MedCrimes: a Medical True Crime Podcast · Kate Macy and Devon Rebecca

The Curious Case of Scott Falater

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

Police found Yarmula floating in blood-red water, and later confirmed she had been stabbed 44 times.

1. MedCrimes: a Medical True Crime Podcast focuses on the Scott Falliter case and the death of Yarmula Falliter in Arizona. 2. Devin and Kate host the episode, and Devin leads the case presentation while Kate reacts to the details and asks questions. 3. The episode asks whether Scott Falliter killed his wife while sleepwalking or while fully aware of his actions. 4. Scott Falliter is described as a respected Motorola product engineer who kept a strict schedule around his job and early morning seminary classes. 5. Yarmula Falliter, called Yarm, was a stay-at-home mother to Michael and Megan and had been married to Scott for more than two decades. 6. The family’s Mormon faith, weekly dinners, and church involvement made them look like a picture-perfect LDS household from the outside. 7. On Thursday, January 16, 1997, Yarmula cooked dinner, the children went to bed around 9, and Scott went outside to check the pool filter. 8. Scott returned inside around 9:30, kissed Yarmula goodnight, and said he could not fix the pool filter that night. 9. After 10 o’clock, neighbors Greg and Sue heard moaning or muffled crying from next door and went outside to look over the fence. 10. Greg says he saw Yarmula lying near the pool, then watched Scott return, grab her by the wrist, and push her into the water. 11. Greg also testified that Scott put on gloves and held Yarmula’s head under the surface of the pool. 12. Phoenix police arrived quickly, found Yarmula floating in red water, and later confirmed she had been stabbed 44 times. 13. Officers saw Scott moving calmly inside the house, then found him at the top of the stairs while he acted confused and asked what was happening. 14. Scott told police that he had gone to bed and had no memory of harming Yarmula. 15. He said he must have been sleepwalking, and the episode notes that he also had a history of sleepwalking. 16. Police noticed only small smears of blood, a bandage on his hand, and clean pajamas, which raised questions about how he could have stabbed someone and then cleaned up. 17. Devin explains sleepwalking, or somnambulism, as a parasomnia that happens during deep non-REM sleep, often one to two hours after falling asleep. 18. She says the motor regions of the brain can stay active while consciousness and memory are offline, and she lists triggers such as sleep deprivation, stress, alcohol, sedatives, Parkinson’s disease, migraines, Tourette syndrome, and certain medications. 19. Listeners who like medical explanations for criminal cases and courtroom science. 20. Listeners who want a light, low-stakes true-crime story with no medical focus.

As heard by us

A sleepwalking defense gets handled like a real forensic question, not a gimmick.

This episode treats the Scott Falater case as a real forensic problem, not a stunt. Devin and Kate keep circling the same hard question: what does a reasonable defense need to show when sleepwalking is the claim?

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Why you'd press play

When a murder defense hinges on sleepwalking, this is the one to hear.

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