Episode 364

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
First of all, when you told me that he transported a dead body, that should be your first clue.

**Mike Boudet** (0:21)
This is Sword and Scale, Season 13, Episode 364, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
It's cute how some of you think that people are just these docile little sheep, these sweet little babies, that won't do anything to harm you.
It really is kind of cute. Almost like a thing you have to do to make yourself okay.
It's better than the alternative, I guess.
In a small pocket of Fleming Island, Florida, there was a group of women. They called themselves the British Club. This club was a collective of sharp, dry-witted expats who met every week to talk about one thing they all shared. Their home in the UK. But in October of 2019, one of the members of this British Club went missing. She was a sweet old lady, a 65-year-old widow named Sue Mauldin. One of the ladies in the club hadn't heard back from Sue in two days. Her phone kept going to voicemail, and the landline rang and rang. So, she sent her husband to Sue's house for a welfare check. Inside Sue's clean, quiet home, not a thing was out of place. Her blue cotton gardening shorts were laying out, waiting to be worn. Her car was in the driveway, her purse in the dresser. It was as if Sue and her cell phone had just vanished without warning. Neighbors confirmed they hadn't seen Sue outside in a few days. She was an avid gardener, and was always outside weeding her yard. Sue's loyal friend in the British Club called the police. Something was terribly wrong.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:51)
All right.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:52)
How long have you guys known Ms. Susan?

**SPEAKER_5** (2:54)
Since 1990

**SPEAKER_6** (2:59)
Me, it's 2001

**SPEAKER_4** (3:03)
How long has Susan been here in the United States?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:06)
She's been here about 24 years.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:08)
We were 2001 She was about three or four years before us.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:11)
About 24 They came from the UK. Okay.

**Corey Bindram** (3:14)
All in Florida? Yeah, same house.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:16)
Her husband passed away about, we think, gone...

**Corey Bindram** (3:20)
Ten years ago.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:21)
Nine, ten years ago. They both came over together, of course.

**Mike Boudet** (3:25)
Sue had been in Florida for almost two decades. Her husband had tragically died from throat cancer only a few years into their move to the USA.
So the women at the British Club were like family to Sue. She had no children, no relatives close by. Her British ladies were everything to her.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:46)
You guys know of any doctors that she visited frequently?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:50)
She used to go to a physical therapist for her ankle.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:53)
You know where that was at?

**SPEAKER_5** (3:54)
No, I don't know where that is. It's over...

**SPEAKER_6** (3:57)
I took her once to get an injection in her shoulder. That was over...

**SPEAKER_5** (4:00)
Where was that? Riverside?

**SPEAKER_6** (4:02)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:02)
Over by Riverside, somewhere.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:03)
It's over by Five Points and...

**SPEAKER_4** (4:06)
Maybe Riverside Pain Clinic over there?

**SPEAKER_6** (4:08)
Is that what... She was at the base. She went a lot to the base.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:11)
To NESJACS?

**Mike Boudet** (4:12)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:12)
Because he was retired military.

**Mike Boudet** (4:14)
John was?

**SPEAKER_5** (4:15)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:16)
So she struggled with quite a lot. That's why she called you quite a lot, didn't she?

**Mike Boudet** (4:19)
Yeah, I used to do a lot of things for her.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:21)
She'd say, I can't lift this or I can't do that, can you? So we'd pop around and do whatever it was. You know, like, you couldn't start alone more, you know.

**SPEAKER_9** (4:31)
You can't pull that down.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:32)
Go around and give her, start that for her, and just little things, you know.

**Mike Boudet** (4:37)
Though Sue was a social woman, her arthritis gave her more and more trouble with each passing day.
She still tended to her flowers, made quilts, and kept up with her British girls. But she needed help with little things, like moving heavy boxes or revving up her lawnmower. Without a husband around, she was on her own to handle those tasks that kept getting harder and harder as you age. Since Sue's phone had been switched off, the police couldn't ping it. Her place was spotless, not a sight of a struggle or a droplet of blood. They had to rely on clues from her friends, and they were desperately chasing down anything they could.