The Murder Parrot Speaks

Sand Lake is a small town in Newaygo County in western Michigan, about half an hour from Grand Rapids and two hours forty minutes from Detroit. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Their household consisted of the couple, a dog and Bud, an 18-year-old African grey parrot that Marty had kept after his first divorce.

Marty had lived in Michigan all his life and grew up around Grand Rapids. In 1995 he was badly hurt in a car accident. He was in a coma for more than a month and suffered a traumatic brain injury; the whole left side of his body, hip, leg and arm, was shattered. He never fully recovered. For a time he could not remember his first marriage or the births of his children. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He had been a keen hunter and fisherman and still spent as much time outdoors as he could. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed She gambled heavily. In 2010 she lost $75,000 at local casinos alone, more than the couple earned in a year, and she also bought $50 to $100 worth of lottery tickets three or four times a week at local petrol stations. She ran up credit card and medical debts and kept them from Marty. By April 2015 the house was in foreclosure. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The mortgage was $700 a month and the couple still owed $48,000 on the house. this part of the story is covered for now Marty, meanwhile, had hernia surgery, described in the episode as 31 April 2015, and was recovering slowly.

details of the account remain covered until revealed A text went to her mother at 11.40 p.m. on 11 May, and her mother replied at 3.28 a.m. Between 3.32 and 3.35 a.m. the phone's browser visited Ruger safety pages, including a firearms course, and at 4.48 a.m. she texted her mother 'love you sorry'. Nine seconds later the phone opened a page about Ruger New Model Single Six single-action revolvers. There was no further activity after 4.55 a.m. Connie Ream lived across the street and usually spoke to the couple every day. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it At about 7.30 a.m. that morning, as she left for work, Connie heard two shots, but shooting is common in the woods there and she thought nothing of it. She went back that afternoon and again the next morning. On 13 May, at about 3.30 p.m., she found the door unlocked, let herself in and found the living room ransacked. Marty lay in a pool of blood in the bedroom, in his underwear, shot five times, including once in the back and a defensive wound to his forearm. this part of the story is covered for now Connie ran outside and found firefighters finishing at a garage fire three houses down. They went back in with her, then withdrew and called the police.

details of the account remain covered until revealed She was confused and combative and had to be restrained and strapped to a stretcher. At the hospital she kept asking for Marty and said she did not know what had happened. She had two bullet wounds on the right side of her skull near the ear. Her neurosurgeon, Dr Hayden Boyce, said the bullet crossed an area of the brain not vital to life, was non-lethal, appeared several hours old and might not even have caused loss of consciousness. She was able to walk and move about.

Marty's children broke into the house before police searched it, using a credit card to pop a lock. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The children also took $1,425 in cash from the safe, $225 marked 'mount' and $1,200 marked 'wave runner', and later admitted it, saying they had used it for the funeral. Police found a .22 Ruger revolver, a pillow with holes shot through it, shell casings and an unfired cartridge. Ballistics could neither match nor exclude the gun. They found the revolver under the love seat only after Marty's cousin Fran Falin, a psychic, told a trooper to look there; she also said the couple's right hands would matter, and Marty was holding a clump of hair in his right hand. Falin was cleared; she had an alibi with her daughter.

Bud the parrot went to Marty's ex-wife, Christina Keller, about two weeks after the murder. She said he began repeating, in Marty's voice, 'don't fucking shoot', and several times a week replayed an argument between a man and a woman before the same words. A video of the bird was given to a television station. A parrot expert, Doreen Plotkowski of Casa La Parrot in Grand Rapids, said she heard the bird mimicking an argument and the phrase. The prosecutor, Robert Springstead, said the bird had brought the case attention but that he would not rely on it as evidence, and that there is no legal precedent in Michigan for a parrot's statements; a 1993 California judge had refused similar evidence.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In July 2016 her lawyer asked for a mental examination and she was found competent. this part of the story is covered for now The prosecution relied on the phone records, the financial cover-up and DNA; the defence argued the physical evidence was inconclusive, that the gun could not be matched to the bullets, and that the state had shown 'smoking mirrors'. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed On 23 December 2020 the Michigan Supreme Court denied her application, and the motion to remand was denied. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Bud, meanwhile, kept talking.