Marie Mayhew's podcast, Whatever Remains Podcast, can be accessed
here. She was featured in the 48 Hours show about the case. On Episode 7, titled "Stolen Treasure", Marie goes over the relationship issues and divorce proceedings between Karen and Paul Freshour. Here are some key excerpts (some of which I had never known before):
-Multiple signs accusing Karen of being a lesbian with a fellow coworker began to pop up at her place of employment in the parking lot in early 1983.
-Karen had told a coworker (the head of security at her job) that her car had been shot at and that Paul had called this coworker to arrange for a meeting between the coworker and a private investigator that Paul had hired. Apparently, Paul hired the PI to find the person who shot Karen's car. Law enforcement were never able to substantiate the claim that her car was shot.
-Karen's coworker told the police that she told him about finding several letters around the home she was sharing with Paul at the time.
-When Karen was interviewed by police she told them about their relationship problems, abuse, and eventual divorce proceedings:
-Karen also relayed to law enforcement about Paul's hatred for Mary Gillespie:
-Marie Mayhew brings up a solid point, in that the Freshour's divorce proceedings began in October of 1982. It wasn't until
May if 1983 that the divorce was granted in favor of Paul Freshour because "defense offered no testimony". Paul Freshour was charged with attempted murder in
February of 1983. If Karen indeed was the person setting him up, why did she not bother to mention any of this during their divorce proceedings? She brought up physical abuse, but absolutely
nothing about the Circleville letters or the attempted murder charge.
-The episode goes over several letters that Paul had written, to the judge in his divorce proceeding, to his attorney, and a local newspaper. In every one, he essentially buries his ex-wife's reputation, and discusses several suicide attempts in years prior.
-Here is how Marie Mayhew ends the episode:
Marie Mayhew had brought up several points I had never considered before. However, she also ignored the multiple people in and around Circleville, who knew Karen, who had described her as vindictive. She also seems to rely too heavily on giving the benefit of the doubt to Karen, and that her actions were done solely with the interest of protecting her children. She does not consider the possibility that the reason why Karen brought nothing up at the divorce proceedings involving the attempted murder charge was because she very well may have been involved with setting him up. The divorce was finalized in May of 1983, but Paul's trial did not start until
October of 1983. And despite the contentious divorce, and the fact that Paul made some comments about Karen in various letters that were unfavorable about her, none of it matches the vitriol found in the letters written by the Circleville Writer to Mary Gillespie.
I recommend listening to the podcast to get a different perspective, because virtually everything about this case has been from a pro-Freshour slant. I am definitely coming around to the idea that Paul Freshour wasn't some "golly gee why did this all happen to me" offer you the shirt off of his back nice guy, and that the guy had a
lot of demons. In fact,
this post by someone claiming to be Freshour's grandson confirms a lot of the things mentioned on the podcast. The bit about signs being found at Karen's place of work in early 1983 is
very damning, IMO. The signs targeting Mary Gillespie and her daughter also started up in early 1983. It's interesting that the UM segment mentions the letters stopping after the Freshour's and the Gillespie's wrote the letter to the person they suspected of sending the original letters (who I believe to be David Longberry) and that the letters stopped. It was only after Ron's death that the letters started up again. It seems entirely possible that David Longberry stopped writing letters after he was confronted, and then angry over Ron's death and the Sheriff ruling it an accident, as well as Mary Gillespie starting a relationship with the man she was accused of cheating on Ron with, Paul Freshour was the one who took up the moniker and started sending various letters critical of Mary Gillespie
and the Sheriff. Just
read his 164 page report he sent to the FBI
years after he was paroled. Guess who he is highly critical of throughout? Mary Gillespie and Sheriff Radcliffe.