In the last episode, we discussed part one of Sheila Davilou. Now today we're going to be continuing that story with part two, so be sure if you haven't heard yet, to check out part one before continuing with us today. But for now, let's get into the rest of the story.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcasting. The following podcast and material intended for.
A mature audience. Listener discretion is advised. I owe everyone on an apology. Do you I do?
What the heck did you do?
When I uploaded part one the other day, I forgot to put part one in the title. Wow, until like it was like six hours later and I realized so. But however, we did talk about in the intro of that episode that it was part one. Oh, but I forgot to put in the title.
Was that intentional?
No, it wasn't. It was completely accidental.
I know, I'm just bugging. Yeah.
I was just sitting there chilling. Then I can just all of a sudden, this like epiphany hit me, and I was like, I didn't put part one in the title. So I rushed back and edit it and put it back in and I was like, I hope not too many people are going to be mad at me.
You gotta love those epiphanies, say right, that realization of oops, I fucked up. I hate when they happen in the middle of the night, when you're like trying to fall back to sleep or something and you're like, oh shit, that's when it.
Feels the worst. It feels like you're your like heart and stomach is dropping through the bed you're laying on, you just like sink deeper into just like despair. Oh it's the worst. But one thing does help that, really. Yeah, Actually there's two things that helps it. This and signing up over on Patreon. Did you see that covin I did.
Actually that one I saw.
Well, you probably thought it was gonna be the first one, didn't you.
No, No, no, I didn't.
Okay, Well, the second thing.
I'm here and can see you going to open your oh to fair.
Enough, fair enough. Well, maybe I got some people out there. But the second thing is signing up over on Patreon, and we have some amazing patrons to thank this week, just like Maggie Williams, Amanda greg Ka Ray. I hope I said your name right, Sandra and Dennis, Katie Ort, Cody Yates, Tammy Sutton, Sarah Wellen, Kristen and Amanda Graham. They all signed up. They're getting that access behind the scenes.
They get our Friday photo dump, some pre shows exclusive episode that comes out at the end of the month for anyone who signed up to that all access.
Than mag It's a good list of peeps.
It is good list of peeps, and it's it's a nice little place to just hang out, learn more about the show and learn more about us too.
Yeah, it's good vibes over there. Honestly, good vibes is a good way of putting it. Yeah, but are.
You ready for part two?
Yeah? Talking about good old Sheila.
Talking about good old Sheila. I don't know if i'd really say good old Sila.
No, she's terrible.
She kind of a bitch. But we're telling her story regardless.
She's kind of a bit.
She's kind of a fucking bitch. I'm not gonna lie. It's the truth. That's that's what she's like.
Oh that was good.
You like that?
I did? Yeah, I really did.
Okay, Well, I've got a little bit of a recap in case there's been some time since you listen to part one, So a little bit of a recap on what happened on last episode. So. Sheila Davlou was a pharmaceutical research scientist living in New York in the early two thousands. She was married to Paul Christos, a doctoral student and researcher, and the two appear to be living a stable, very professional life now. In reality, Sheila had a very long history of hiding relationships and controlling what
people around her knew about her personal life. After immigrating from Iran as a child, Sheila grew up in a very strict household, one that emphasized academic success and obviously a public image to go along with it, because hey, that's what we want, right people to perceive us well and also to do well. She studied biochemistry at Stonebrook University and later earned a master's degree at New York
Medical College. Under family pressure, she entered her first marriage at quite a young age, but still while married, that's when she began an affair with Paul Christos. Now after her divorce, she married Paul in two thousand and moved in with him in Pleasantville, New York. Both Sheila and Paul worked very demanding schedules, and their marriage gradually became
rather emotionally distant. Paul remained loyal and very trusting, believing that their situation would eventually improve, and in two thousand and one, while working at Purdue Farmer in Stamford, Connecticut,
began an affair with a coworker named Nelson Sessler. Now Nelson was unaware that she was married, and to keep the two men separate, Sheila told Paul that her mentally ill brother visited regularly and required Paul to leave their apartment, remove all his belongings in any existence of him, basically not to upset her brother. Now during these periods, she brought Nelson to the condo, of course, not this brother, making him believe that she was in fact living alone
and single. So at the same time, Sheila told Paul very ongoing stories about a workplace love triangle involving Melissa Jack and Anna Lisa. Now these stories were actually about herself, Nelson, and another woman in Nelson's life, Anna Alissa Raymundo, and Paul unknowingly gave Sheila advice about well her own relationship that was on the side. Nelson eventually chose Anna Alisa over Sheila, and as her relationship became more serious, Sheila
became increasingly obsessed with him. She monitored his schedule with Analisa, access to Nelson's voicemail, and arranged coincidental encounters in public spaces. By late two thousand and two, she viewed Annalisa as the main obstacle to being with Nelson. She's the one in the way. So on November eighth, two thousand and two, Shila left work for several hours and went to Analisa's condo. Now, after gaining entry, she attacked her in a violent struggle
and stabbed her to death. Then she placed an anonymous nine to one one call from a nearby pay phone, tipping off the very bloody murder scene she had just left behind, and then returned to work. Police initially focused on Nelson, but his ALBI proved extremely concrete, so now investigators didn't know about Sheila's relationship with him at the time, and early forensic evidence did not identify any other suspect,
so the case essentially stalled. After the murder, Sheila reinserted herself into nelson life as the emotional support person, and their relationship started to blossom in razume. Meanwhile, Paul, well, he remained unaware of all of this, and he continued leaving the home during those supposed brothers visits. Now, early in two thousand and three, Sheila was again maintaining two separate relationships, but the difference now was Paul was beginning
to question some of these things. And that is where we left off.
Oh, that is just a wild story. It is, yes, hard to believe that that is even true.
I know she is a very much so manipulative person. I want to say a master manipulator, which she very much so is, but I don't want to give her that credit. At the same time, you know what.
I mean, She's kind of a bitch.
She's kind of a bitch. That's the ongoing theme of this story for sure.
Oh my gosh, I'm obsessed with us.
Do you have any questions or anything you want to go over before we dive into the rest of the part too.
No, pretty straightforward. Yeah, it all came back to me in one little.
Hush, little overwhelming wave of she kind of a bitch? Yeah, gotcha. Okay, Well, with that all out of the way, let's dive into the rest of the story. So by early two thousand and three, the strain on Sheila and Paul's marriage had become quite impossible to ignore. What had once been a partnership built around shared ambition and mutual respect, while it had slowly turned into a relationship that was more defined
by distance. Paul was spending most of his time working on his doctoral research and teaching, while Sheila seemed increasingly absorbed in her own world. Their schedules while they rarely aligned, and when they were together and conversations happened while they were often brief and only really surface level ones. The arrangements surrounding Sheila's brother, it too, had become one of the biggest sources of tension between them. For years, Paul had accepted the idea that he needed to leave his
own home whenever her brother had visited. He packed up his belongings, removed fos, photos and any sort of personal items, and stayed in hotels without any sort of complaint.
Well, that's pretty messed up, because it's not just that he's like leaving, it's that he has to take his whole existence out of the house.
Which is true. And what we talked about in Part one was the idea that like her brother being mentally ill, she's leaning on the idea of saying that, well, if he sees that I have a relationship with you, it could upset him that, you know, he's not central to my life anymore and disrupt his like his balance, right. Yeah, So I understand Paul's wanting to be very supportive of that, but at a certain point that becomes too much, you know.
Well, yeah, and I think it it in his mind, well, I think we should just let me meet the brother and like work this out kind.
Of thing for sure. Like at first, he's like, Okay, I'm probably doing something necessary to not only integrate myself into her life, but you know, the brother's life. You know,
we'll get there. But over time he's like, Okay, these visits are becoming more frequent, less predictable, Like they happened like monthly, and other times they were even like more often than that, and each visit it meant that Paul was disappearing from his own life for days at a time, and he eventually is just like, well, this is no longer a reasonable situation. So he had never met the brother in law, he'd never been included in conversations about
the future. He was being asked to pretend that his life inside his own marriage basically didn't exist, and so his frustrations are growing, and he started actually expressing some concerns to Sheila, which is good. Good for him, right, He's actually standing up to himself or for himself and be like, Okay, I think like, at first, I want to be supportive and do what you're wanting and needing from me, but at a certain point you need to let me have me too.
Well, yeah, it's unreasonable and we need to come up with a game plan going forward one hundred percent.
So he asked whether the situation could change, and he suggested that her brother might eventually need to know the truth, and he questioned whether continuing to live separate lives if it actually made any sense. Now, these conversations with Sheila, they didn't exactly go well. Sheila reacted quite emotionally whenever the topic was brought up. She framed Paul's concerns as selfish or insensitive, and she doubled down on her responsibility
to her family and her brother's mental health. Any suggestion of change whatsoever was met with tears and anger. Now, while Paul was pushing back. He also began noticing other changes in his wife. She was more secretive with her phone, she worked late more often, and she sometimes seemed distracted even when they were together. He couldn't pinpoint anything specific, but he felt that something in their relationship had fundamentally shifted.
It was now like off. Something was there he couldn't quite point out, but still he didn't suspect any sort of infidelity. He was just assuming that it was stress, exhaustion, you know, career pressure, those sort of things that would have been responsible. Now, with all of this happening from Sheila's perspective, Paul was becoming a bit of a problem. He was no longer content to quietly accept her word
and disappear on a whim. He was beginning to assert himself and he wanted to live openly as her husband. And those expectations, will they directly threaten the life that she had built around Nelson.
That is so messed up that that would be a problem.
I know, right, But that's exactly the situation. She's leading two different lives. She's with two different men, or at least like trying to be with one and not necessarily the other.
Because I'm obsessed with Paul. He just seems like the perfect husband really.
Basically, I mean he's a little naive, let's put it that way and be honest. But yeah, he's very trusting, he wants this to work, and he's very open and accepting of what she needs from him.
Uh huh. But he is not what she wants I guess, or you know, wants him to keep being this little naive person that doesn't ask questions or think about outside the box of how can we fix this or change this?
Right, she just wants attention in certain ways, and if that falls off the grid in any sort of relationship, she finds it in the other and another relationship with another person.
Yep.
And then it's not only confronting it and trying to fix it or talk about it or maybe even get a divorce because hey, this relationship isn't for me, it's I'm going to find someone else and lead the double life. Now,
at this point, Shila faced a choice. She could end her marriage, pursue a divorce just as I was talking about, and deal with the financial, the professional, the social consequences, all of that sort of stuff that comes along with it, or choice number two, she could remove Paul as an obstacle entirely, just like she had done before.
Two. Okay, okay.
So it was not long after these tensions intensified that Sheila introduced Paul to a new idea. She told him that she heard about a trust game from coworkers now. She described it as a bonding experience, something designed to bring couples together in like a little closer like it had a little bedroom game sort of say, it's a game for couples, you know, involving blindfolds, handcuffs, and guessing
objects based on touch. Sheila framed it as very harmless and intimate, a way for them to reconnect after months of emotional distance right now. Paul being very eager to improve their marriage, he missed feeling close to his wife, and he believed that she was genuinely wanting to rebuild the relationship, and when she suggested playing this game, he agreed without hesitation. On Sunday, March twenty third, two thousand and three, Sheila and Paul spent most of the day
running errands and visiting family. They had lunch with Paul's mother in White Plains and returned to their Pleasantville condo in the afternoon. By all appearances, it was a very calm and usually pleasant day for the couple that had grown distant. They talked easily, shared small moments, and showed signs with no conflict in them. But later Paul would describe it as one of the better days that he had in those months with his wife. They were together,
they were living, they were existing. Now it was some time around four pm. Sheila reminded Paul about this trust game that she had mentioned earlier in the week, and so she gathered what she said she needed for the game. A blindfold that she made from some black pantyhose, a pair of handcuffs, and a heavy wooden chair with sturdy rungs. They set it up in a spare bedroom that had
carpeted flooring. Now Sheila went first. Paul handcuffed her wrists to the chair and tied a blindfold around her eyes. He pressed various objects from the house against her body and asked her to guess what they were. Now, they used various items from the home, like a camera and a box and whatever else they could find, and after several rounds, Sheila correctly identified most of the items. And when it was over, Paul removed the handcuffs and the blindfold,
and then it was Paul's turn. Sheila secured his wrist to the chair and blindfolded him. She began the same process. Paul guessed most of the items correctly too, as they were pressed against his skin. And as the game continued, Sheila left the room several times in searching for some objects to use, of course, and at one point Paul heard her in the kitchen, and when she returned to him, she told him that the next object would be the
last one. Now Paul, still tied to the chair, was waiting for the last object to be pressed against his skin. He felt his wife, Sheila, begin to position herself with her legs on either side of his thighs as he sat cuffed in the chair. Then he suddenly felt an intense blow to the chest. The impact was so powerful that it knocked the breath right out of him, and he heard Sheila scream. The moments later, he felt another violent strike right near the same spot. Now, Paul, remember
was still blindfolded in handcuffed to this chair. He couldn't see what was happening to him. He struggled to breathe and felt a very immediate severe pain. Sheila told him that she thought she had hurt him accidentally, and she claimed that, you know, she must have accidentally fell or
tripped and caused some injury. And when Paul insisted she removed the blindfold, she eventually did, and he saw her standing over him, panicking and disoriented, and his shirt was covered in blood as it was seeping down to the floor and beginning to pool.
Holy shit, Sheila.
Had stabbed him two times in the chest with a pairing knife accidentally quote accidentally, according to her, But he didn't really understand this. Still, he didn't know exactly what had happened. All he knew was that his wife had somehow hurt him, and he assumed that, yeah, it was in fact an accident. Why would he think otherwise. Now, Sheila said she could not find the handcuff key as he asked to be uncuffed, so instead Paul just told her to break the wrung of the chair, and after hesitating,
she did so, freeing his arms. Now he tried to stand up, but collapsed from the pain and the weakness, and he began sweating heavily and felt his heart racing. He repeatedly told Sheila to call nine one one, but instead, when she went into the kitchen, she returned with a glass of juice, telling him to drink it. When he refused, she eventually pulled out her phone and appeared to make
a call. While pacing through the apartment, she told Paul she was speaking to the emergency services and that help was on the way. She told Paul eventually that emergency responders were short staffed and it would take twenty five to thirty minutes before they would arrive at the scene. Now this explanation made very little sense, but Paul was
in too much pain to argue otherwise. He began to feel himself fading out, and at one point Sheila offered him night quill, suggesting it would help him feel better, but he pushed it away, and Paul he realized he couldn't wait for the ambulance. He didn't have twenty five minutes or thirty minutes, however long it would take for them to arrive. He told Sheila that she needed to drive him to the hospital, and she needed to do
it immediately now. She agreed, and after slowly helping him into a jacket, she brought him to the car and placed him in the back seat. Instead of taking the direct route to Westchester Medical Center, Sheila drove slowly along a secondary route. She made unnecessary turns and delays in the path she was driving, and Paul became increasingly alarmed at what was going on. He's slowly starting to think, why is she doing this? Why is she taking so long?
Why is she taking these routes? And finally, when she got to the hospital grounds, she drove right by the emergency entrance to the er and drove behind the building into a largely empty parking lot near the rear at the end of that lot.
Oh, my goodness, gracious, this woman doesn't have a heart. She is just like Puer.
Evil she is. She's essentially trying to prolong this and hope that he died.
Yeah.
Now, After stopping the car, Sheila dropped the keys on the floor and was pretending to search for them. And when she finally exited the vehicle after allegedly finding the keys, she walked around to Paul's door on the passenger side in the back seat and opened it, but instead of helping him out, she lunged at him holding a knife, and she stabbed him in the chest once again. What and as she raised the knife for another strike, Paul reacted instinctively. He knew now that what had happened wasn't
an accident. He knew she was attacking him, trying to kill him.
He knew that his wife was batshit.
Crazy exactly, and as this strike was coming down this would have been the fourth stab, he blocked her arm and shoved her away and forced himself out of the car, despite losing blood rapidly. He grabbed the blade with his bare hands and ripped it from her grip. He threw it aside and staggered towards two people exiting a nearby building. Now Sheila followed him, and she was pleading with him to say this was just an accident. Just please just
tell him it was an accident. She told him that if he told the truth, she was going to get in so much trouble. And when the bystanders reached Paul, they immediately saw the severity of his injuries and called for emergency assistance. Sheila ran from the scene right away, but police caught up with her a very short distance away and placed her under arrest. Paul was rushed into emergency surgery, and surgeons discovered that the earlier stabbings had
punctured his heart and damaged major blood vessels. One wound had even nicked an artery, causing blood to fill his chest cavity and his lungs. Holy doctors later said he survived only because he retrieved the treatment right when he did.
Oh okay, because yeah, I was thinking this was not gonna end well, like just listening to the amount of blood and stuff he's losing.
Yeah, she prolonged it, and if she was able to prolong it anymore, he likely would have died before reaching the hospital.
Oh my gosh. And then she just freaking like fled.
Yep, she ran.
Oh okay. I cannot even believe that someone's just terrible as a person.
Now, after Sheila was arrested outside the parking lot and trying to run on March twenty third, two thousand and three, she was taken into police custody and brought in for questioning. Now, at that point, investigators were still uncertain whether Paul would survive at all. His condition in hospital was very critical, and doctors had warned that he might not make it through the night. Police were fully aware that if Paul did die, Sheila would be facing a murder charge rather
than a tempted murder. Detectives began asking Sheila to explain what had happened inside the apartment and during the drive to the hospital as well. Now she appeared calm and cooperative at first, but her story immediately raised a lot of concerns. She told officers that she and Paul had been playing a consensual bedroom game, which they were and
during that he was accidentally injured. According to her initial account, she claimed that she had been holding a pairing knife and somehow lost her balance, causing it to puncture into his chest.
That wouldn't make sense to literally anyone.
No, and she insisted that she never meant to hurt him and that everything was basically an unfortunate accident. And yet doesn't make sense. You might might be able to get away.
With saying that once, yeah, one stab wound, but like at.
Three right, yeah, but like oh I fell, Oh I fell again. Oh we're in the parking lot of the hospital. Oh I fell, still holding the knife, Like what the fuck? Okay, So that's essentially what she's trying to say, and the police weren't buying it. Now, She also told police that she immediately called nine one one and followed their instructions. She said emergency services were delayed and that she had
done her best to help Paul while they were waiting. Now, when they asked why she had not driven directly to emergency service and the entrance right, she went right past the emergency entrance, and she claimed, well, because she drove past, she was confused. She didn't know where to go.
I think it's generally pretty obvious. It usually actually, if you're actually driving right past it, you're gonna be able to tell that, Okay, this is the emergency entrance.
Yeah, but basically she's trying to portray herself as like panicking and frightened over what happened, which is why she didn't see it. Oh my god, even though it would have been obvious.
Yeah. Usually it's lit up and it says emergency.
Yeah, it's a very safety kind of oriented thing. It's like blaring lights like for people in emergency situations, so it's easy to find to notice. Yeah. Now, when investigators asked for more details about the nine one one call that she said she made, Sheila gave different time estimates for when she supposedly made the call, and well, it was very gray on how she described this call, it happened,
and how it occurred. She also struggled to explain why she offered Paul juice and cold medicine instead of any sort of first aid. I mean, that was her first aid while waiting for medical aid to come.
I can kind of understand the juice just slightly, really a little bit, because I don't know, maybe she's thinking he's losing a lot of blood, He's going to need like some sugar or something. I don't know, I don't know. Just playing Devil's advocate, I can kind of, I mean five percent understand that maybe.
I mean, as someone who was a previous first aid attendant, it makes no sense to me. But hey, if you say so, all right, I'll let you have that one.
Now.
Meanwhile, police were already reviewing evidence from the scene itself.
Kay, I'm just going to interrupt you. I think why it's understandable is because when you give blood, right, and like sometimes people faint in there, Like I've given blood and someone fainted and then they kind of like come to and they're given juice because they just lost a lot of blood and like they're trying to replenish them. So I get this as a totally different scenario one hundred and ten percent. But it's like, that's why I'm saying, I can five percent understand that is a.
Controlled environment though controlled bleeding. That's not a Oh I nicked your artery with a knife and you are actively bleeding out on the floor begging for nine one one. Here's a cup of juice, Like, are you fucking kidding me?
You're just over your laughing that I could even understand this remotely.
I'm a little bit blown away, Yes, a little bit taken aback if you will. But anyways, Hey, I play a devil's advocate all the time. I'm not going to argue on that. What you're saying does make sense. It doesn't make sense to me, but it makes sense that someone might not know what to do and that might
be a reflex, So i'll give you that. Now. Police had recovered Sheila's phone from the parking lot where it had been dropped during the struggle, and when they examined its call history, they found no record of any nine one one call.
Okay, I was curious, No, she.
Didn't call nine one one. Instead though police found something else. The phone showed repeated calls and voicemail attempts to one other number that belonged to Nelson Sessler. And it don't mean just a history from like before. I mean, while Paul was at home bleeding, she was trying to call Nelson.
Oh okay, I am just fired up with this one, because that's fucked.
Up, that is. And when confronted with this, at first, she just flat out denied it, and then she claimed she must have accidentally died the wrong number, and later again she said she couldn't remember who she called. Like her explanations were changing constantly, and each new version it just contradicted the one before it. Now detectives were speaking with Paul at the hospital too. Now, despite his injuries, he was fully alert and very cooperative. He told investigators
exactly what had happened. He described being blindfolded, handcuffed, you know, with this consensual game with couples at home sort of say, and then being stabbed twice and denied medical help, then driven in circles and stabbed again in the parking lot when he was on the far end of the hospital grounds. He explained how Sheila pretended to call for help and tried to convince him to lie about the attack when
he was finally on the doorstep of emergency services. His account was detailed and matched the physical evidence on hand precisely. The location of the wounds, the knife recovered nearby, the dropped cell phone, and witness statements all supported Paul's version of events. It was clear that Sheila was lying through her teeth.
Isn't it almost kind of impressive that he was able to remember all this stuff too? Hey, like he's in a very bad state.
He is, but he was very much so conscious this entire time.
I guess, yeah, But I'm just thinking he could almost have been in shock and not even have remembered exactly what was going on, or thinking he was delusional. But I'm very glad that he remembers it so clearly definitely.
Now. Detectives then change their strategy at this point. Instead of treating the situation as a possible accident, as Sheila claimed, they began confronting her directly with the evidence that supported otherwise. They informed her that Paul had survived surgery and that he was in fact expected to live at this point, which removed any possibility that she could continue portraying this as an accident or a tragic misunderstanding that had ended in a death, or anything right. And when she learned
that Paul was alive, her demeanor changed. She became more defensive, and she even suggested that she'd been in emotional distress and began going down the very classic path of well maybe I blacked out.
Oh we've heard that before.
All too many times. Regardless how she defended herself, though she maintained that she never intended to kill him, But investigators knew they were dealing with a deliberate attack, not an accident, and Sheila was formally charged with attempted murder. Soon, detectives began conducting a full review of Sheila's background, personal relationships,
communication records. Now, this is obviously very standard procedure in major violent crime cases, especially when suspects behavior suggests long term planning or hidden motives, and investigators were no longer looking only at what happened on March twenty third, two thousand and three. They were also trying to understand whether
this attack that a larger sort of pattern. One of the first things police examined in detail was Sheila's cell phone investigators analyzed months of callogus, voicemails records, and saved contacts. It was during this review that they noticed just how frequently she had been communicating with this Nelson Sessler. Now. The sheer volume and timing of the calls indicated to them clearly that their relationship was very significant. Now. Sheila
initially minimized their relationship when asked about it. Of course, she described him as a former coworker and casual acquaintance. However, the phone records show frequent late night calls, long conversations, and repeated attempts to reach him on the day of Paul stabbing too, which directly contradicts her claims of just being casual coworkers and that sort of thing. So investigators then contacted Nelson himself and asked him to come in
for questioning. During this interview, Nelson acknowledged that he had known Sheila through work at Purdue Pharma. He also admitted that he had been involved in a romantic relationship with her. He explained that he had started seeing her before becoming serious with Anna Lisa Rimando, and that he eventually ended things with Sheila to focus on the relationship with Analisa. It was then that he learned Shila was married, and he said he didn't know that Sheila was married at all.
He had no clue this entire time. Now, up until that point, the two thousand and two murder of Anna Lisa Rimando had been treated as a very isolated crime. The investigation had focused primarily on her boyfriend, workplace contacts, and possible random intruders. No suspect had ever been charged
in the case, and it had gradually gone cold. But now while police were learning that the woman accused of trying to kill her husband had previously been romantically involved with Anna Lisa's boyfriend or fiance if they were engaged, I'm pretty sure they were, and that connection immediately raised some serious questions in red flags. So detectives reviewed the original murder file and compared it to what they knew
about Sheila's behavior. They noted that Sheila had been working at Purdue at the same time as Annelie and Nelson, as well, she would have known their schedules, routines, and relationship status. They also learned that Sheila had been closely following the love triangle involving Nelson and Alisa, and another woman often discussed in detail with her husband as Melissa, but this before was of course just gossip. Now, however,
it appeared more personal and filled the jealous motive. Police also learned that Sheila had taken a long lunch break on the day of Analisa's death. Security records show she left work at ten fifty three am and did not return until one fifty three pm, and this time window
aligned with the time of her murder. Investigators began to re examine her movements on November eighth, two thousand and two, and looked deeper into this and they compared badge swipes, the records for parking and phone pings, and witness statements. They mapped out her location during all of these hours, and the results show that she had both the time and the opportunity to travel to Analisa's condo and return
without raising any sort of suspicion. They also reviewed the anonymous nine to one one call that led police to the crime scene. Voice analysis experts were consulted, and while not definitive on its own, the analysis suggested similarities between the caller's voice and Sheila's. Forensic specialists also revisited physical evidence from the condo two, which involved a complete re
examination of the physical evidence collected from there. This included clothing, blood samples, household surfaces, and items from the bathroom and kitchen. Many of these materials have been preserved in storage but had never fully been analyzed. Using newer testing methods, forensic specialists focused particular attention on the bathroom sink area. During the original investigation, technicians had documented small amounts of blood
found on the faucet hand and surrounding surfaces. At the time, these stains were believed to belong to the attacker, who had likely cut themselves during the struggle and then attempted to wash off blood before leaving. One tiny blood droplet on the faucet handle was selected for renewed testing. Advances in DNA technology now made it possible to extract usable genetic material from extremely small samples, and laboratory analysis revealed that that droplet contained a mixture of DNA a mixed
DNA profile. Part of the sample matched Anne Lisa Raymondo and the other part matched Sheila Davilou Boom.
Hey. Yeah, if she didn't do this to Paul, then she would probably have never gotten.
Caught exactly she probably wouldn't have, So this meant that Sheila's blood was present inside the victim's apartment, specifically in the bathroom where investigators believed the attacker had attempted to clean up. But the thing is, Sheila had consistently claimed that she had never, and I mean never been inside an Elisa's home, so according to her, there was no legitimate reason for her DNA to be present there what soever. Investigators began working to confirm that the blood sample found
containing Sheila's DNA could not be explained by contamination. Since she said she's never been in that apartment whatsoever, they needed to ensure that it wasn't contamination that placed it there. They reviewed the handling of the evidence from the moment it was collected, through every stage of storage and testing. Chain of custody records showed no irregularities, and independent analysis
confirmed the validity of the results. At the same time, police went over the timeline of Sheila's movements on the day of the murder, and still it pointed towards her having a window of time to do this. Investigators also
revisited witnesses interviews from two thousand and two. Several coworkers remembered Sheila being unusually quiet or withdrawn after Analisa's death, which isn't unusual, but others even recalled her quickly becoming emotionally supportive for Nelson, and at the time, again, it wasn't suspicious behavior to anyone, but in hindsight, that's when it suggested a very calculated involvement.
Gosh, she's good, Hey, like she really did play her cards. Well, oh, I'm to a degree, to a degree, so I'm glad though that this is all being discovered. But I do feel like she I mean, she spent her whole life kind of being that.
Way, that's true, But I like, I don't think she played her cards the best. I think luck was on her side for a lot of it, too, because all it would have taken was for Nelson to divulge that he was in this love triangle earlier on, and she would have been immediately on that suspect list. But for whatever reason, personal or otherwise, we don't know, Nelson and didn't say anything, or she was left out of the picture.
Did he even think it wasn't of importance or there was no way she would have done something like this.
Whatever, reason he had for not bringing her name up and letting police know that there's potential other people you might want to look at because of connections, not because of you know what. I think she could have done it, but this person's connected. At least. He just didn't tell the full picture and that left her in a blind spot, which was pure fucking luck.
Yeah. I guess if he would have said her name, it would have pretty easily been solved.
Yeah. Now, phone records further supported this new developing theory that Sheila was in fact responsible. She had been in frequent contact with Nelson both before and after the murder, but after Annealsa's death, the volume of communication increased, showing not only that she had begun seeing him shortly afterwards, but that she was in fact still married to Paul
while doing this. So to prosecutors, it's seeing that Sheila had become obsessed with Nelson, viewed Anna Lisa as an obstacle, decided to remove her, and after succeeding, she attempted to eliminate her own husband as well, who was another obstacle, so she could pursue the relationship without any sort of ongoing complications. But when that attempt failed. Her double life and murderous ways were finally exposed, and she had nowhere
else to go. Over several years, detectives, prosecutors, and forensic experts worked together to refine the case. They prepared expert testimony on DNA analysis, voice identification, behavioral patterns, and they gathered records, reconstructed timelines, and re interviewed key witnesses. They did their due diligence as best as they could, and by the time Sheila went to trial for the murder of an Alisa Raymondo, while she was already serving a
twenty five year sentence in New York. You see, in two thousand and four, she'd already been on trial in Westchester County for what she did to her well ex husband Paul. Since he survived and there were witnesses in that parking lot of the hospital, it was a pretty open and shut case. So by this time she was already serving her time for the conviction of attempted murder of Paul Christo's.
She got twenty five years for that. Hey, she got twenty five years for that's I'm glad. That's impressive. I was thinking it was going to be of less.
No, she got twenty five years, which is phenomenal. Yeah, And now this case, however, it was essentially going to determine whether she would ever be released from prison or not. Okay, because if we have this twenty five years, if there's anything on top of it, it's likely that she's going to freaking die in jail, behind bars and never be released.
Yep.
But if she gets away with it and is not convicted, then potentially it could be twenty five years and then out.
She's not going to get away with it. You don't think, no way, There's no way.
So the murder trial began in twenty twelve in Stamford, Connecticut. Prosecutors presented a detailed timeline showing Sheila's movements on November eighth, two thousand and two, supported by Purdue Pharmer's security records and witness testimony. These records established that she had left work at ten fifty three am and did not return until one fifty three PM, a window that aligned with
the estimated time of Ana Lisa's killing. The prosecution's central evidence focused on three points, the anonymous nine one one call, the blood found at the crime scene, and Sheila's lack of any credible alibi. Audio experts testified that the voice in the nine one one recording matched Sheila's voice patterns in tone speech habits. But while the voice identification was not precise as DNA testing was, the prosecutors argued it was a strongly supportive piece for their case when combined
with the other evidence. May not match her exactly necessarily, saying she could be hiding her voice or changing it in some sort of way, but when you look at the big picture, it makes sense now. Forensic specialists also explained the DNA analysis in very much so a lot of detail. They told the jury how the tiny blood droplet on the bathroom faucet contained both Analisa and Sheila's
genetic material. Independent laboratories even confirmed its match, and experts testified that contamination was extremely unlikely given the proper handling procedures and storage records they had. Prosecutors also emphasized that Sheila had no legitimate reason to be inside Analisa's apartment. In fact, she had denied ever visiting that condo at all.
She was never in there before, no witnesses placed her there socially, there was no professional connection that would explained her presence there, yet the presence of her blood at the murder scene, right where investigators believe the murderer would have cleaned up, was yet present. This evidence directly contradicted her her statements and in their mind, proved that Sheila
was lying. Phone records and testimonies showed that Sheila was emotionally and romantically involved with Nelson, and that they had resumed their relationship shortly after Aneals's death. The state argued that this clearly demonstrated Sheila's motive and intent, and when it came time for the defense, they focused on attacking the reliability of the forensic evidence. Sheila claimed the blood sample must have been contaminated. She disputed the voice analysis
and argued that it was subjective. She maintained that she was not present at the crime scene and suggested that investigators had rushed to judgment after her conviction in New York against Paul. At one point, Sheila represented herself in parts of the proceedings and personally questioned witnesses, including Nelson and Paul. This was an unusual decision that drew a lot of attention, but it did very little to weaken the prosecution's case. At all. After several weeks of testimony,
the jury deliberated and returned with a verdict. Sheila Davlou was found guilty and convicted of first degree murder.
Yeah she was.
In April of twenty twelve, she was sentenced to fifty years in prison in Connecticut.
These are some dang long sentences, the good ones, yeah now.
Because of her New York and Connecticut sentences, they were ordered to run consecutively, not concurrently, so she would first complete her twenty five year sentence for attempting to kill Paul Christos and only after that which she began serving the fifty year sentence for Anna Lisa's murder. In practical terms, the rerually meant that she would likely spend the rest of her life in prison, because she had a total
of seventy five years to serve. When she was sentenced in twenty twelve, the legal system closed the final chapter of the case. But for the people who had been affected by her actions, well, the consequences didn't end with a verdict. Annelissa Raymundo's family, the loss was permanent and very irreplaceable. She'd been a successful pharmaceutical researcher with advanced degrees, a stable career, and a long term plan with Nelson Sessler.
Friends and relatives described her as disciplined, generous, and deeply committed to her family. Her death didn't come as a result of random violence or chance. She was targeted by someone that she'd once trusted as a coworker. Remember she opened her condo door because she recognized and trusted the voice on the other side. Her parents, siblings, and extended family were forced to live with the knowledge that her life had been taken because of a jealous romantic rivalry
that she herself never even knew existed. Court proceedings stretched off for nearly over a decade, prolonging their grief and forced them to repeatedly relive the circumstances of her death. Paul Christos, on the other hand, well he had survived, but his life was permanently changed. Physically. He endured open heart surgery, extended hospitalization, and months of recovery. The stab wound that nicked's heart and damaged his lungs could easily
have been fatal. Doctors had even stated that if help arrived even slightly later, he likely would not have survived. Emotionally, the impact was just as severe. Paul had trusted his wife completely and without any question. He'd accepted years of strange behavior, unexplained absences, and humiliating requests to erase himself from his own life. He had believed her explanations and
defended her when others might have questioned them. Learning that she had planned and attempted to kill him shattered him.
Well, yeah, how would you ever trust another soul again?
I don't know now. In interviews and court testimony, Paul described struggling with long term anxiety, difficulty forming relationships, and lingering lingering trauma over all those same things. How would you trust anyone?
Yeah? I don't. I mean, I wouldn't blame him if he just never did.
Yeah, fair enough now. Meanwhile, Nelson Sessler was left to reckon with his own role in the events. He lost his fiance in a brutal murder. He later learned that the woman who had comforted him during his grief was responsible for that very killing, and he also faced public scrutiny for his involvement in overlapping relationships and his failure to disclose Sheila's existence to police early in the investigation. Although he was never charged in wrongdoing. The case had
followed him for years. For investigators and prosecutors, Sheila's case became a prime example of how easily complex personal relationships can obscure violent crimes. Early misdirection, withheld information and subtle manipulation delayed justice, and it took far too long to uncover the truth. Sheila Davilou has continued to deny her
responsible for Annalisea's murder. She's filed appeals and given interviews asserting that the evidence was flawed and that she was wrongfully convicted, but the courts have repeatedly upheld the verdicts. Looking back, investigators and psychologists who studied the case have
pointed to a consistent pattern in her behavior. When relationships no longer fit the narrative she wants, she attempts to remove any obstacle rather than confronted, and when deception failed, while she turned to violence, and when violence ultimately failed, she simply denied responsibility. Had Paul Christos not survived, it's hard to say if Sheila would have been linked to Annalisea's murder at all. The case may have remained unsolved.
Two deaths might have been written off as unrelated tragedies. Maybe she wouldn't have served time if Paul died. Maybe she would have been able to play off this incident as an accident like she hoped, with medical teams rushing out to the parking lot with a grieving wife holding her dead husband in her arms. Instead, one man's survival exposed the full scope of what had happened and who
Sheila really was. This case highlights just how deadly obsession, manipulation, and secrecy can become once it escalates beyond your control. It's not a case that is exactly remembered for sensationalism or mystery, but instead for the quiet, methodical way a double life unraveled and revealed its cost simply because one person wanted attention and was looking elsewhere to find it. And that's the story of Sheila Davilou. What a bit, Yeah, I knew you were going to end it with that sentiment.
Kind of a bit, okay. I It's sometimes hard for me to fathom that people, when they're so obviously guilty, are still just like I didn't do it and doing appeals and shit. It's like, at some point, girl, like you did it, like just I know, just admit it really, Oh.
I must have blacked out. Oh I didn't do that. I wasn't there. It's not me. You're wrong, not me, Like, are you seriously?
Yeah?
Like literally the evidence everything shows like, oh.
My god, I mean, I guess what else do they really have to do while they're serving time? You know, yeah, might as well, I guess just waste people's time. I don't know.
I guess if there's any hope of you ever having another life, I mean, that's deny deny, right.
And I sure hope that Paul has a good life now because he or I mean, I know, he's obviously going to struggle forever, but like he survived for a reason, right, So yeah, we can only help hope that he does find someone that is deserving of him and.
He's super kind. I really hope that Sheila and what she did to him didn't change that kindness in him.
Hmm. Yeah, this story is just it's unbelievable actually.
I know, but like seriously, Okay, I'm going to go into like a fucking metaphor here. Paul had like the kindest fucking heart and she literally scarred his heart. Yeah, Like he had a heart of gold and now there's a literal scar.
Yeah, and it literally and physically really yeah both Yeah.
Yeah, I like how when you got that, you're like, oh shit, Yeah, because she did.
She pierced his fricking heart.
Yeah, she broke his fucking heart.
Oh then I could sob. Now my eyes are watering. Holy shit.
That man deserves the world.
Honestly, I think that this is going to be one of my top cases for a while. Yeah, because it's mind blowing to me.
It's a wild it's a wild ride.
Yeah, to put it, you did very least. You did a good job, Like, holy shit, you just took us to the fucking.
I don't even know I took you to the fair, threw you on a ride, didn't buckle up your seatbelt, and didn't tell you that it's a roller coaster that goes upside down and three loop to loops and exceeds sixty miles per hour.
Yeah. Actually that's kind of how I feel. I feel like I just got off of that. So there you go.
You're welcome. I don't know if there's ever roller coaches that exceed that speed. I just pulled a random speed out of my ass. But I think you get the point. But I also want to highlight one more point, and that's we are extremely grateful that you are here listening to our show. We're an independent podcast. It's us who research right record all of it. There's no big corporation.
It's us living in our tiny home doing this because we have the support of people like you who listen to the show all the way to the very end, like right now. It means the world to us and it does a lot for us to keep being able to do this going forward. So thank you so much.
Yeah, we really really appreciate every single one of you that's here.
We do. And if you want to check out more for our show, we have Patreon, we have social media's all the links are in the description of this podcast. If you want to give us a review, that too goes a long way. It shows other people that, hey, you know what, this is a great show, you like it, what your honest thoughts are, and we'd appreciate reviews as well. It goes, like I said, a long.
Way, Yeah, so sure does. So. I think it's your turn though to to you know this off.
Okay, well you got to get me there.
That's well done.
That sounded a little dirty.
Oh my gosh, that's horrid. Okay, anyway, thanks for being here. That's super awkward, and until next time, stay wicked.
