Colonel Phillip Shue Pt. Two

And they discovered a lot of strange details. He had duct tape around his wrists and his feet, he had a large gash in his chest, and most creepily enough, both of his nipples have been removed. And there was a window of about two and a half hours between when he left home before he got into his fatal crash, and his wife and many other people believed that someone abducted him and tortured him, but he managed to make an escape and by sheer coincidence, he crashed his car

and was killed. But surprisingly, the authorities ruled that he had committed a very elaborate suicide and mutilated himself before he intentionally crashed his car. There were very divisive opinions on it, but the police and the Air Force refused to change the suicide ruling, and as far as possible theories, they looked into Philip's ex wife, who had a lucrative insurance policy out on him, which meant that she would be paid a lot of money in the event of

his death. They finally took the matter to court and she pled the Fifth Amendment to every question, so there's still a lot of mysterious details about whether or not she could have been responsible. And even though a judge at a civil trial said that he believed that Colonel Shoe's death was a homicide, the authorities have still refused to change it and remains a suicide ruling to this day.

But we have differing accounts from doctor Vincent de Mayo, who believed that it was a suicide, whereas doctor ciro Weck believed it was a homicide. And the more you look at each theory, the more you realize that no one theory makes one hundred percent complete sense. So that's why we've got a lot to talk about on both of our episodes. And like I said, what adds to the controversy of this case is that two of the world's most famous forensic pathologists have performed or overseen autopsies

on Colonel Shoe and reached different conclusions. Like I just said, doctor Vincent de Mayo believes his death was a suicide and doctor Curo Weck believes he was the victim of foul play. Even though both men are very famous figures in their field, that's not to say that either of them is infallible. And I've always reached the most logical conclusion.

So your opinion on this case might depend on whether you find de Mayo or Weck to be a more credible source, and if the differing opinions from both these men wasn't enough, there's also the finding from Kendall County Court of Law Judge Bill Palmer that Colonel Hue was the victim of a homicide. I mean, I know that

Tracy Hue took that as a victory of sorts. But the issue is that Judge Palmer made the statement during a civil trial, which was based around determining whether or not an insurance company should be held liable for not canceling the policy that Phil's ex wife, Nancy had on them. The trial had nothing to do with figuring out if Phil's death was a suicide or homicide, but Judge Palmer

took it upon himself to make that statement. Regardless of whether or not you believe he was right, it does not sound like he had the full legal authority to change the official ruling, which is why Phil's death is still listed on the record as a suicide. Well, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that even if it was a suicide, the original investigation was botched in a huge way and there are just too many discrepancies which have never been adequately accounted for.

and ended up deceased in such a bizarre fashion. The family, I think, not really understanding how it could be a suicide would add so much to the grief and trauma that they're experiencing. And the support you get when your loved one is a victim of let's say, homicide or an accident, versus some judgment that society gives you. When your loved one complete suicide, I think you have that

to add to the situation too. So his poor family's begging for answers, saying, this doesn't fit our loved one's personality, his life course, any of the things that were going on at the time. How could you rule this as suicide? Like you said, Robin, Let's say it was one of

these just elaborate, bizarre suicides. We've seen them before. I think the fact that the police didn't break down the crime scene and didn't look through that car as carefully as they could have, and they made that assumption from the start really hurt not only the case but the family as well.

either way. But I think it was this threat of violence or the terror that was just so palpable in her life because of this person who was stalking her. And we also had the psychiatrist ex doctor Roy makepeace on the periphery there, and there was an odd relationship dynamic there. But I think that it's a possibility here that his ex wife and that feeling that he may be killed could have contributed to the situation at hand if it was indeed a suicide, But I'm not one

hundred percent sold on that. Do you guys think that there's similarities between the two cases.

and it probably caused some sort of mental breakdown. And as we're going to talk about, there's kind of a similar thing going on here in Phil's case, because he had received an anonymous letter four years before his death warning him that his ex wife is going to try to kill him to cash herou on the insurance policy, and he had a hard time getting the authorities to believe him. He was living with a lot of paranoia and anxiety, so you could think that maybe that contributed

to a possible mental breakdown in a possible suicide. But you have to think that there's something real here that he probably should have had a good reasons to be scared for his life.

off his nipples. When Tracy was interviewed on the forty eight Hours episode by correspondent Troy Roberts, he has to fill ever an interest in sato masochism or a fetish for pain in which he could experience sexual pleasure through

self mutilation. Tracy responded by saying, quote, No, he did not, and it's interesting that you would ask that question, because you were actually the first person out of the entire five year timeframe that has ever asked me that question, and I do believe it is an appropriate question to ask.

End quote. Indeed, I suppose an alternate theory is that Phil's death might not have been a suicide, but rather the results of an odd sato masochistic sex game gone wrong, which led him to being killed in a fatal car crash. But it doesn't sound like there was anything found in Phil's background to suggest that he had some sort of

double life or any dark secrets. I know. Doctor Demeyo believed that scratch abrasions found around the gash on Phil's chest were consistent with hesitation wounds, as if he had to work up the will to cut himself, but it's worth noting that there were no signs of hesitation marks around the cuts on Phil's mutilated nipples. If Phil really did inflict all those wounds on himself, it may have

been the results of some sort of mental breakdown. Looking through Phil's psychological autopsy report, it seems like all of the issues with depression, paranoia, and anxiety began in May nineteen ninety nine, after he received that anonymous typewritten letter which warned that Nancy and her husband Donald were planning to have Phil killed in order to cash in on

his life insurance. If the letter was legitimate and Nancy and Donald were responsible for Phil's death, you might be wondering why it took them four years to actually go through with it. But let's not forget that after Phil received the letter, he contacted Nancy in order to confront her about it, so she may have felt that killing him a short time later would arouse too much suspicion

and decided to hold off on her plan. I still find it a bit surprising that Nancy was allowed to retain these life insurance policies as part of their divorce settlement, because well, it might be a bit unsettling to know that an expouse whom you're no longer on good terms with stands to gain one million from your death.

is that Phil is getting help. He's getting psychological support. He himself is a psychiatrist, so he is very well aware of his own mental fortitude, i'd assume, and he's asking for assistance with the anxiety and depression and paranoia. When you talk about the sado masochism, I feel like, what the heck would happen if you had a secret life. Your wife says, no, you're not interested in that, which I would find it very bizarre. You would never approach

her with like this fantasy, right and tell her. But let's say he did hide that life. If he came home with missing nipples and or any other kind of major injuries on his own body, it would cause incredible kind of I don't know distress between the couple, right, like, what were you doing? I didn't know this about you?

So I just don't see him doing that as part of a sexual fantasy unless it was ultimately going to lead into his suicide, because you can't go home with missing nipples and your wife, not now.

them in the past. But here is the exact wording of the next line, quote A friend of mine who worked with Don your ex wife's husband, told me some scary things. I don't know Don or your ex wife. Myself sorry, I don't even know her name end quote. Okay, we don't know where exactly the writer was from, but I'm assuming it would be Florida since that's where Nancy

and Donald were living at the time. Colonel Shue was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida years earlier, so it's not implausible that the writer could have originally met him there. But I find it very strange that this person seemed to know enough about Phil's background that they managed to dig up his address in Texas and also knew the first name of his ex wife's current husband,

yet they don't know his ex wife's actual name. The writer seems to be passing along thirdhand information that they heard from a friend of theirs, but wouldn't this friend had been able to tell them Nancy's name. The phrase my friend is used a lot in this letter, with sentences like quote, my friend told me they wish you were dead so they could collect life insurance. I don't understand why they would have life insurance on you, but that's what my friend told me me. My friend thinks

they may actually be planning something end quote. Well, if this friend actually exists and they overheard someone discussing a murder plot. It's surprising that they never went to the authorities or came forward to corroborate the writer's story. Even if Phil did not fabricate this letter, I still feel the writer may have been fudging certain details or not telling the whole story.

in life. So I just don't see him fabricating this letter four years earlier, calling his ex wife who doesn't get along with and begging her to please drop these policies because he's scared for his life. So I think that can be ruled out. When you are talking about somebody who would overhear a new husband talking about trying to kill Phil, I definitely am in your boat, Robin. When you say he doesn't know the ex wife's name, There's just no way like he'd be saying Nancy and

I need this done. Nancy wants this done. Nancy has an insurance policy on him. Her name would be used in this conversation as to why you need him killed? Right, And how would you even know he's linked to Nancy unless her name had been used? So I don't know. It's just really interesting when you say did he write it? I don't think so at all. But whoever did write it? Like you said, is this a fabrication? Is it something

just to scare him? Or is it truly someone trying to get him help, And maybe they themselves hurt it and are trying not to be that directly tied to the case.

for her own personal petty reasons. But yeah, I do believe that Phil was not the one who wrote the letter, But I do think that whoever did write it was not telling the whole story and maybe was either trying to scare him or something, or was trying to give details about the so called murder plot without revealing too much information to give away their own identity.

fabricate the letter. In June of nineteen ninety nine, only one month after the letter arrived, Phil reported another strange incident in which he was working in the library at the University of Texas at San Antonio and went to use the washroom, but when he returned to the table

that he discovered that his laptop had been stolen. While the story goes that sometime later that month, Phil's laptop was returned as he suddenly discovered it on the hood of his car, alongside a note which stated that if he reported anything to the police, others would die. Phil also claimed that the hard drive of his laptop had been white clean. At the time, Phil was a student at the Residency in Aerospace Medicine and was working on

his thesis for a master's degree in public health. He told the program director that his only copy of his thesis had been on the laptop and was erased when the hard drive was white clean. In spite of this, Phil eventually did complete his thesis and earned his master's degree. But another unusual incident took place in October two thousand when he took the Aerospace Medicine Board exam and scored

a zero. Since the exam was all multiple choice questions, the statistical odds of Phil Geht seeing every single answer incorrectly seem astronomical. So it appeared that Phil made a calculated choice to intentionally get every question wrong for unknown reasons.

be doing that if he wanted to sabotage himself. Just stay stable at what you're doing and don't pursue things.

that wasn't enough. In July of two thousand, Phil found himself being detained by police after an odd incident on a flight from White Plains, New York, to Chicago, as he supposedly got out of his seat while the seat belt light was on and slapped a flight attendant on the back when she asked him to sit back down. Later claimed that he simply lost his balance because of some turbulence and brushed the flight attendant with his arm,

so it was not an intentional slap. After a month's long investigation, Phil was never formally charged with any crime, but during this time period he declined orders from the Air Force to command a squadron. He said that he wanted to legally clear his name before he accepted a command position, as he did not want to embarrass the Air Force if he wound up facing any illegal trouble.

All of these strange events took place while Phil was battling depression and anxiety, which seemed to be brought on by his paranoia that his ex wife was planning to kill him. In fact, the incident from the airplane and Phil flunking the exam almost came across as if they

were deliberate acts of self sabotage for his career. There was definitely a lot of skepticism over Phil's claims that someone stole his laptop and returned it to him with a threatening note and had the hard drive completely white clean. Even though he did report the initial theft of campus security, he never informed them about the lapps return with the note. In fact, he never even told Tracy his laptop was stolen to begin with, though this may have been because

he didn't want her to worry. Even if you believe that Nancy and Donald Timpson recupable in Phil's death, I'm not sure they would go to the trouble of traveling

to Texas just to steal and erase his laptop. For all we know, the whole thing could have been an attempt at self sabotage on Phil's part in order to fabricate a cover story for how his master's thesis was quote unquote lost the psychological autopsy report mentions these examples of strange behavior in order to plant the seeds that Phil was not in a sound state of mind and would have been capable of mutilating himself before staging in

elaborate suicide. But it's worth reiterating that the incidents took place in nineteen ninety nine in two thousand and since Phil died in two thousand and three, I'm not sure how much bearing they have on what ultimately happened.

an excuse to have sympathy from your advisor. You know this maybe extension of deadlines and things like that. So that is a possibility for why your quote you know thesis would be stolen, so that is possible. I wonder if you look at that four year gap again, just like if Nancy was gonna kill him, and you have this four year gap, that actually kind of makes sense because the authorities were or she was notified that he

was scared of her. But when you look at him struggling four years earlier and then then he completes suicide four years later, it's hard to link those events. Someone can have an episode four years earlier and that doesn't mean that four years later they're going to be in this kind of crazy state. I think it would be hard to use those as evidence of suicidality.

lied to his professors that I think is strange. It's the type of lie that he told, with the threatening note and the paranoia and it being you know, returned after the hard drive was wiped, Like, I just think, why would you even mention that it was returned in any capacity? Why would you just say that it was lost. It's just adding those strange details to me seems a little bit concerning. And then when we couple all of these events together, it does start to paint a picture.

And yeah, the last event was in two thousand. He did die in two thousand and three, so there is a three year gap. But I think given his advanced education that he has attained at this point and the level which he's operating, he may just be better at modulating his emotions and being able to manage his behaviors in a way that isn't concerning for others.

If he's really struggling to that level. I feel like she'd start to say, like, gosh, he's you know, makes claims about me, he accuses me of things that didn't happen. He you know, uh has up security at our house, and it was kind of didn't make any logical sense. I just feel like she would have seen some of that.

if you will proptly stop using it. There's been speculation that going off the medication may have affected Phil's mental state and caused him to behave erratically, though getting to the point where he mutilated his own body before crashing his car would definitely be an extreme reaction. The autopsy also revealed the presence of zero point four to nine milligrams per leader of diephenhydramine in Phil's system, which no

one has ever been able to explain. Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine used to relieve symptoms and allergies, and is marketed under the brand name Benaedrel, but according to Tracy, Phil did not have any allergies and she could not recall ever having seen him take Benaedrel. Another strange detail of the autopsy report is the presence of the white fiber material beneath Phil's underwear, which was consistent with material found

in a diaper. One month before his death, Phil was evaluated at a urology clinic at Wilford Hall Medical Center for incontinence, and, according to Tracy, since he had a recent history of prostate enlargement with frequent urination, Phil would sometimes cut up pieces of diaper to line his underwear. It's possible that the presence of the diaper material had

no relevance to the case at all. But since there are just so many odd elements associated with the accident scene, I see the detail often get mentioned in online discussions about the case.

his autopsy found pieces of it. But at the scene, where there any pieces of clothing, our items that were recovered that would indicate that diaper was present.

the itchiness from shaving his chest hair. If his chest was sliced open, remnants to the lyocane from the cream could have seeped into his bloodstream. It's been reported that a package of small gauge needles was found in the car's glove compartment, though the package was unopened and there was no record of any hypodermic syringes at the scene.

But theoretically, Phil could have used a small gauge needle to inject lytocan into his system through his chest before he cut himself, and then removed skin from the exact same area, completely obscuring the injection marks. Demayo believed that if someone had been torturing Phil and wanted to inflict the maximum amount of pain, it would make no sense for the perpetrator to inject lytocane into his body, but

that might not be entirely true. In his book From Scene the Courtroom, Examining the Mysteries, Doctor Weck devotes a chapter to this case and makes mention of a man named Enrique Kihi Camarina, an American intelligence officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration. In February of nineteen eighty five, came Morena was kidnapped in Mexico by drug traffickers who proceeded to torture and interrogate him for thirty hours before he

was murdered. While this was going on, came Moraina was injected with lighto kane because it would stabilize his heart rate and keep him alert and awake while he was being tortured. So, for all we know, maybe some sadistic kidnapper attempted to do the same thing to Fill in order to prolong his torture, but did not anticipate that he would attempt to escape.

or anything like that. It's like, hey, take a benindre and let's see if you're you know, the histamines can kind of cease in your body and you can stop itching. So the benadryl is not is not that difficult to explain. The lytocane if it's not from the cream, would he have injected himself? I just don't see that. Like you said earlier, there were the hesitation marks supposedly noted around

the chest injury, but then not around the nipples. And if he didn't have extreme levels of lytocane in his system, I wouldn't have really numbed him to the point that he could have just really just mutilated his body. I don't think so. The rate wasn't that high, was it.

a medical professional. But he didn't. That's not that's not what happened, and that's not what showed up in the autopsy report.

odd to just have a small amount. One of the biggest points which has been used in favor of the stage suicide theory is that when Phil was driving erradically on the interstate, he passed by all the exits which would have taken him back to his home and born. He also reportedly drove by a police car that was pulled over by the side of the road, and never made any attempt to stop and seek help, even though

he was supposedly fleeing for his life. But I think it's a bit unfair to judge actions of a man who may have been abducted and tortured and just made an escape from his captors, as he would have been in tremendous pain at this point and likely not in

the most lucid or rational state of mind. It's worth noting that two motorists followed behind Shoe down an interstate from the time he nearly crashed into the medium until he fatally crashed into the trees, and for all we know, Shoe could have assumed that they were his captors trying to chase him down, which is why he didn't stop. Doctor de Mayo brought up the fact that Shoe's cell phone was found in his car and he never attempted

to use it. To phone for help, but we also had the account from Shoe's neighbor, who claimed that traces of blood could be found on the inside of the

flip phone after they retrieved it from the scene. Remember this was still two thousand and three, the era before wireless hands free devices, so driving at a speed of between sixty to sixty five miles per hour will trying to make a call on a flip phone would not have been the easiest thing to do, especially if you have numerous wounds on your body and are experiencing great pain.

It's possible that she briefly opened his phone and was planning to make a call, which would explain how the blood gone on the inside, but he was just too panicked and frenzy to dial a number. In addition, the area of which he was driving was known to have patchy cell phone service, so any calls he attempted might not have even gone through and they wouldn't have shown

up on cell records. For all we know, Shoe's top priority at this point point was to escape and get as far away from his captors as possible before he sought help, But then he passed out and lost consciousness, which is why his car swerved off the freeway and crash.

he and his captors or he and his abusers. And he could think, if I pull off at these exits near me, they're going to find me, because you know, obviously i'd pull off right here. So he's trying to just continue to drive away from the scene and create

that kind of safety between he and his captor. But like you said, if he's bleeding and he has these injuries and he's in pain, and he's scared and he's in shock, at some point, I would think he would lose consciousness and then that's when the car would go off the road. Even driving erratically could have been a sign of that in and out of consciousness where he's you know, his vision's going and he's feeling lightheaded and you know, blackness is coming into his eyes and he

just can't focus on the road. So what looks like erratic behavior is him, you know, trying to come in and out of consciousness to stay on the road.

was indeed being tortured by an outside party. The fact that he didn't stop by a police officer, or that he wouldn't have called on a flip phone, where it would have been very difficult, given the fact that it's not so easy just to key in numbers like it is today, I can't put too much weight behind the fact that he didn't behave in a way that people would think would be typical, because what is typical in

a situation like that? I think you want to put as much distance between yourself and those who've harmed you and inflicted all of this terror and trauma and like physical injury on your body.

wrists and boots. He presumably has to do this while wearing gloves to avoid leaving finger prints on the tape. He then injects himself with Lyda cane before slashing a large gash in his chest, slicing out both of his nipples, and cutting off the distal joint from his left pinky finger. There's been some dispute about whether any cutting instrument shoe could have used to inflict these wounds was inside his

vehicle at the accident scene. According to one police report, two small pocket knives were found, one of which apparently had blood on it, matching shoes DNA, but these knives are not shown in any of the crime scene photos. The photos did show a straight race inside the glove compartment, as well as a Swiss army style knife, though the knife's blade did not appear to be sharp enough to

have created the incisions on Shoe's body. The straight razors seemed to have a bloody discoloration on the edge, but forensic testing would later show that it was nothing more than rust. If Shoe's wounds were self inflicted, he would have had to drive back to Interstate ten and continue westbound at a high rate of speed for several minutes while in tremendous pain before he crashed into some trees

and was killed. We have no idea where exactly this self mutilation took place, but who may have needed to leave behind his severed nipples, his severed pinky finger, the cutting instrument he used to inflict these wounds, the original roll of duct tape, and the gloves he wore wrapped the tape around himself, as well as his wallet and

his dog tags. I mean, given that Chow's desk was not treated as a homicide investigation, I'm sure the authorities didn't perform in extensive search of the area to find these missive to find these missing items and extremities, but they have still never turned up into twenty years.

like nipples and finger digit and things like that. I don't think those would keep their original appearance very long, and I don't think you'd be able to identify them after they had any kind of weather to them whatsoever.

So the fact that they have not been found anywhere makes me wonder like if someone took them and that Sho didn't take them off himself.

the trouble of torturing him first? I mean, I guess it's possible that Nancy was just a very sadistic person who wanted to inflict the maximum amount of pain on her ex husband, But how exactly was her plan supposed to work the Theoretically, if Nancy did abduct Phil and sliced his chest and cut off his nipples, she received a major break when Phil managed to escape and fatally

crash his own car. Technically, this meant that she was no longer directly responsible for his death, and she received another stroke of good fortune when the authorities believed that

Phil staged an elaborate suicide. So if Phil had not attempted to escape and Nancy murdered him and left his mutilated body somewhere, there definitely would have been a full fledged homicide investigation, and it would not have been as easy for Nancy to collect on the policies since insurance companies are often reluctant to pay out to a murder

victim's beneficiary unless they've been cleared as a suspect. And I know that suspicion has been directed towards Nancy because she pleaded the Fifth Amendment on every single question she was asked during her deposition for Tracy's civil lawsuit and never officially denied on the record that she was responsible for Phil's death. But that shouldn't necessarily be taken as an indicator of guilt, as she was likely doing this

on the advice of her attorney. Remember, you can't just be selective about what questions you want to answer, because if you plead the fifth on one question, you have to plead the fifth on all of them. Even if Nancy had no actual involvement in her ex husband's death, she may have feared that just answering one question might open up the floodgates and force her to talk about some stuff that she didn't want to discuss under oath.

I think that one of the most frustrating aspects of this case is it details about the alleged alibis for Nancy and Donald, and there are incredibly vague as all we know is they were supposedly at work in Florida on the day that Phil was killed. I have no idea how extensively this was verified, but you'd think that traveling from Florida to Texas and back would leave some sort of paper trail. I guess it's possible that Nancy could have hired someone to abduct and murder Phil while

she remained in Florida to establish an alibi. But again, it does seem counterproductive to hire an outside party to torture your ex husband if your primary motive is insurance money.

She is over it, she wants her money and to move on, and she is being told by her attorney just keep your mouth shut. There's zero that they can have on you because you're innocent, So just plead the fifth and let's just get through this deposition and move on. So, yes, you would think, Okay, this man died. You'd think his ex wife would want to help, and if she's innocent, why wouldn't she, But there's no benefit for her to do,

so they're at odds. They're strange. She hasn't had anything to do with him as far as we know, in years. She is getting calls from him where he's saying, listen, quit harassing me. I know you're trying to kill me. So for her, assuming that she doesn't have anything to do with it, he seems off his rocker to her, and it's almost abusive to her and stressful for her. And so at the deposition, what benefit does she have to say anything other than I plead the fifth.

really stressful life event. Maybe they were responsible for initially writing that letter, and they had some sort of animosity towards him, some kind of obsession, and then maybe their life was going okay, and then they had a stressful life event which triggered them, and then they acted and chose to torture Phil, and that led to the events that ended his life.

him or stalking him. I mean, a lot of the odds that Phil would just cross pass was someone on the highway on his way to work who would abduct him and murder him. So yeah, if you're looking at alternate theories which don't involve his ex wife, you would think it would be someone who had a personal obsession with Phil and knew a lot about his life. But I've never heard of anyone from Phil's personal life who

fits that profile. And he never mentioned anything about being stalked by a particular person.

Of course. The third possibility, which was once brought up by Nancy's attorney, is that Phil's death was not actually a homicide or a suicide, but a failed attempt to stage an abduction and possibly frame his ex wife for harming him. And while Phil's plan involved intentionally crashing his car.

He never actually thought he would die. The first time I witnesses saw Phil's Mercury Tracer driving radically, it was traveling in the Interstate Center medium for several hundred yards and negotiated between two light poles before it struck an object, causing the vehicle to go airborne. This could be interpreted as philm making an attempt to intentionally stage an accident, but it didn't go as planned since his car wound

up flying through the air instead. He then decided to travel down the interstate for a couple more miles and veer off the road and crash into some trees, but the impact wound up killing him. One potential argument against Phil's death being a super is that he spent years obsessively attempting to cancel the policies Nancy had on him, but the insurance companies refused to do so, so by killing himself, Phil would essentially be guaranteeing that his ex

wife got exactly what she wanted. But if Phil attempted to stage a phony abduction and mutilated himself to make it look like he was tortured, then perhaps he thought he could finally make people believe that Nancy was trying to kill him, after all. If you've been following the news these past several years, you're probably familiar with the story of Shery Peppini, who told everyone that she was abducted and held captive for three weeks back in twenty

sixteen before she managed to escape. But of course, her so called captors were never identified, and it was eventually revealed that the entire kidnapping ordeal was a complete hoax. So people are capable of doing things like this, though once again, cutting off both your nipples and a tip of one of your fingers and slicing a six inch gash on your chest seems like a very extreme step

to take in order to frame your ex wife. It's not a very logical plan, But if Phil suffered a complete mental breakdown, then we shouldn't apply standard logic to his actions.

makes sense. And then he's so injured that he does start to lose consciousness on his way to try to get help and stage this and the crash actually takes his life. That's possible as well.

in Florida in that particular scenario becomes a moot point. However, the one wild card in this case is Phil and Nancy's son, Jeffrey, who was removed from his father's will only five days before his death. I mean, Phil's logic for that made sense, as Jeffrey had been suffering from financial problems and there was concern about how responsibly he would handle any inheritance he received. Yet it seems like one hell of a coincidence that Phil made this decision

so soon before he was killed. On one hand, if Phil was planning a suicide, this may have been his way of ensuring that Tracy would get full control of his assets and they would not be squandered by his son. But on the other hand, if Jeffrey had issues with money, I haven't heard anything about him being estranged from his

father or them having a terrible relationship. Remember, even though there was a good chance that Jeffrey was conceived through an affair and not actually Phil's biological son, Phil still raised Jeffrey as he was his very own. In spite of Jeffrey's financial issues, he did manage to get a job as a pilot for Delta Airlines was proud of his accomplishments. At the very least, I'd expect that Phil would want to ensure Jeffrey was taken care of while

he was gone. I guess being removed from his will could have been a potential motive for Jeffrey to have his father killed, but it's unclear if Jeffrey found out about this until after Phil's death. It's also not clear to me what kind of relationship Jeffrey had with his mother at that point, since he lived in another state. So for all we know, Jeffrey may have had an airtight alibi clearing him of any involvement in what happened, But he never gave interviews or was formally questioned about

the case under oath. Since Jeffrey passed away nine years ago, we'd never got to hear his side of the story or his thoughts about what happened to his father.

to face. And I don't think you just call somebody up or text them and are like, hey, you're out of the will.

to him. The psychological autopsy report treats this as a piece of foreshadowing in which phil practically announced what he was planning to do, but there's been a lot of dispute about whether or not he actually made this statement. When the case was featured on forty eight Hours, Deon declined to be interviewed on camera, but the show claimed

that he shared this story about the dissociative episode with them. However, according to Cyril Wex's book From Scene to Courtroom, Examining the Mysteries, Giannas said that if he was ever asked about Shoe's alleged statement under oath, he would deny that it ever took place. So this is definitely one of those cases where you're going to find conflicting information about key details. From different sources, and you pretty much have to make up your own mind about which side you believe.

And I have to be honest, I've always had a difficult time figuring out what actually happened here, as no theory makes one hundred percent complete sense. If you read Colonel Shoe's psychological autopsy report, it does make a fairly convincing case for his death being a suicide, and you might come away believing that he staged the entire accident.

But at the same time, it fails to come up with logical explanations for some of the major discrepancies involving Shoe's death and requires you to make a lot of assumptions about his mental state.

don't know, chaotic as as a form of suicide. Like you said, we do have Peppini, who did something very similar where she beat herself and had her friend hurt her and stuff like that so that she could fake her own kidnapping and get attention and love from her husband. But here the only thing I could think is he needs to frame her. He's tried every other thing to get his ex wife off of his life insurance policies.

He has this paranoia that she's out to hurt him, and so if it is self induced, I would see him trying to frame her to be under investigation. Remember they had petitioned the insurance company to remove them as a risk to him, that they couldn't be beneficiaries, and they were denied. And so if she's under investigation for a murder investigation, it's possible that the insurance company would

drop her at that point. So if it's self induced, I would go that direction that he's trying to fake an accident where then he can talk to the police and at the insurance company to remove her. But I couldn't see him wanting to end his life with everything he had going on. He was supposed to be moving with his wife, they had a dream house picked out, he was continuing his education. It just doesn't seem like that would be where he was at in that moment of his life.

episode or he's saying he did. I don't know if it was just sort of him putting it out there that the hay this could happen, or if it was like a self fulfilling prophecy. He had this vision and then somehow it gave him an idea of a way that he could get his ex wife off of the insurance policy and just be free of her in that sense, if he was really truly worried about his life, I'm not sure, but I think you build in a few holes from you with that ash, and I think that that is the best theory.

But if he wasn't in a logical frame of mind, then again we can't apply logic. I suppose it's possible that all this drama involving Shoe's ex wife and the insurance policies is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and he was instead abducted and tortured by an outside party who's managed to stay off the radar. Maybe there was just some random psychopath who felt the urge to abduct and torture someone that particular morning and was lying in wait for a random victim, and Colonel Shoe became the

unfortunate target. However, shee wound up escaping and was killed in a car crash. But because he didn't have any known connection to the torturer, no one's been able to figure out who that person might be. But regardless of whether Shoe's death was a homicide, suicide, or a staged accident gone horribly wrong, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that he was failed in a huge way by all the agencies who were responsible

for investigating his death. I mean, yes, he technically was killed by the car wreck, but if you arrive at an accident scene and discover that the victim's nipples are missing and cannot be found anywhere nearby, then you have to assume that there's a lot more to the story.

And I know that Judge Palmer's ruling that Colonel Schue's death was a homicide had no official legal weight, but I still find it incredibly frustrating that all the investigative agencies have refused to budge and take a fresh look at the case. At the very least, Choo's official cause of death should be reclassified as undetermined instead of suicide until more conclusive answers can be found.

evidence from the scene to confirm that assumption. That is a big assumption to make in the moment, especially given all of the details that you have in front of you, missing nipples, a finger digit missing, a gash in his chest, the tape around his ankles and feet. So why you would assume suicide and before you really were doing a deep dive into a psychological background, I don't know. You should have approached it as a homicide and gone from there.

And like you said, why not be willing to take a fresh look now.

accepted the suicide ruling and collected the money. Why spend years dragging the case through the courts and keeping your husband's story in the spotlight. So yes, I definitely think you can rule out the possibility of Tracy's involvement, as it's clear that she only wants justice and conclusive answers

about what happened. I will admit that in some cases which a victim's death was ruled to be a suicide and their loved ones disagreed with the conclusion, you got the impression that there was a lot of denial at work and that pushing a homicide narrative was their coping strategy for dealing with the pain and grief. But here there are just so many things which don't make sense that I can completely understand why the victim's widow would

continue the fight. So if you happen to have any information about the unexplained death of Colonel Philip Schue, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts in this case.

up suicide does not make sense. The straight up homicide, we have no information, especially because they didn't investigate that way and my other plan. Like you said, Robin, there aren't one hundred percent, you know, foolproof ways to look at that either. So it's one of those cases where as the widow, I would be so devastated and so upset that I felt failed from the get go, and that there was an assumption that my husband would take his own life given the life we had created together.

So I feel so much empathy for her, so much sadness for her, no matter what happened, And I don't think the investigation was fair to fill or his wife. And it's one of those cases where it says, you start assuming it's a homicide and later you can change your mind, but you can't go the opposite direction. You can't say suicide and then try to undo the lack of investigation and make any kind of conclusions later. So I'm very frustrated with the way it was even investigated to start this case.

His intention was just to simulate this torture and to have his ex wife, Nancy's insurance policies on his life be terminated, because clearly this was a black cloud that was hanging over him. I think that it is a pretty good probability that that may have been what happened. There's still obviously a lot of questions as to where

he did this. If he did indeed do this to himself, where did he decide to take off his own nipples and to cut himself like this, Because we know that his finger and the nipples weren't found in the vehicle, so it was likely done somewhere else and we just don't have that information. I feel like the investigation being so lacking initially, it just leaves us with more questions than answers, and my heart really breaks for the family.

It's just it's really really sad, and I don't believe that Nancy and her husband, even though they stood to benefit from his death, had anything to do with what happened. I think that there's obviously like a possibility, but it just doesn't seem like a strong one to me personally because of the manner in which it was done. If he was killed in a way that looked like it was just an accident without all the torture, and then I'd be more inclined to believe that they had some

type of involvement. And as far as Jeffrey goes. We don't know that he knew about being taken off the will, and I don't believe that he would have just called him up. I mean, I don't really know what type of guy he is, but it does seem a little callous to be like, yeah, you're just off the will, like Jeffrey, I'm disinheriting you because you're bad with money. It feels like it's a more compassionate thing to have a conversation one on one, face to face. And he's

a psychiatrist and he would have known that. But this is just one of the most mysterious cases and strange cases that we've ever covered.

this being a stage suicide. But then I'm reading that a lot of the information in this report is not entirely accurate, and I also look into the fact that it can't account for a number of the strange discrepancies which were not adequately explained. So it left me on the fence again not really sure what to think. I do believe that there is no one theory that makes

one hundred percent complete sense. The theory we brought up here about this not being an intentional suicide but rather an attempt by Phil to stage an abduction and a torture in order to frame his ex wife, even though it doesn't make any logical sense on the surface. If he was suffering some sort of mental breakdown, then yes, maybe he would have been capable of doing something like that and doing something as extreme as cutting off his

own nipples. But even so, there are some holes in that theory, and that's why this case is so mysterious. And like we said, I think the authorities did a major disservice by automatically ruling this as a suicide and not doing a full fledged homicide investigation. And we mentioned in our last episode that Tracy did not even find out many of the strange details, such as the removal

of the nipples from law enforcement. She was told that by a newspaper reporter, and that's why she decided, hold on, I'm not going to cremate my husband like originally thought. We're going to give his body a new autopsy and figure out what's going on here. And that's what convinced

her that foul play must have taken place. But Yeah, even though Nancy on the surface seems like the most logical suspect, the whole theory about her doing it doesn't make much logical sense either that she would travel or hire someone to travel to Texas to murder and torture a husband for the insurance money. Would it be a lot more logical to kind of stage his death to

look like an accident to avoid all the suspicion. So I think that either Phil was murdered by someone who we don't even know about it, possibly a stalker who never popped up in the radar as a suspect, or like Ashley said, maybe he decided to stage the accident but did not plan on ending his own life and as a result, the whole investigation turned into a mess

and no one could figure out what happened. But regardless, this is still remains one of the weirdest mysteries we've ever covered, and I do hope we finally get conclusive answers someday.

ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsaved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode and incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track at which I make more smart ass remarks about jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three.