Invader: A Story of Madness and Revenge

True Crime Campfire

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Home is the one place in the world that’s ours and ours alone. It’s the place we’re meant to feel completely safe and comfortable. The warm, beating heart of our lives. So when that sacred space is violated, where does that leave us? Can we ever really feel safe again? This is the story of one of the strangest home invasions ever investigated, and the aftermath that left two innocent people’s lives changed forever.

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Sources:
Court papers, People v Schmuhl: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/circuit/sites/circuit/files/assets/documents/pdf/opinions/cl-2021-2333-schmuhl-v-clarke-va-doc.pdf
Court papers, Schmuhl v Clarke: https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/supreme-court/2023/211114.html
The Washingtonian, Jason Fagone: https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/10/02/schmuhl-home-invasion-torture-session-one-lawyer-nearly-killing-another-washington-suburb-mclean/
True Crime News (formerly Crime Watch Daily): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zTO-3TE_Q
NBC Washington: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/ex-lawyer-sentenced-to-45-years-in-home-invasion-torture-attack-of-former-boss-his-wife/18765/
Investigation Discovery's: James Patterson's Murder Is Forever, episode "Home Sweet Murder"

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire.
0:04.8	We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney.
0:08.1	And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction.
0:12.0	We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.
0:20.6	Home is the one place in the world that's ours and hours alone.
0:25.0	It's the place we're meant to feel completely safe and comfortable, the warm, beating heart of our lives.
0:31.7	So when that sacred space is violated, where does that leave us? Can we ever really feel safe again? This is the story of one of the
0:40.3	strangest home invasions ever investigated and the aftermath that left two innocent people's lives
0:46.2	changed forever. This is Invader, a story of madness and revenge. Also, if the sound is a little off in this one, we apologize.
0:56.6	One of us basically lives on the surface of the sun, and she really, really needed to leave the
1:00.9	AC on this time.
1:17.2	So, campers, for this one, were in McLean, Virginia, November 9th, 2014.
1:23.4	Leo Fisher and his wife Susan Duncan were having a peaceful night in. Sue was cooking dinner.
1:30.3	Leo had flopped down in a comfy chair to read. It was about 6.15 in the evening when Sue called out from the kitchen.
1:35.4	There's a car coming up the drive, she said. That was strange. They weren't expecting anybody.
1:41.9	A few moments later, the doorbell rang. Sue had her hands full in the kitchen, so Leo went to answer it.
1:44.8	He hadn't opened the door more than a few inches when a man pushed it open all the way, sending Leo stumbling back. Leo saw something black in the
1:50.9	man's hand, and suddenly he felt his body seize up and hit the floor, a taser. He could see the
1:57.4	little probes sticking out of his chest. While Leo was prone on the floor, his limbs not quite working after having 50,000 volts shot through them,
2:06.3	the man quickly shut the door, then knelt and secured zip ties around Leo's wrists and ankles.
2:12.9	Hearing the commotion, Sue ran out from the kitchen, and when she saw what was happening in front of her,
2:17.7	she screamed. The intruder put up a hand to stop her. I'm from the Virginia SEC, he said. I'm here
	...

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