Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong. Where our motto is [you’re either someone’s last love or first murder]
I am your host Ky [And I am your host Rick.]
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In today’s episode, we’re discussing a case of parental favoritism. You know how most parents don’t admit that they have a favorite, well this parent has no problems in showing it.
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Diane Staudte was born April 5, 1962 in Springfield, Missouri. Her husband Mark was born July 7, 1951, in St. Louis, Missouri. They met while attending St. John’s College in Winfield, Kansas. They married on December 28, 1985.
The couple had several children together. Their son, Shaun, was born July 2, 1986, six months after their wedding. Sarah Staudte was born shortly after, followed by Rachel Staudte in November of 1990. Brianna Staudte was then born and would be their youngest child. The birthdays of Sarah and Brianna are not known publicly.
As Shaun grew up, he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum and Brianna had learning disabilities. School actually came easy to Sarah and she, not only graduated from High School, but college as well. In both institutions she was an honors student. Despite this though, she couldn’t keep a job to save her life. I know you’re wondering why; we all are. This was an issue for the family as Sarah’s college had accumulated a whole lot of student loans.
Rachel was obviously Diane’s favorite child. She was always posting pictures of Rachel alone all over her social media, slathering her with praises.
The family didn’t earn alot of money. In fact, Diane was the one who earned the most money in the house. Rick, would you mind if your wife earned more than you?
Diane was a nurse and she played piano at their church, which she was paid to do. Mark really didn’t earn that much as a lead singer and guitarist of a band named “Messing with Destiny.” He would frequently take smaller jobs related to his band to earn extra money but he devoted most of his time to taking care of their children. So a stay at home dad with a part time job. Nothing wrong with being a stay at home dad if that’s the decision they made as a couple.
On Sunday, April 8, 2012, police were called out to Mark and Diane’s house. When they arrived, they found Mark dead. Upon inspection of the home and body, it looked like he died of natural causes. Diane claimed that Mark had been feeling weak and would not eat during the days leading up to his death. She said that he was also sleeping a lot, and whenever she would try to check on him, he would either barely talk or not talk at all.
She also said that he’d had 3 seizures the day he died, even though he didn’t have a history of seizures. According to her, he’d actually had a seizure 45 minutes before his death. After this seizure is when she found him not breathing.
She said that even though he had been sick for day, they didn’t go to the hospital or call 911 because Mark asked her not to; he didn’t want to end up in the hospital.
Now police noted that Mark’s body had no injuries but it did have some blood around the mouth, but investigators figured that was because of his lifestyle of heavy alcohol use. Also his bandmates told police that the Friday before his death, Mark was slurring his words a lot and his skin had a yellow tinge to it.
Police shrugged their shoulders and said “Open and shut case Johnson! Clearly this was natural causes! Another case well solved.” So Mark was cremated, with no investigation being done on the actual body itself.
After awhile, Diane received $20,000 from Mark’s life insurance and she used this to mover her and her kids to a bigger house in a new neighborhood. Makes sense; you wouldn’t want to live in the same house where your husband or wife died right?
On September 2, police were called to their house again. This time it was a call saying that Shaun wasn’t breathing. Diane told police that Shaun had been dealing with flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, nausea, body aches and headaches for three weeks before this. She said that she didn’t take him to the doctor because she could not keep him hydrated. Um…what? Did she think he was going to turn to dust on the way to the doctor or something? If someone isn’t staying hydrated then the place for them to be is at the doctor. Instead of taking him to the ER or his family doctor, she, as a nurse I guess, decided to just check on him all night until it was time for her to go to church for her job. Wait! What?! Your child is THAT sick and you still went to work? And not your main job, but the one that barely pays?
When she got home at around 12:30pm that next day, she found Shaun curled up on the floor, wrapped in a blanket, and with no pulse. Wait a second. How long was that piano solo?? 12:30 in the afternoon THE NEXT DAY?! Anyway, she said that as soon as she noticed no pulse, she called 911. Now, Shaun had a history of seizures, and she said that he had one as recently as August 30th, which was 2 days ago. Again, police noticed that there were no injuries on the body, however; there was dried blood around his mouth. Shaun didn’t drink, so what was the cause of the blood this time. (shrug) Anyway, The Greene County Medical Examiner ruled his death to be the result of prior medical issues – so, you know, natural causes. “Another open and shut case Johnson! Creamate this one too. We have no need of evidence. That’s for losers!”
Everyone who knew Diane said that she seemed fine. Let me put this in context for you: Her husband just died and her first born son just died within 5 months of each out. Diane was out shopping, hanging with friends, laughing, chilling by the pool, and just living life. No one saw her crying, no one saw her experiencing any kind of grief. I know everyone grieves differently but MAN! Everything was so normal to her that even one relative, Michael Staudte, said that he had no idea anyone had died until another relative found out and told him. Do you know what that means Rick? That means that she didn’t even have a funeral or anything for her first born son! Robert Mancuso, one of Mark’s bandmates, said her behavior, “was like she was throwing a party. There was no sadness. I thought that was just her way of grieving.”
On June 9, 2013 Diane posted on Facebook “asking for prayers as my daughter Sarah is in critical condition in ICU tonight.” She kept posting status updates of her daughter’s condition.
Yea so Sarah was hospitalized with organ failure and neurological damage.
If people aren’t looking sideways at someone in the home by now, I don’t know what they’re waiting for.
On June 11th, police were told by an anonymous tip that Diane was guilty of “two or three homicides” and to really look into Sarah’s hospitilization.
That anonymous tip came from Jeff Sippy, the family’s pastor. After Sarah went into the hospital, he felt that something was going on. Jeff didn’t actually come out and say he was the anonymous tipper until he did and 20/20 interview that aired on February 25, 2022. He said that he and Mark were close and met at least once a month. The last time he had seen Mark, he hadn’t been sick and couldn’t understand why he’d died. To be fair, you don’t have to appear sick to just suddenly die. According to The Sun, Jeff said, “But then, after Shaun, a healthy young man died, that’s when he saw a total lack of emotion and really started to become suspicious.” At least he had sense to put the pieces together AND call someone to look into it.
After this call, the Police made their way down to the hospital to speak with the staff about Sarah. So, On June 13, Police spoke to both the doctor and nurse at the hospital The Doctor said that SArah was admitted with flu-like symptoms and, when they checked, they saw that she was suffering from liver and kidney failure. These signs are usually signs of poisoning. They did several tests but couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong with Sarah, but they thought it was a case of poison. The nurse also told police that Diane only visited for short periods on a couple of occasions. She was observed making jokes and laughing with the hospital staff. Diane even told them about a trip to Florida that she had planned for the next week. Sure seems like a worried mother.
Police began a lose investigation and re-looked at Mark and Shaw’s death. The realized the both had the same “ring of blood” around their mouth when they died.
That was enough evidence for them to bring Diane in for questioning. They also brought her daughter, Rachel in. I wonder why they brought Rachel.
During the interrogation, Diane said she would never hurt her kids, what are you thinking?! According to tapes by ABC News, Diane said, “I didn’t hurt my kids and that’s what I feel like you’re insinuating I did. I may not be the best mother in the world, but I didn’t hurt my kids. When Mark died, it was actually a relief. I just don’t tell people that. I don’t know what else to say.”
The investigators said mmmhhmmm so You have the right to remain silent….
And Diane was like “Wait wait wait! OK OK so yea I did kill them” Wow that was easy. They should have started out with the Miranda rights. It seemed like it triggered her to SING LIKE A BIRD.
“Lemme tell you everying. I was tired of Mark. He was lazy and I hated his guts. He would throw things at me and the kids and I just had enough” Soooo LEAVE! She said that one day she just started putting anti-freeze in Mark’s energy drinks. After he died and she got away with it, she realized how easy it was and decided to try it again with her son. Due to his medical issues, he was just too much for her to deal with and she called him a “significant bonus.” “Shaun would be interfering with whatever I would do. He was more than a bother … more than a pest.” Damn. I mean, I’m pretty sure he already felt bad due to his illnesses and here she goes. It’s not like he could help it! Not like it was his fault. To poison Shaun, she put the anti-freeze in his favorite soda and gave it to him.
As to Sarah, well she had to go because she had college debt that Diane didn’t want to pay. What?! Then…don’t pay it. She would just be in default, but still alive. According to her, Sarah didn’t want to get a job. So why didn’t she just tell her, “Hey Sarah, I raised you and I’m done. I don’t feel I should pay for your college debt. You need to get a job and pay for it yourself. Would it be stressful on Sarah? Yes, but when is life not stressful. And most importantly SHE’D STILL BE ALIVE!
She also told police that she hospitalized Sarah because she didn’t want her corpse smelling up the house. Diane was currently sleeping in Shaun’s room and it was “unsettling” to her.
Diane also said she was the only one involved in the murders.
Investigators said mmhhmmm and then left Diane and went to interroget Rachel. Rachel stated that she had nothing to do with it. So police were like OK, glanced at each other, and read her her Miranda Rights. I mean it worked on her mom, why not her. And sure enough Rachel sang like a bird! Well, it was the Miranda Rights AND the fact that investigators showed her a page from her personal diary and a note in her purse. I mean, what do we always say? If you’re going to commit a crime, make sure you have as much evidence on you and around you as possible. Confession notes on your person, in your own handwriting, texts confessing the crime, telling everyone you know and even people you don’t.
So the note that police found IN HER PURSE said, “Only the quiet ones will be left. My mother, my little sister, and me,” In her diary, she basically had a written confession alluding to aiding in the murders of Mark and Shaun. Apparently, a year before her father was murderd, she’d known it was gonna happen. Then, something else surprising came out of the diary entry dated June 13, 2011. After they’d killed Sarah, they’d planned on killing then 4th grader Brianna because of her learning disabilities. What is this Sparta? Kill the weak and only the strong survive? I mean…. “It’s sad when I realized how my father will pass on in the next two months… Shaun, my brother, will move on shortly after… it will be tough getting used to the changes but everything will work out.” So after she was presented with all of this, Rachel was lik “Oh THAT murder! I thought you asked me something else that’s why I said I had nothing to do with nothing.”
So, Police went BACK to Diane, who’d had time to think now, and now admitted that Rachel helped her plan and commit the murders. They’d purchased an anti-freeze brand online solely because this one didn’t have a bitter after taste. So you would never know you were drinking it. Can you imagine the amount of research that was put into this. Usually antifreeze that’s sold in stores have that bitter taste because of a bittering agent that’s added – so it’s added on purpose. Probably to prevent people from drinking it.
Both Diane and Rachel were convited on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault. Rachel was given a plea deal in May of 2015; she’d serve life in prison with the possibility of parole if she testified against her mother. She accepted and was sentenced for the 2nd degree murder of her father and brother. Diane pleaded guilty to murdering Shawn and Mark in the first degree. In January 2016, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Rachel initially said that felt that her brother’s death was unfair and she thought that her mother should have put him in an assisted living situation instead.
Rachel and Diane, both, later appealed their please on the grounds that:
“When lawyers were appointed, my fear of men was not accommodated, leading to miscommunication, coercion (and) mental duress. Being in an interview room alone with a male detective was like being flayed alive.” The. Utter. Bullshit. I can’t even!
On Febraury 25, 2020, Diane was interviewed by 20/20 while she was in jail. Now she says she’s innocent. She alleged that Mark was a drug addict and alcoholic and that she did not poison him. Other than the alcoholic thing, where there may be evidence of this – MIGHT – show me evidence of everything else including you not poisoning him.
“I said what I was told to say — I’m saying there’s more to that than what people know.”
As for Sarah, Diane said, “I’m sorry for what she went through but you know I’m sorry for what everybody goes through. I’m sorry for what I’ve had to go through.”
As for the then 4th grader Briana, she now has a new name and was put into foster care.
Sarah suffered severe long term neurological and organ damage from the poisoning. In court, she read the following statement, “I prefer to be a survivor than a victim. I forgive my mom for what she did to me. But she not only took away my dad and brother, but she took away my lifestyle, livelihood and my independence.” She now needs a guardian and is living in an assisted living facility.
And that is the story of Diane Staudte and apparently Rachel Staudte. Diane and Rachel are in prison, Mark and Shaun are dead, Sarah is physically and mentally doing poorly, and Briana was raised with another family.
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