“My husband’s deceased. There’s been tragedy at my home. He’s stiff and he’s been wounded. He might have had a heart attack.”
“An unconventional relationship ends in tragedy. He poured himself a drink, really heavy, and then he started spewing. Didn’t realize how much rage was going on in there. Leaving behind a broken family and a wife facing serious questions.”
“He would often say, ‘Everything will be okay as long as I hide the steak knives.’ Well, oh my god, he didn’t hide the steak knives.”
“Marriages at times can be pretty rocky, right? From those little tiffs to the serious arguments, that’s normal. Yet the relationship in this story is quite different. It goes from a rather unique beginning to a deadly end.”
“911, please call your medical—”
“Uh, I don’t know. My husband’s deceased. There’s been a tragedy at my home.”
“Why do you believe he’s deceased?”
“Because he’s stiff and he’s been wounded. He might have had a heart attack, I don’t know.”
“It was just a bizarre case. Initially, when she called 911, she said that her husband had succumbed to a heart attack. But then had a different story. She said that Michael stabbed himself to death.”
“She was in fear of her life. He was actually choking me and trying to suffocate me first. I actually went for the knife and he was screaming, ‘What are you going to do, stab me?’ And he grabbed it and that’s when he did it. He made a motion. He stabbed himself, and I ran into the bathroom, and when I came out, I was just lying in blood.”
“You say—and I correct—”
“Yes, I tried to hurt myself this morning. I… it doesn’t look good to me.”
“I first met Mike, I think it was 1996. He’d come to the golf course and say, ‘I think I’m in love with this woman, Kathleen, but she’s dying of cancer. I think I’m going to marry her.'”
“You’re going to marry her?”
“Yeah. The benefits that she has are terrible. She’s going to have better treatment, better care, and that’s why he… that’s why he… a second. That’s why he married Kathleen. I’m sure they were in love, but he was all about helping her out.”
“After Kathleen passed away, Mike was basically providing for two of Kathleen’s kids, Danielle and her younger brother.”
“Michael Redlick was an executive for various sports teams. So he had a prominent job, doing well, making good money. She found him somewhat exciting. He was 20 years her senior, certainly had more financial resources, and it sounds like he was able to take her out and do different things with her. Somewhere down the road, the relationship started. He married his stepdaughter. We warned him against it. Like, what are you thinking? In a weird way, it’s a love story that most people wouldn’t approve of, but it became a love story. A real love story.”
“Well, that’s the biggest mistake Mike made in his life.”
“We just kind of want to get some type of information as to what happened. Um, if you’re willing to talk to us, that’d be good.”
“I’m perfectly willing to say what happened.”
“I’m just really concerned about my kids knowing that their dad’s gone.”
“Well, who tells them this?”
“My husband’s gone.”
“We’re just going to tell them that their father passed away, and that you’re in the hospital under care. No details will be given out.”
“Can’t believe this.”
“What struck me was there were some times that she shed some tears, but I thought that she was rather calm and cool and collected to be in that situation.”
“What are people being told?”
“We haven’t talked to anyone. We wanted to talk to you first if you’re willing to talk to us.”
“I mean, I’m definitely willing. I’m just afraid. Should I have legal representation? Is that someone’s even telling me?”
“That’s up to you.”
“This may seem odd, but it’s the police that are interviewing you.”
“So I understand you say I’m not being held, but the doctors are evaluating my—”
“Not being held by the police department, but the hospital, correct.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“Thursday, my husband was very belligerent and distraught.”
“He was following me around the house and I was trying not to engage. I locked myself in the bathroom. He broke the door open. He was scaring me. So I decided to leave and he was drinking heavily.”
“I’m not a rocket scientist, but wait a minute. There’s eight empty bottles of wine in the garbage. Mike didn’t like wine, so those bottles got empty by somebody other than Mike.”
“We had some issues last year. He basically cheated on me and it was big long drawn-out thing and I found a slew of emails of him carrying on with another woman and it just crushed me.”
“Mike was trying to understand, and he must have been going to some meetings with Alanon, and along the way he met a woman. They became friends.”
“Friends? It was somebody that he could talk to about dealing with her. No infidelity at all on Mike’s part, I’m convinced of that.”
“He found a text from another man to me. That really angered him.”
“Danielle had social media messages. It was kind of right in the middle of—were these communications for a social nature, or was she looking for employment? She alluded to the fact that she was looking to further her career, and it sounds like he was somewhat jealous that she also was interested in other men.”
“Thursday, I ended up leaving the home to avoid any kind of distress in front of the kids. Uh, my daughter—the two of them were yelling at each other, and I said, ‘Okay, that’s it. We’re leaving.’ So I took her with me to a friend’s house, and my son wanted to see. He was belligerent, but he wasn’t being physically harmful to the kids.”
“At his funeral, Danielle delivered the eulogy and told everyone in the congregation that Mike was her best friend and talked about all the things that he had done for her and the kids.”
“No way. If you listen to that eulogy, you could ever think that this guy would lay a hand on her.”
“Everyone in the congregation at his funeral is looking at her delivering a eulogy and they’re all saying the same thing: Why isn’t she behind bars?”
“He continued on his day Friday, um, to work, and I continued my day. Um, I got some snide texts from him during the day. We attended our son’s football game together that evening, and it was after the football game where once again he poured himself a drink and really heavy, and it just started from there. He started spewing. I didn’t realize how much rage was going on in there.”
“I think that’s about what I’m most comfortable talking about currently.”
“Can you get the kids away? Dad, please. Just get the kids, Danielle.”
“I just want to talk to you.”
“Okay. Right now, you’re not under arrest, but we just secured you for our safety. We do have a search warrant for your house, and I also have a search warrant for your DNA.”
“Two buccal swabs, saliva standards from Danielle Justine Redlick, which is believed to be evidence relevant to proving that a felony crime has been committed. Death investigation, second-degree murder, are located in the person.”
“You’re saying the saliva, when I tried to—when there was resuscitation done—that that’s second-degree murder?”
“No, I’m collecting saliva standards from you because of the resuscitation, because of other evidence that we have collected.”
“She tried CPR and couldn’t find her phone to call 911.”
“Hm, I think that’s somebody dancing, dancing and just changing the story as much as she could.”
“So you’re saying that once this DNA is confirmed as mine, I’m being charged with second-degree murder? Is that what I’m hearing?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying I’m collecting this to be tested from what we collected from the house. We need to be able to differentiate your DNA from your husband’s DNA.”
“What the heck are you guys looking for? I don’t understand this. Tell me what freaking happened. I don’t understand. What are you looking for? Can you tell me what they’re looking for? Might be able to help.”
“Is that a no? We also have a search warrant to collect any other evidence that we think is necessary.”
“Trying to charge this. I did not murder my husband. Please, I don’t understand this jargon.”
“From what I understand, you live directly across the street from the Redlicks?”
“Correct.”
“We are very aware of the bickering and fighting and that type of thing. Most of the time it was screaming at one another, but primarily it was her screaming at him.”
“These are two people that were not getting along. The relationship started off in a very strange manner, and they probably should have never been together in the first place.”
“When you hear them fighting outside, did you ever hear the nature of what they were arguing about or just kind of little bits and pieces?”
“Well, I think a couple times she screamed, ‘Get out of here.’ That type of thing, but not to the extent of what the issue was. He knew she represented not only a danger to him, but to herself. And I think when you mix alcohol and anger management, she had a couple altercations with the law. So my guess is he was just trying to keep her in check.”
“I didn’t see any altercation with hitting, but my wife also on occasion her hitting him. I don’t know whether he’s hit her or whatever the scenario is from that standpoint.”
“Talk to him plenty of times. Has it been verbal or physical?”
“But it wasn’t on his part.”
“So she’s initiated it or she’s been yelling?”
“Okay. When it’s physical, what have you seen?”
“Her slapping him around in the face.”
“Some of us saw some dangers there. If you would have asked me six years ago, did I have any friends whose spouse were capable of killing them, I’d say only one. And that would be Danielle.”
“How would you describe Michael?”
“He always seemed very laidback. I never saw any kind of aggression or anything.”
“And how would you describe Danielle?”
“Volatile. But I don’t know what happened behind closed doors.”
“911, Jamie, police, fire, medical.”
“We need a car here. There’s a woman that’s a danger to herself and to others right now.”
“A gentleman is a danger to her.”
“My sense on calling 911 was to show her that, look, I’m not going to abuse you, I’m not going to hit you, but I’ve had it. You better go in your room. Please, Danielle. Please go in your room.”
“Will you stop?”
“All right, I’ll call—I will call you back. We’ll call you back in 5 minutes.”
“Sir, what is going on there? Hello?”
“We started struggling about 5 years or so ago. He started getting some medical problems and ED. Nothing like the male ego.”
“How did you get to your friend’s house yesterday?”
“Um, I had a football game last night and I had a sleepover with him.”
“Was he supposed to coach this morning at your football and he just didn’t show up?”
“Yeah, no one showed up.”
“How was your parents’ relationship that night?”
“I think there was some tension between them. I don’t know what, but I could see the anger.”
“Who appeared angry?”
“My dad.”
“You know, if anybody was toxic in the relationship, it was Danielle. Go back and look at all the things before he came back into the house that night. What did she do to him as he was getting out of the car? She threw eggs at the car. She egged her husband. This is not a sane woman.”
“Have they ever gotten into arguments that you actually saw them physically fighting?”
“Yes, they were pushing each other.”
“Have you ever seen anything more than just pushing between the two of them?”
“Scratching.”
“Okay, who would scratch who?”
“I guess my mom and my dad would push away.”
“My parents used to be separated. They’re obviously not divorced, but as like a family, we’ve been through a lot this past year. I know they were kind of in a heated argument this week about something.”
“My dad moved out in April of last year and he moved back in in I think late October. They’ve always had like an off and on relationship for like I think the past 5 or 6 years.”
“Last year my dad met this woman and my parents were separated at that time and that was when they were saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to get a divorce.’ And my mom like was really hurt by that.”
“If you know the people close to both of them, Mike Redlick was not the kind of guy that was going to be cheating on his wife. No way.”
“She had like an app on her phone, not a dating app. She showed me the app. It was for like work or something. She had messages where some gentleman mentioned that he found her attractive and he liked her photo. Some random guy was like flirting with her or something, but she didn’t respond and my dad saw that and I think that’s what caused like an argument.”
“I have a really close relationship with my mom. She told me that she didn’t have anything going on with this guy.”
“You had mentioned they had fights in the past. Has anything been physical at points?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. When’s the last time you saw them get into a physical confrontation?”
“Not for a while. Sometime last year.”
“In the times in the past that they’ve had this physical confrontation that you’ve observed, who would be the more aggressive one to actually physically touch?”
“My mom. I’ve never seen him hurt my mom like physically.”
“The one time that I saw like a mark on my dad’s face was because they were arguing and my mom had a ring on.”
“Has he ever hit her or left any marks on her?”
“I think so. I remember just my mom saying my dad pushed her.”
“Do you think the push was in self-defense because she was coming at him or pushed because he was upset at her?”
“Maybe both.”
“He said to me on several occasions, ‘Everything will be okay as long as I hide the steak knives.'”
“I was driving from Charlotte up to Cleveland. Got a call from a good friend of mine that let me know what happened. They said he was found dead. I was in shock, but at the same time I wasn’t surprised.”
“Oh my god, he didn’t hide the steak knives.”
“Did you just find him?”
“No, actually it happened last night.”
“Did you see him last night? Was he okay, or was—”
“He was not okay last night. We had an altercation.”
“Is there a reason why you didn’t call last night?”
“I’m on probation and I was really afraid, and I didn’t think anybody would believe me.”
“So if your husband kills himself, why wouldn’t you call 911 right away? Why would you tamper with evidence? Why wouldn’t you call EMS and see what you could do to save him?”
“You had indicated that you have a lawyer, but again, we want to give you the opportunity to tell your side of the story. It’s up to you if you want to talk to us.”
“For what? The other stuff?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my goodness.”
“I told you that I had to plea offer, right? Mm-hmm. Well, it was basically they dropped the charge to manslaughter, 10 years. According to, you know, my lawyers, it was a good offer. But then today, it seems like they had bad news. They’re like, ‘Well, no, the plea is not—he doesn’t want to negotiate the plea now, and now he wishes he didn’t give it to you.'”
“They’re trying to keep all that out.”
“She obviously thought she could convince jury that she believed she was in fear of her life. She could use Michael’s past against him.”
“Then he got all these hearsay stuff from people they were talking, you know, he was talking to at work that don’t even know me. Oh, well, Danielle had problems. Meanwhile, this son of a—is drinking his ass off, hitting, smacking me around, smacking the kids around, too. Go at it with me, you know.”
“Well, unfortunately, a lot of people aren’t stepping forward because they didn’t see anything. No one sees the abuse, you—”
“I was mentally abused, like psychologically. I’m not kidding you. Sexually, I mean, he—oh boy, he was mastermind.”
“They had another stupid charge in there for tampering, because there was so much blood when I was trying to—anyway, without saying a lot, I was slipping on it, so I used a towel. So they were saying, you know, that kind of thing could be tampering. So that’s kind of—yeah, the max for that is 5 years alone.”
“It’s really great karma for you guys. I mean, I know you’re doing your job, but at the same time, I haven’t had no chance for defense or anything.”
“That defendant plunged a knife into the shoulder of Michael Redlick, which would cause him to bleed to death.”
“The prosecution’s strongest evidence at trial was the argument that manipulating the crime scene, hiding the crime, evidences a guilty mind.”
“This defendant did everything she could to avoid responsibility for her actions. The evidence will show that she engages in a significant but failed attempt to clean up the scene.”
“Based on all the information that you had from the 911 call, your conversation with Miss Redlick, did you believe her to be claiming that Mr. Redlick basically brought about his own death?”
“Yes.”
“Did the autopsy results as shared to you by the medical examiner give you reason to believe that that was not true?”
“Yes.”
“How can you dispute the fact that you had someone who claimed to be a victim of domestic violence, who claimed to be acting in self-defense, who then didn’t claim self-defense when she spoke to law enforcement?”
“Did you actually locate some evidence?”
“Yes, I did. There was towels that were piled up next to the stair. There was a mop that had blood on it and a bucket full of like pink liquid by the stairs. There was also knives. There was a knife in the doorway, knives in the kitchen sink.”
“I know I’m bitter at times, I admit, but you have a lot of nerve as well. Although my words may be cutting, they are only sounds. A dull knife compared to the sharp, disloyal, deceiving, phony and never-ending selfish knife you continue to twist in my back.”
“January 11th, 2019, someone was very, very angry. This someone started to physically attack their spouse. They had rage. They were choking their spouse, smothering their spouse. That someone was Michael Redlick. And Danielle Redlick had no choice but to defend herself because she was afraid she was going to die.”
“Yes, Danielle Redlick did stab Michael Redlick. Danielle Redlick knew and recognized that the danger that she was facing that night was different than the other incidents of abuse that had happened throughout their marriage.”
“Mr. Redlick, on January 11th, 2019, did you stab your husband?”
“I did. Yes.”
“He was suffocating me. I couldn’t breathe, and he had me pinned down. I was scared and, um, you know, I was just in fear for my life. I thought he snapped, and I could die.”
“Do you have any choice but to use a weapon to get away?”
“No.”
“I walk through the kitchen and that’s when he—he comes up behind me and grabs me. I just trip up on my feet and I fall to the ground. At that point, I grab the center island and I reach up to pull myself up to face him, and he grabs me here and slams me down onto the center island counter.”
“There were times where we say, ‘Mike, now you—you’ve never hit her when she starts going off the wall.’ His response was, ‘I just put my hands up for self-defense.'”
“He called me a—he was holding my head down on the counter. So I’m just pinned up against the counter like this, and he’s straddling my body here and has me pinned. I’ve got a free arm here and, um, the drawer in front of me is the only thing I can do. So I use my free arm to push open the drawer ahead of me.”
“I think he was just trying to hold her back, talk her down off the ledge, and she got carried away and she killed him.”
“Pulled the knife out and he released my head. He says, ‘What are you going to stab me?’ And I take the knife and I position it and face it toward him. He immediately just goes for my chin and pushes me back, and—and I stab him at that point.”
“Prior to stabbing him with a knife, are you able to remove yourself?”
“No.”
“Are you able to get out without using a weapon?”
“No. I was trying.”
“What are you trying to do to get away from him?”
“Why? If you don’t do that, what is your belief that will happen?”
“That he might smother me to death.”
“A life without Michael Redlick was a life that you were looking forward to living?”
“Well, a life with—at peace with Michael Redlick.”
“You wanted a life beyond Michael?”
“Correct.”
“Yes.”
“So you stood in that home with the power to call for help, and you let your husband bleed to death on that floor?”
“He had already bled to death. I was wondering if I could recover him or something.”
“Which one is it? Is he dead, or you think it’s possible to save?”
“Well, if he could be recovered, something would have to be done immediately. And so yes, I thought perhaps I should do that.”
“So in these fleeting moments, you think Mr. Redlick can be saved? You choose not to save him?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.”
“You thought that it was possible he had died of a heart attack?”
“I thought there was a possibility.”
“You did not believe that your husband had a heart attack?”
“Actually, I did.”
“I—well, I was hoping, too.”
“You were hoping?”
“Not in the morbid sense that I wanted him dead, but if he had a heart attack, you wouldn’t have been responsible for his death.”
“Yes, to an extent.”
“Verdict as to count one: We the jury find the defendant not guilty.”
“Verdict as to count two: We the jury find the defendant guilty of tampering with physical evidence.”
“I was sad. I—in my opinion, justice wasn’t served, and I couldn’t believe she got away with it.”
“My focus is trying to be there for the kids. What would Mike want me to do? He’d want me to, you know, help take care of his kids.”
“You may all be fooled by the incredible mask this woman presents to you all, but I am not.”
