Chapter 9 - The Altered Discharge Sheet
Marlene’s defense changed.
Through counsel, she denied creating the altered hospital page.
She admitted:
Taking Sarah’s paperwork.
Keeping medical notes.
Contacting David Sloan.
Recording Sarah’s drowsy episodes.
Trying to challenge Thomas’s amendment.
She denied:
Putting clonazepam into Sarah’s drinks.
Forging Dr. Voss’s letter.
Altering hospital records.
Her attorney suggested Sarah may have taken medication unknowingly from a mislabeled bottle.
That explanation collided with Lily’s statement and tea test.
Still, denial remained.
Then police found the pill crusher.
Washed.
In the dishwasher.
Fingerprints useless.
Marlene’s DNA and household DNA everywhere.
No miracle.
Then forensic review of Marlene’s laptop showed the Voss letter file.
Created under her user.
She said Diane had emailed her a template and she only edited notes for “discussion.”
No email.
No attachment.
Her denial weakened.
What about the hospital discharge alteration?
The file was not on her laptop.
Not on phone.
Maybe she photographed a printed copy and someone else edited.
Or deleted it.
Then Sarah’s home printer log.
2:03 p.m. Saturday.
One page printed.
Source:
Unknown AirPrint device.
Our printer stored no full file.
Marlene had been home.
Her phone could print.
But device ID did not match her current phone.
Another Apple device.
Who else?
Sarah’s iPad.
Mine.
Lily’s tablet.
Sarah’s iPad was in bedroom.
Mine outside connected to mower headphones.
Lily’s tablet in her room.
Could Marlene have used any?
Possibly.
Then Lily said:
“Grandma had another phone.”
“What?”
“Black one.”
Marlene’s regular phone was gold.
Police had seized one device.
A second phone had not been found.
Lily described seeing Marlene use a black phone Tuesday and hide it in her purse.
The purse inventory had no second phone.
Where did it go?
Marlene retrieved the purse between my leaving Lily’s room and Deputy Monroe arriving.
She had about four minutes alone in the hallway.
She may have removed something.
Search of the house found a black prepaid smartphone inside the laundry detergent cabinet.
Powered off.
Marlene denied ownership.
Fingerprints partial.
One matched her.
Phone data:
Internet calling app.
Blocked calls to Gordon Hale.
Searches:
temporary incapacity trustee
grandparent custody Kansas relocation
benzodiazepine half life
can clonazepam show on tox screen
how long does diphenhydramine last
My skin crawled.
Then browser history:
St. Catherine discharge template.
Cached PDF.
Where did it come from?
Downloaded from an email account.
Account:
Inbox mostly empty.
One message.
No subject.
Attachment:
PSY 44B TEMPLATE
Sender:
Not Dr. Voss’s real email.
A fake address using his name.
Who created it?
Unknown.
Could Marlene have emailed herself?
Possibly.
Login history showed sender account accessed from a public library WiFi in Wichita.
Date:
Three weeks earlier.
No camera retention readily available.
No easy answer.
Then the altered discharge sheet file was recovered from the black phone.
Created Saturday 1:52 p.m.
Marlene’s user had opened it at 1:58.
So even if someone else made the template, she possessed and printed the altered document.
Her claim of ignorance became difficult.
Then another file.
DRAFT TALKING POINTS
Sarah has medication problem.
Ethan works outside home and minimizes symptoms.
Lily has observed sleeping episodes.
Marlene available for temporary care.
Denver move should pause until assessment.
This was not spontaneous panic.
It was a narrative.
Then one line:
If Lily resists, remind her mother could get worse.
I stared.
That was the threat.
Maybe Marlene did not plan to kill Sarah.
She planned to frighten Lily with the possibility.
Still monstrous.
Then one saved voice memo.
Marlene talking to herself.
“Do not lose temper with Lily.”
Date:
Friday.
The day before she pinned Lily down and slapped her.
She knew the risk.
She failed anyway.
Then Sarah asked:
“Why was she so desperate today?”
Mara had the answer.
Because Monday’s trust hearing strategy had collapsed.
Plains National Trust Company certified Thomas’s amendment Friday afternoon.
Legally, Marlene’s old successor claim had become far weaker.
Her lawyer emailed:
Do not pursue emergency filing without new independent medical evidence.
May you like
Saturday, Marlene tried to create it.
Continue to the next part: Marlene’s lawyer had warned her not to file anything without genuine independent medical evidence, and less than twenty four hours later Sarah was drugged again while a fake psychiatric letter waited on Marlene’s phone.
