgeoned Marlyne to death.... To me, it was WORSE than that.

Amory Sivertson: You know when you see someone you know and then you meet their parents for the first time, And you're like,  Oh my god, I see your mom and your dad coming together!  This feels like that. This feels like Sophia's version today and Sean's version on the stand coming together in a new version that feels truthful.

“Sophia grew up in New York,” the report reads. “Her family is a member of the Jehovah’s Witness Church. She moved to Vancouver after she—” ok yeah, I’m not gonna read the whole thing. It’s 26 pages long, so I’ll summarize.

And as I walk you through it, you’ll hear echoes of the various versions of the day of the murder that we’ve heard over the course of this series.

Sophia's narrative for Detective Harper mentions the embezzlement, and the debt she and Brad were in leading up to her mother-in-law’s murder.

Sophia says Marlyne, offered to loan her money -- that she had hidden "emergency money" for when she left her marriage. Sophia turned it down, but the morning of the murder... when Sean and his girlfriend Susie were over at her house, and Sean was going on about how he REALLY needed money for his divorce, Sophia says her mind went to Marlyne's hidden stash. So she made up a story about having money in the pocket of a coat she'd left at her in-laws' house, and she convinced Sean and Susie to drive her over there to get it. Just like Sean had told the jury…

Sean: She asked if, um, Susie and I can take her over there so that she can pick up her coat

Sophia's NEW story matches the one Sean told on the stand for a stretch -- she went into the Johnsons house alone, came out several minutes later, without having found the quote-unquote COAT... and the three of them drove off. But... she convinced Sean to go back to the Johnsons' house with her. Susie took them there, and then drove off, quote, "with an attitude”... like it was hinted in the wiretapped phone call between the siblings.

Sean: Sophia, they asked Susie. Okay. And I don't think she's gonna lie. 

When they got back to the Johnsons' house, Sophia tells Detective Harper, she told Sean about Marlyne's stash of money. They BOTH started looking for it.

But... they couldn't find it. Sophia says they sat down on the steps leading up to Marlyne's bedroom, feeling defeated. And then, "As casually as I'm talking to you," Sophia tells Harper, she says to Sean, "Maybe we should just kill her." Sean's response? "Ok." Sophia told Sean that Marlyne's life insurance money would "go a long way with Brad."

Rick Buckner: if anything were to happen to Richard or to Marlyne? . Who inherits it? Brad Johnson. Who's married to Brad? Sophia Johnson.

Sophia says she told Sean that she didn't want Marlyne to hurt when she died. "Ok," Sean replied again. Then, the siblings went down to the basement together, where Marlyne would be coming in. Sophia says she told Sean to make Marlyne think he was collecting gambling debts that her husband, Richard, owed. A detail we heard her mention on the stand in her second trial…

Sophia: That Sean was supposed to scare Marlyne and tell her that Richard had outstanding gambling debts 

As they waited for Marlyne to come home, Sophia tells Detective Harper that she saw Sean pick up a fireplace poker and start "swinging it around." He had nervous energy, he told her. Sophia says she knew Sean was going to kill Marlyne because "I knew what I had asked him to do."

Sean waited in the room where Marlyne would be entering, Sophia says; SHE waited in the next room, where the sliding glass door was, nervously walking in a circle.

Sophia: I just got really nervous and I got up and started pacing. 

When the siblings heard the garage door open, Sophia says she went out the sliding glass door and waited outside so she wouldn't be able to see or hear anything. Soon, she saw Sean through the glass, she says, and he told her they had to go. Was Marlyne still alive, she asked? "I don't think so," Sean answers.

Sean: She drove out from the area and she told me a couple more times just to keep my head down.

Unlike Sean's story, Sophia tells Detective Harper that SEAN drove Marlyne's van back to her house, not her. He changed into some of Brad's clothes.

Sophia: And I mentioned to Sean, Hey, you know, these are going out for donations. He took a few things, and left.

Meanwhile, Sophia tells Harper, quote, "I started covering myself."  She says she started leaving messages on Marlyne's phone to try to make it seem like she wasn't involved. Harper writes, "Sophia said even though she knew Marlyne had to be dead, she was irritated that she was not answering the phone." Even more so, Sophia says, when Marlyne did not -- COULD not -- show up for their mother-daughter-in-law lunch date.

Sophia: Why isn't she answering? I know she didn't forget. I felt a complete irritation.

Sophia tells Detective Harper that she lied under oath in her second trial. That her lawyer, Therese, didn't know it, but that she also didn't WANT her to testify. But Sophia tells Harper, "I was really ready to put on a show for the jury."

Sophia: I didn't know anything myself. What was I supposed to tell them? 

And then, Sophia tells Harper that she didn't like his colleague... Detective Rick Buckner. That Buckner accused her of committing the actual murder.

Rick Buckner: You know, I know this happened.                                                      Sophia: We know you killed Marlyne.                                                              Rick Buckner: Just tell me what happened.                                                              Sophia: Tell us how.

Harper writes, "Sophia said that she could tell him truthfully 'I wasn't in the room; I didn't touch her' because she WASN'T in the room... she DIDN'T touch Marlyne."

Amory Sivertson: Did you kill Marlyne Johnson? 

Sophia Johnson: I did not

Sophia says that she didn't know how badly Marlyne was beaten until trial, when she first saw the pictures of the scene. That it made her sick. And that, what bothers her most, Sophia says.. is that Marlyne would have loaned her the money.

Even if she had been offered a deal to testify against Sean, Sophia told Harper, she wouldn't have done it back then. She, "wasn't ready to accept responsibility" for her involvement, she says.

Sean: If these people find out that we had anything to do with this.

Sophia: Excuse me. 

And then... in the last few pages of this 2010 report, Sophia put this confession in her own handwriting. As I read through it, I heard the voices of all the people who’d warned me about Sophia.

George: You're wicked, corrupt, covetous, vindictive.

Sean: She's such a wicked person. You have no clue

Linda Dilliard: She played the whole damn family. 

Richard Johnson: She IS the person who committed… who murdered my wife

Roylene: She’s a lot stronger than you. 

Dean: Entirely inappropriate at a funeral to be talking about somebody's will

Shane Correia: Because it just means that Sophia’s still LYING 

Amory Sivertson:I just, I didn't, oh my fucking God. 

And we're back... to the moments after I finished reading Sophia’s confession for the first time. Thinking out loud to my husband, who silently watched my brain explode as I tried to process what I'd just seen.

Amory Sivertson: All I've wanted is to know what fucking happened.  And this makes me feel like I know what happened.  

[BEAT]

I had a report that seemed… forgotten about.

Amory Sivertson: Why is this— this is just sitting in their files!

That told a new version of events for the day of the murder.

Amory Sivertson: And this feels like the truth. 

The pieces really DID seem to be coming together. Like Sophia really HAD been trying to come clean to Detective Harper in 2010.

Amory Sivertson: I don't think that she can make this make sense beyond what she says here, but she's gotta make this make sense if I go to her and say,  guess what I read last night? A fucking confession. In your handwriting. 

And once I wrapped my head around allllllllll THAT, where my mind immediately went next…

Amory Sivertson: This is gonna fuck him up. 

…was to Shane.

Amory Sivertson: More so than it fucks me up, because it's his fucking sister. 

Whewwwww yeah. I was mad. Because, just DAYS before I got that copy of Detective Harper’s report from the Clark County, Washington public records office… Shane had sent me a recording of a phone call he’d made…

Shane Correia: Hey Sophia, how's it going? 

To his sister…

Good, how are you?  I'm, I'm doing. You're doing? Uh oh.

He had just finished going through the nearly 2000 pages of the investigative file that I had at that point, and he was calling to tell Sophia… that he’d reached a verdict of his own.

Shane Correia: I want to start off with, I love you so much, and no matter what happens, I'm going to be there with you. I don't think that you committed the murder. I'm conclusively stating that. Like based on all of the evidence that I've gone over, I don't think that you murdered Marlyne Johnson at all. And I know that you don't even have to worry about that legally…

Sophia can tell how anxious Shane is as he rambles on, and she jumps in.

Sophia Johnson: All right. So just take a breath for a minute and I want to say thank you. And yes While it does not serve as evidence, whether you believe me or not, just for our relationship and, and, and everything else, it's important that the people that I'm around,  me personally, does not think that I can commit something so heinous and so horrible that destroyed every life around it that it touched. Yeah. For me, that is seriously important because...  That's not who I, I am. 

Shane Correia: No, Sophia, I believe you. 

Sophia Johnson: You know?

Shane Correia: I know.

That’s not who I am,  Sophia says. I believe you, Shane says. My heart sank lower and lower as my eyes traced one sentence of Sophia’s narrow cursive over and over: “We should just kill her.” What the hell would Shane believe NOW?

Next time, I show him... the report.

Amory Sivertson: This was hard for me to read. And, um…

Shane Correia: Oh god…

And... QUESTIONS. For the detective who didn't remember what Sophia had told him.

Kevin Harper: Is it long and boring? 

Amory Sivertson: No. no.

Kevin Harper: Are you sure?

And... for SOPHIA.

Amory Sivertson: This is the version of events that you tell him.

Sophia Johnson: That I tell him?!

That’s coming up, in the final chapter of Beyond All Repair.

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

It’s written and reported by me, Amory Sivertson. It’s produced by Sofie Kodner. Special thanks to Troy Brynelson from Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Mix and sound design by Paul Vaitkus, 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 Media. 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. You can also find pictures and a lot more information on Instagram by following “WBUR Presents.”

Do me a favor, will ya? Pet a dog… or a cat… or a rabbit. Quit something, drink some water, consider a nap, listen to a good song, eat a treat, go for a little walk, tell someone you love ‘em, and then tell them about this show. In that order.

THANK YOU for listening.