The Case SOLVED by a TV Show | Patty Stallings

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Ethylene Glycol, Patricia Stallings, Ryan Stallings, David Stallings
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Ethylene Glycol, Patricia Stallings, Ryan Stallings, 7th September 1989
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Methylonic Academia, David Wamble Jr., Ethylene Glycol, St. Louis Children's Hospital
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Ethylene Glycol, Dr. William Sly, Dr. James Shoemaker, St. Louis University
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Missouri, Ethylene Glycol, Cardinal Glennon Hospital, Dr. Pierro Ronaldo

Notable quotes from "The Case SOLVED by a TV Show | Patty Stallings"

• Patricia or Patty was working as a convenience store clerk in the mid80s when she met her soon to be husband David Stallings. They began dating in 1986 before getting married 2 years.

  about Patricia Stallings · at 1:00

• Were about 40 mi north of their home in the city in St. Louis. In her stress that day, Patty ended up driving her son directly to Cardinal Glennon instead of to the children's…

  about Cardinal Glennon Hospital · at 2:25

• And they did get them soon enough when the blood test results came back, finding that Ryan had unusually high levels of ethylene glycol in his system.

  about Ryan Stallings · at 3:19

• Himself to take Ryan off of life support holding him in his arms as he died on the 7th September 1989.

  about 7th September 1989 · at 9:36

• The same tests as Cardinal Glennon, but they came to an entirely different conclusion. Eventually, David Jr. was diagnosed with a rare hereditary disease called methylonic…

  about Methylonic Academia · at 11:07

• Son. He knew, like so many others did, that Ryan had to have had MMA. On the outside, David fought tirelessly to try and get this very controversial case more publicity in the…

  about David Stallings · at 16:36

• Shoemaker's testing found huge amounts of propionic acid in Ryan's blood, the acid produced by MMA, confirming that yes, he definitely had it. But he also discovered something very interesting.

  about St. Louis University · at 17:46

• That an innocent woman was imprisoned because of this, because of wrong science, Sly wrote a letter to the prosecutor, Mikuel Roy, stating that he was very confident that Ryan…

  about Dr. William Sly · at 19:35

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Patricia Stallings — Person · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 0:18
  Patricia Stallings was wrongfully convicted of murdering her son, Ryan, due to misinterpreted medical evidence.
• Ryan Stallings — Person · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 2:55
  Ryan Stallings was the infant son of Patricia and David, whose death led to Patricia's wrongful conviction.
• Dr. William Sly — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at 17:07
  Dr. William Sly was instrumental in proving that Ryan's death was due to MMA, not poisoning.
• David Stallings — Person · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 1:06
  David Stallings was Patricia's husband and father of Ryan and DJ, who supported Patricia throughout her trial.
• David Wamble Jr. — Person · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 10:09
  David Jr., also known as DJ, was Patricia's second son who was diagnosed with MMA, leading to the reevaluation of Ryan's case.
  The same tests as Cardinal Glennon, but they came to an entirely different conclusion. Eventually, David Jr. was diagnosed with a rare hereditary disease called methylonic…
• Dr. James Shoemaker — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at 17:39
  Dr. James Shoemaker conducted tests that confirmed Ryan had MMA, not ethylene glycol poisoning.
  Shoemaker's testing found huge amounts of propionic acid in Ryan's blood, the acid produced by MMA, confirming that yes, he definitely had it. But he also discovered something very interesting.
• Unknown Armed Forces Radio DJ — Person · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 10:21
  DJ is the nickname for David Jr., whose diagnosis with MMA helped exonerate Patricia.
  The same tests as Cardinal Glennon, but they came to an entirely different conclusion. Eventually, David Jr. was diagnosed with a rare hereditary disease called methylonic…
• Dr. Pierro Ronaldo — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at 20:25
  Dr. Pierro Ronaldo confirmed the misdiagnosis of Ryan's condition, supporting Patricia's exoneration.
  Diseases, somebody not associated with the case in any way whatsoever. And so, enter Dr. Pierro Ronaldo, a wellrespected geneticist at Yale University and an expert on…
• Mikuel Roy — Person · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at 19:40
  Mikuel Roy was the prosecutor in Patricia's case, who later doubted the conviction after new evidence emerged.
  Because of this, because of wrong science, Sly wrote a letter to the prosecutor, Mikuel Roy, stating that he was very confident that Ryan had died from MMA, not antifreeze…

Companies & orgs

• St. Louis Children's Hospital — Company · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 2:14
  St. Louis Children's Hospital correctly diagnosed DJ with MMA, which was pivotal in exonerating Patricia.
  Glennon. This is the place where Patty was supposed to take Ryan on that fateful night. St. Louis's ran a lot of the same tests as Cardinal Glennon, but they came to an…
• Cardinal Glennon Hospital — Company · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 2:22
  Cardinal Glennon Hospital initially misdiagnosed Ryan, leading to Patricia's wrongful conviction.
• St. Louis University — Company · Referenced organization · 2 mentions · first at 17:11
  St. Louis University was where Dr. Sly and Dr. Shoemaker conducted their pivotal research.

Concepts & topics

• Ethylene Glycol — Concept · Core topic · 12 mentions · first at 3:23
  Ethylene glycol was initially thought to be the poison that killed Ryan, leading to Patricia's conviction.
  Nervous system, the heart, the kidney, pretty much everything you need to be a functioning human being. So, high levels of ethylene glycol being found in a baby's blood test is…
• Methylonic Academia — Concept · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 11:16
  MMA is a rare hereditary disease that was the actual cause of Ryan's symptoms, not poisoning.
• Inherited Metabolic Diseases — Concept · Referenced concept · 2 mentions · first at 17:16
  Inherited Metabolic Diseases, like MMA, were central to understanding the misdiagnosis in Ryan's case.
  He also just so happened to have co-authored a textbook on inherited metabolic diseases. He knew a lot about MMA. He also knew how similar the effects of MMA and ethylene glycol.
• Life Support — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 9:36
  Life support was a critical decision point for Ryan's parents during his medical crisis.
  With a wife in jail for a crime that he was sure she didn't commit and the son actively dying in hospital. Doctors told him that it seemed unlikely Ryan was going to survive…
• Calcium Oxalate — Concept · Referenced concept · 1 mention · first at 15:02
  Calcium oxalate crystals were found in Ryan's brain, initially thought to be from antifreeze poisoning.
  Ryan was also found at autopsy to have crystals of calcium oxalate in his brain, which is another side effect of antifreeze poisoning. So, this was just the only possible explanation. So,.

Places & events

• 7th September 1989 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 9:42
  The date when Ryan Stallings died, leading to Patricia's wrongful conviction.
• 1st of February 1991 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 16:06
  The date when Patricia Stallings was found guilty of murder.
  On the 1st of February 1991, Patty Stallings was found guilty of murder.
• Missouri — Place · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at 22:41
  Missouri is the state where the events took place, including Patricia's trial and conviction.
  Innocent and even Muel Roy couldn't deny it any longer. In light of this new evidence, in July 1991, Patty was released from prison on house arrest pending a brand new trial.…
• February 1990 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 10:11
  February 1990 marks the birth of David Jr., whose diagnosis was pivotal in exonerating Patricia.
  Son's funeral. To make matters worse, while sat in jail, Patty would soon realize that she was pregnant again. She gave birth to her second son, David Jr., known as DJ, in jail in February 1990.
• Jefferson County — Place · Referenced location · 1 mention · first at 24:03
  Jefferson County is where the legal proceedings against Patricia took place.
  Mckelroy personally. In 1994, Mckelroy ran for reelection as Jefferson County prosecutor and the Stallings actually donated $10,000 to his opponent instead, Robert Wilkins, who…
• 1994 — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at 24:05
  The year when Mikuel Roy ran for reelection, and the Stallings opposed him.
  The justice system as a whole, they definitely were a bit mad at prosecutor Mckelroy personally. In 1994, Mckelroy ran for reelection as Jefferson County prosecutor and the…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Imagine being accused of the most unthinkable thing in the world, of harming your own child when you know you're innocent. We all know about cases where the wrong person is accused of a crime. But what about cases where someone goes to prison, but there was no crime committed at all? Today, I want to tell you the story of Patricia Stallings. The evidence against her seemed airtight. All of the experts were confident that she had killed her own child and she was sentenced to life without parole. But she was innocent, not because investigators got the wrong suspect, but because they got the wrong story.

0:39 Misinterpreted science, flawed assumptions, and overlooked facts can make tragedies, accidents, even natural illnesses look like crimes, especially to the people who do see real crime day in day out. What's the opposite of rose tinted glasses? That's what Patricia and her entire family fell victim to. Patricia or Patty was working as a convenience store clerk in the mid80s when she met her soon to be husband David Stallings. They began dating in 1986 before getting married 2 years later and welcoming their first child, a son called Ryan, the following year in April 1989.

1:18 After a rocky few years, living in poverty, even finding herself homeless at points, Patty had finally landed on her feet. She would later say that this period of her life, 24 years old, happily married, a nice home overlooking Lake Womanoka, not far from St. Louis, and her newborn son was the happiest time of her life. Everything at this point was just perfect. But then on the evening of Friday, July 7th, 1989, Patty started to notice that Ryan was acting strangely. He was 3 months old and couldn't keep down his food, or should I say milk. But then the next morning, he seemed better. So Patty put it to the back of her mind until the Sunday morning when he started doing the same again. He just couldn't keep anything down. As the day progressed, Ryan's breathing started to get labored. He got increasingly lethargic. And so Patty and David decided they needed to get him to the local hospital, phoning the local

2:14 St. Louis Children's Hospital to warn them that they were on their way. But there were two hospitals in this area. There was St. Louis's Children's and Cardinal Glennon Hospital, both of which were about 40 mi north of their home in the city in St. Louis. In her stress that day, Patty ended up driving her son directly to Cardinal Glennon instead of to the children's hospital where she intended to go. She got all lost and confused in the city traffic. The hospitals are a few miles apart, but I can imagine Patty was just happy to have her son at any hospital. It didn't matter which hospital she was at, but little did she know that this is what would end up costing her, this tiny little mistake. By the time they arrived at the hospital, Ryan was vomiting uncontrollably, and doctors immediately admitted him to the pediatric intensive care unit and started testing. Patty and David were told to go and sit in the

3:05 waiting room until they could figure out what was wrong. But of course, this wasn't going to be quick. They ended up staying in the hospital for the next 3 days. They refused to go home and leave Ryan's side until they had some answers, and they did get them soon enough when the blood test results came back, finding that Ryan had unusually high levels of ethylene glycol in his system. Ethylene glycol is an incredibly lethal substance when it's ingested. especially for pets and small children like Ryan. As the body breaks the substance down, it creates glycolic acid and oxylic acid, which go on to cause damage across the entire body. It targets the central nervous system, the heart, the kidney, pretty much everything you need to be a functioning human being. So, high levels of ethylene glycol being found in a baby's blood test is an immediate cause for concern, especially because it's typically not something the human body

4:04 creates on its own. It's not something the human body ever creates on its own. For a baby as young as Ryan, the only way he would have ethylene glycol in his system was if he was being fed it, most likely in the form of antifreeze, in which it is the main ingredient. to doctors. It immediately seemed like Ryan was being poisoned. And who else would poison him but his own parents. The authorities were called and they took this really seriously. Patty would later say to Unsolved Mysteries, who did an entire episode on this case, "They were very polite yet suspicious. They would not allow us to see Ryan alone. There would have to be two nurses or a doctor present. We were never allowed at his bedside alone." that bothered me, but I still didn't understand because I wasn't looking at it the way they were, I guess. But very soon, she started to understand the severity of what was actually going on. As far as the

4:57 authorities were aware, there was no alternative here other than the fact that one or both of Ryan's parents were poisoning him. They went into this all guns blazing with no need to look at the alternatives because one of these parents had to be guilty. Ryan was being fed antifreeze and they were trying to kill him. Patty said that the police were grilling her with questions like, "Is there a problem at home? Are you and David fighting?" And they kept saying they knew that Ryan was being poisoned and Patty was obviously devastated.

5:30 She knew that she wasn't poisoning her baby, but how can you prove that you're not doing something? Eventually, Ryan's condition did start to improve, but he wasn't allowed to leave the hospital with his parents. He was placed into protective custody and went to live with foster parents. Reports from the time said it was because the parents could not account for the child's apparent exposure to ethylene glycol and because of other factors in the social history, likely referring to Patty's difficult past. From that point onwards, David and Patty were only allowed to see Ryan for just one hour a week on a Thursday with a social worker present. And Patty would live for these visits. She counted down the hours every single week. She was determined to prove herself a good mother in these meetings proved that she wouldn't do anything to hurt her son.

6:21 She loved him and being apart from him was heartbreaking. On August 31st or September 1st, depending on which source you want to believe, Patty and Ryan were having one of their usual supervised visits under the close eye of a social worker, as happened every single time. Patty fed Ryan a bottle, but on that day, the social worker had to leave the room for several minutes, or at least that's what some sources say. Unsolved mysteries say the visit was actually with David's parents. And apparently, the parents started to leave after 20 minutes. So, David walked out with them, leaving Patty and Ryan alone for according to him about 45 seconds. Now, I don't know if Unsolved Mysteries is correct here because the whole idea of these supervised visits was that there was always a social worker there to watch Patty and David with Ryan and David wouldn't have counted as a supervisor. I suppose it doesn't really

7:12 matter, but like there would have been a social worker in that room surely. But the point is regardless, Patty was left alone with Ryan for a short amount of time, maybe less than a minute, maybe up to three minutes. And then just 3 days later, Ryan's symptoms started back up. Vomiting, muscle spasms, hyperventilating, lethargic. And once again, after testing, his blood showed high levels of ethylene glycol. This was just awful timing for Patty that this would happen shortly after she'd been left alone with her son for the first time in 8 weeks. Soon the police turned up at her house with an arrest warrant, put her in handcuffs, and arrested her for assault. Authorities searched the house and they found a gallon bottle of antifreeze. And although this is a very normal household item, I've got a bottle in my car right this second. To the authorities, it confirmed their suspicions. Patty Stallings had been

8:11 poisoning her son. It was, I suppose, kind of confirmation biases. They were interpreting their findings to support what they already believed. And this is a horrible situation because in a situation where a child is actually being harmed by their parents, you really hope that safeguards like this are in place. You hope the social services do their job and look after the child and you would hope the police would take it seriously and arrest the parents. In most cases, this is what you want. But in a situation like this one where we're looking at it through a lens where we know that Patty wasn't doing anything. This is a no crime case.

8:49 Remember it's heartbreaking. I can't imagine how she felt. Patty was taken to jail leaving David free as he found himself in her parents' worst nightmare with a wife in jail for a crime that he was sure she didn't commit and the son actively dying in hospital. Doctors told him that it seemed unlikely Ryan was going to survive this time around. They asked if he wanted to contact a minister and get him baptized. And this is a choice that both parents should make together. He fought to get Patty out of jail to their son's bedside as he died.

9:25 But when he took this case to a judge, the judge refused to let a baby killer out of jail. What happened to Innocent until proven guilty? I don't know. So David had to make the decision by himself to take Ryan off of life support holding him in his arms as he died on the 7th September 1989. Ryan was just 5 months old and as a result Patty's charge was upgraded to firstderee murder held without bail. Upon this prosecutor in this case said that he would seek the death penalty as Patty wasn't even allowed to attend her son's funeral. To make matters worse, while sat in jail, Patty would soon realize that she was pregnant again. She gave birth to her second son, David Jr., known as DJ, in jail in February 1990.

10:16 Despite David Senior, never having been charged with any crime, he was still not allowed to take his son home. DJ was placed in foster care. I have no doubt this was an unbelievably frustrating time, but it would actually in a very twisted way turn out to be their saving grace because within just two weeks of his birth, DJ started displaying very similar symptoms to his older brother. Vomiting hyperventilating muscle spasms, lethargia. Lethargia, is that a word? He was lethargic. And this time, Patty hadn't been anywhere near him. The foster parents rushed DJ to hospital and importantly took him to St. Louis's children's hospital instead of Cardinal Glennon. This is the place where Patty was supposed to take Ryan on that fateful night. St. Louis's ran a lot of the same tests as Cardinal Glennon, but they came to an entirely different conclusion. Eventually, David Jr. was diagnosed with a rare hereditary disease

11:16 called methylonic academia or MMA for short. MMA affects the way your body breaks down protein, something that most bodies need for survival. Generally, enzymes in the body break down protein into amino acids, which are vital for growth and repairs. But in MMA, the body lacks a specific enzyme, meaning the body is unable to break down this protein. And this causes a buildup of a chemical called methylonic acid in the blood and urine. The buildup of this acid causes a lot of problems. It can cause damage to pretty much all of your organs, but particularly your brain and kidneys, and it can cause developmental delays. When a baby with MMA is fed milk, the body is unable to carry out all of the steps you need to in the digestive process. It's unable to fully metabolize the food. Although it is very much treatable, if left untreated, it can cause the acid, propionic acid, to build up in the body to fatal levels.

12:18 But because DJ was diagnosed early, they were able to put steps in place to minimize the effect the MMA had on him. Now, you would think that this diagnosis, a rare hereditary disease where both sons displayed the exact same symptoms, would be enough to get Patty released, but that was not the case. Whilst prosecutors evaluated all this medical evidence, she was briefly released from jail, but she still wasn't allowed any contact with her son at all. Patty would later say to unsolved mysteries that she was baffled because to her, the truth seemed so obvious.

12:53 Even her lawyer said there was no way they'd be able to convict her with this new information. She thought the medical evidence would be reviewed, she would be cleared, and all of this would just be over. But of course, that was not going to be the case. But local authorities refused to let this case drop. I don't know if it was a case of pride of not wanting to admit they were wrong or if they just refused to see the information right in front of their eyes, but they were still convinced that Patty had to be responsible for Ryan's death. It simply couldn't have been this hereditary disease affecting both sons with the exact same symptoms. Definitely not. In the end, the judge refused to allow DJ's diagnosis to be submitted as evidence in the court case. The jury were not allowed to know about it. The prosecuting attorney said, "We were concerned that if it came out that DJ or Ryan for that matter, had MMA unless it

13:51 could be shown that he actually died of that or it was some kind of contributing factor to his death. We believe that would not be relevant and in fact might cause the jury to go off in a wild goose chase and make a decision based on something that's really not relevant. I simply cannot understand why they would ever think that this wouldn't be relevant. It is potentially the most relevant information in this whole case. It allows the jury to make a fully rounded decision. I mean, the defense attorney even managed to obtain copies of notes written by the assistant prosecutor that showed that the doctor who pronounced Ryan dead did consider the possibility of an MMA diagnosis, but he had never been tested for it. But prosecutors said that they believe there were very important differences between ethylene glycol, which is what was found in Ryan's system, and propylene glycol or propionic acid, which is produced by

14:48 MMA. They said that even if Ryan did have MMA, he also had to have been poisoned because that was the only explanation for ethylene glycol, right? Ryan was also found at autopsy to have crystals of calcium oxalate in his brain, which is another side effect of antifreeze poisoning. So, this was just the only possible explanation. So, without this evidence of DJ's MMA being presented, Patty had no chance of fighting her case. The evidence against her seemed airtight, especially with her being left alone with Ryan to feed him just days before he got ill again. The prosecutor would tell the jury that in the time Patty was alone with her son, circumstantial evidence suggested that she slipped ethylene glycol or antifreeze into his bottle. He said to the jury, "Don't try to understand why Patricia Stallings poisoned her child by feeding him from a baby bottle laced with antifreeze. The point is she did

15:46 it. only she could have done it. The nail in the hypothetical coffin here was the fact that apparently traces of antifreeze had also been found in the bottle Patty used to feed Ryan that day. And with that and without the medical evidence available to them, the jury agreed with the prosecution after a very short deliberation. On the 1st of February 1991, Patty Stallings was found guilty of murder. And a few weeks later, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was allowed to have visitations with DJ on occasion in prison for just 1 hour at a time. And David Senior was also not allowed custody back. He was only allowed to see his son once a week. And David stood by his wife the entire time. He knew that she never ever would have harmed her son. He knew, like so many others did, that Ryan had to have had MMA. On the outside, David fought tirelessly to try

16:45 and get this very controversial case more publicity in the hope that eventually someone would be able to help his wife. And then he hit the jackpot when he got in contact with producers of Unsolved Mysteries. In May 1991, Unsolved Mysteries featured Patty's story and peaked experts interests from across the entire country. One of those experts was a man called Dr. William Sly. He was a geneticist and a pediatrician from St. Louis University. He also just so happened to have co-authored a textbook on inherited metabolic diseases. He knew a lot about MMA. He also knew how similar the effects of MMA and ethylene glycol poisoning are, and he knew how unlikely it would be that Ryan had both. He was able to obtain a small sample of Ryan's blood from one of the labs that helped convict Patty. And he handed this blood over to a doctor, James Shoemaker, the director of the metabolic screening lab

17:44 at the university. Shoemaker's testing found huge amounts of propionic acid in Ryan's blood, the acid produced by MMA, confirming that yes, he definitely had it. But he also discovered something very interesting. He found no ethylene glycol. It turns out that propionic acid and ethylene glycol are very, very similar compounds that to an unexperienced eye might look the same under a microscope. Sly and Shoemaker carefully analyzed results from the previous labs. The labs that claimed there was antifreeze in Ryan's blood and they were very shocked to see that the labs were simply just wrong.

18:26 The results match propionic acid and none of them, not a single result, ever showed any ethylene glycol at all. In simple terms, the labs had read the results wrong, confusing these two very similar compounds. So wanting to test his theory, Slight found out the exact method that had been used to measure the ethylene glycol in Ryan's blood. And he ran it for himself. He found that the results were something that could very easily be incorrectly read as ethylene glycol by somebody with less expertise. But this wasn't enough.

19:01 If he wanted to get this woman out of prison, he needed to testif. He spiked new samples of blood, not Ryan's, somebody else's, with propionic acid. and then sent that out to several different labs who all tested it with the same methods used in the Stallings case. And some of these labs did come to the incorrect conclusion that the blood showed ethylene glycol poisoning. And Sly knew this was incorrect. This blood sample had never been anywhere near ethylene glycol, but it had been spiked with propionic acid. Absolutely outraged that an innocent woman was imprisoned because of this, because of wrong science, Sly wrote a letter to the prosecutor, Mikuel Roy, stating that he was very confident that Ryan had died from MMA, not antifreeze poisoning. And it was only at this point the prosecutor, Mikuel Roy, started to doubt himself. And credit where credit is due, because a lot of people might have

19:55 doubled down. She was already in prison. Like, that was that. But then again, I suppose he couldn't deny this information. It was very much undeniable. By this point, the Stallings had hired a new defense lawyer, a man called Robert Ritter, who got involved and asked Muel Roy what exactly it would take to convince him that Patty was innocent. He said he needed to hear from another expert in the field of metabolic diseases, somebody not associated with the case in any way whatsoever. And so, enter Dr. Pierro Ronaldo, a wellrespected geneticist at Yale University and an expert on inherited metabolic diseases. He took just one look at the information and immediately agreed with Dr. Sly, the labs that had analyzed Ryan's results, had simply misread them. Ronaldo would later tell the St. Louis Post Dispatch that all of this was totally unacceptable, unbelievable, out of this world. He was astonished. He couldn't believe that

20:52 somebody would let this go through a criminal trial unchallenged. But then again, what about the rest of the evidence? What about the crystals in Ryan's brain and the antifreeze traces found in the bottle? Well, it turns out they're also quite easily explained. For the antifreeze in the bottle, the technology used at this time wasn't really sensitive enough to show the difference between the two compounds. For most labs, anything that showed up within a certain window would automatically be labeled as ethylene glycol, even if it wasn't, like propionic acid. And this was such small traces on the bottle. It could have come from anything. It could have been literally anything. The traces found in the bottle weren't of dangerous levels in the first place. It was kind of a complete moot point. And in regards to the calcium oxilate crystals found in Ryan's brain, they were likely the result of the ethanol drip used to treat

21:47 Ryan for this presumed antifreeze treatment. An ethanol drip was standard treatment for what they thought he was suffering with the poisoning. But for somebody with MMA, it is disastrous. And it was probably this drip that caused the crystals to form in his brain and actually may well have hastened his death. It was very clear to anyone paying any attention here that Patty was innocent and even Muel Roy couldn't deny it any longer. In light of this new evidence, in July 1991, Patty was released from prison on house arrest pending a brand new trial. But by September 1991, it became very clear there was no need for a trial here. She was freed and the case against her was dropped. Melroy went in front of the press and apologized, saying, "Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering the stallings have endured during this entire ordeal, and I apologize to them both personally and for the state of Missouri." After 2

22:44 years, Patty was a free woman and her and David were finally allowed to have custody of DJ. Since this ordeal, the family have tried to stay out of the spotlight, but they did deserve some sort of justice. They sued Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and the labs that got the diagnosis wrong, eventually settling out of court for an undisclosed amount. Some sources say it was a seven figure number. We don't know for sure. But I don't think any amount of money will ever make up for what Patty and David went through, for what Ryan went through. If his test had been read correctly when he went into hospital, not only would Patty have not have gone through any of this, but Ryan probably wouldn't have died. I was very intrigued actually to see that the pair sued the hospital or the lab, not the justice system. But it seems they did come forward and say they were never mad at the justice system for doing its job,

23:33 even if it was perhaps overzealous. At the end of the day, if child is genuinely in danger, you hope the authorities will do what it needs to do to keep that child safe. They weren't mad at the justice system as a whole. They were mad with the hospital for failing them and failing their child and furious I can imagine at the labs for misreading these results. Although saying that whilst they weren't mad at the justice system as a whole, they definitely were a bit mad at prosecutor Mckelroy personally. In 1994, Mckelroy ran for reelection as Jefferson County prosecutor and the Stallings actually donated $10,000 to his opponent instead, Robert Wilkins, who ended up winning the race. Like I said, they weren't mad at the justice system, but there certainly wasn't any love lost between them and Mikuel Roy. It then came out that Mckelroy had offered to show Wilkins all of the information he had on the

24:24 Stalling's case. And as you can imagine, Patty was not happy about this because it did get back to her. She took this to court and asked them to have her arrest record expuned, which they were partially able to do. But Missouri law mandates prosecutors always have to maintain some of the information they have when it comes to felony arrests, which is crazy when you think about the fact there was no crime here whatsoever. Not only did Patty not commit the crime, there was also not a crime to commit. There was nothing. I wish I could tell you that life got better for the Stallings after this point, but I don't need to tell you the kind of trauma that they gone through. It does seem Patty and David divorced not long after this, not knowing how to continue with their lives after everything that happened.

25:07 Patty really struggled. She was never quite able to get back on her feet properly. Rumor has it. And DJ sadly died in 2013 at just 23 years old. It's not reported whether he died due to complications of his MMA or something else entirely. David did go on to remarry and did have more children, but he sadly died in 2019 aged 57. It's not known where Patty is now. As I said, she's always stayed out of the spotlight, as you would do. But I truly hope that she was eventually able to find some kind of peace because none of this was ever her fault. Obviously, for my job on this channel, I research a lot of crime cases, but I cannot remember the last time that I got so head up, so worked up whilst I was reading about a case because everything about this one was so frustrating. And obviously that's approaching it from an angle of like I know there wasn't a crime here. Like we know now there wasn't a crime,

26:02 but how can you prove that? It was so difficult to prove. I found myself having to step away from my computer at many points cuz it just made me so so angry. If you know of any other no crime cases that might be interesting for me to look into for this channel, then please let me know. I think it's a really interesting angle to look at when you're looking at true crime. Thank you so much for tuning in today. As always, if you like what I'm doing over here, then please make sure you show your support by liking this video, leaving a comment down below, subscribing if you're not already, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye, guys.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "The Case SOLVED by a TV Show | Patty Stallings"?

In order: 0:00 Ethylene Glycol, Patricia Stallings, Ryan Stallings, David Stallings; 5:00 Ethylene Glycol, Patricia Stallings, Ryan Stallings, 7th September 1989; 10:00 Methylonic Academia, David Wamble Jr., Ethylene Glycol, St. Louis Children's Hospital; 15:00 Ethylene Glycol, Dr. William Sly, Dr. James Shoemaker, St. Louis University; 20:00 Missouri, Ethylene Glycol, Cardinal Glennon Hospital, Dr. Pierro Ronaldo.

What is mentioned in this Georgia Marie episode?

23 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Patricia Stallings, Ryan Stallings, Ethylene Glycol, Methylonic Academia, Dr. William Sly, David Stallings. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Case SOLVED by a TV Show | Patty Stallings"?

The episode runs 27 min; the transcript is about 4,656 words in 32 timestamped sections.

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