Follow the Minds of Madness on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To support the show and get access to early release and ad-free episodes, go to patreon.com

slash madnesspod. You can also hit subscribe in Apple Podcasts.

Videos of our Thursday release episodes between the Madness

are available on YouTube and Spotify.

We've got all the links in our episode notes.

The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the

Minds of Madness Podcast.

Listener discretion is advised.

Thank you. The Minds of Madness podcast. Listener discretion is advised. When we follow true crime, we expect cases to be built on facts, on evidence, and what can actually be proven. But when the evidence doesn't explain everything, theories can start to

take over. And once that happens, they can begin to steer the story, especially when the crime scene itself doesn't offer a clear explanation.

In this case, it started with a garage door found open and ended with Sandra Melgarh found alive,

found inside a closet, and her husband Jim found dead in another.

32 years. That's how long Jim and Sandra Melgar had been married, living in Houston,

raising a daughter, and building a life together. The weekend before Christmas 2012 was supposed to mark another year for them, dinner

out to celebrate, and then the family over the next day for a holiday meal.

On Saturday the 22nd after the Melgarz had gone out for dinner, they stopped at a CVS for drink mixers, then headed home to spend a few hours in their jacuzzi.

Later that night, after they'd had a few drinks and shared some strawberries, they heard their dogs barking in the backyard, so Jim grabbed a towel and went out to let them in. When he didn't

come back right away, Sandra decided to get out and prepare for bed. That's when she says she became

unconscious. For how long she had no idea. Sandra would later tell police she may have blacked out,

possibly from a seizure. If she had, it would explain the missing hours she'd been asked to account for. But what if she hadn't? That would be just one of the many questions detect us would start contemplating early on in their investigation.

On the afternoon of December 23rd, members of Jim's family arrived for dinner at the Melgarse as planned, but nobody answered the door. Noticing one side of the garage

...