DoctorOz: Murder She Saw: What This Medium Saw Inside a Murder House | Dr. Oz | S11 | Ep 17 | Full Episode

DoctorOz
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis video explores a diverse range of human experiences, from a paranormal investigation into a mob hit at a 19th-century mansion and the predatory grooming tactics of the NXIVM cult, to a heartbreaking account of parents coping with the sudden loss of their son to SUDEP and practical advice on mindful parenting and emotional connection.
I'm feeling the energy.
A house that holds secrets.
There's a lot of activity in the room.
And a visit that finally uncovered.
There's so much blood.
There's more than one murder here.
What really happened inside.
He was watching this crying about the desecration of his body.
They held him under.
He was killed.
This is his grave.
Coming up next.
Season 11 starts now.
I became a doctor to help people heal.
Now I'm using the same science and medicine to take on true crime.
Today's true crime.
We go inside an eerie looking 19th century mansion.
With a murderous past.
So much paranormal activity is said to have been witnessed on this property.
That no one has lived there since the former caretaker and his family fled in 2017.
There are so many stories of death swirling around this home.
That we had to enlist crime correspondent Melissa Moore to investigate.
And we called in medium Anna Ramondi to help unveil the property's gruesome past.
In fact, so many crazy things have been reported.
That the current caretakers can't stand being there alone.
You won't believe what they say they've experienced.
Take a look.
I started getting like a weird feeling in my stomach.
I heard actually moans and groans.
Footsteps.
Slamming of doors.
Door just heavily slammed in my face.
And I did not go in the house for that when I needed it.
I left.
Other people, you know, they get nervous about it and all.
Yeah, it gets a little creepy here by yourself once in a while.
The other night we were here and we heard furniture being moved upstairs.
But there wasn't any furniture.
Joining us are crime correspondent Melissa Moore and medium Anna Ramondi.
This mansion's been on the market on and off for so many years now.
Did that surprise you?
What do you think about its history, Melissa?
Well, I did some digging into the house and the history.
And it's been on the market off and on.
It's never been fully abandoned though.
But then as I was digging and researching, I found that a developer actually took possession of the house in 1999.
And he did some remodeling.
But it seemed like the house was cursed.
Permits weren't going through.
But also there's the paranormal aspect.
So neighbors are seeing paranormal activity.
The caretakers of the property are seeing orbs.
So there's definitely activity going on.
But I think the biggest deal breaker was the mob hit, the murder in 2005.
It was absolutely brutal.
The victim was butchered.
Oh my goodness.
So, Melissa, I trust you in all things true crime.
Right.
So you came in with a logical mind like mine, actually, trying to figure out is this impossible?
Why these bizarre activities?
And what's the underlying cause?
But I recognize it could be something beyond our expertise.
So, Anna, we didn't tell you anything about this house.
Nothing.
I didn't have any information at all.
Not where it was.
Nothing.
Didn't have an address.
Had nothing.
All right.
So with all that, we asked you to go in there.
And we heard about all these alleged spirits of the property.
Why do you think these spirits, if they're spirits, are staying home?
Why aren't they going away like most spirits are supposed to?
There's such sadness in this house that they just can't let go of it.
And there's so much pain in the house from the original owner and then, obviously, the man who was killed in the house and the mob hit.
All right.
So it turns out the mob hit's not the only problem we're going to uncover.
We decided to send Anna into this mansion where she says she was completely overwhelmed the second she walked in the door.
Now, I can remind you all, she knew nothing about this house before we basically took you in there with no warning.
Take a look.
Whoa.
Something.
Wow.
Somebody was dragged here.
I'm feeling the energy.
He was killed.
Okay.
But I feel like a stab.
There's a stabbing.
There's somebody sitting on somebody.
They want him to die.
This man, he did not want to die.
Blood.
So was there all blood in here?
Like bloody, very bloody?
Where's the water?
I'm looking for water.
They're telling me, he's saying, go to the water.
Go to the water.
There was water.
There's a pond right outside here.
Right over there?
Yes.
Okay, because I'm hearing by the water, by the water, by the water.
And then somebody gets dumped in the water.
How many murders?
Was there more than one murder here?
Is this all the same murder that I'm picking up?
As far as we know, there was more.
Yeah, because it went into the water, okay?
I'm still feeling that there was the pond.
Yeah, there's water.
Because he keeps saying the water, the water.
That I feel like they held him under.
They held him under.
This is his grave.
This is it.
This is his grave.
This is why we do this every year.
We do flowers and we do this every year.
This is absolutely his grave.
Okay, so on the floor.
I feel like there was something on the floor.
The body was on the floor.
There's a lot of activity in the room.
It's almost like they don't even care that they just did this.
Like they just don't care.
It's just another day.
There's some lighting here.
Okay, something really bad.
Something really bad.
There's so much blood.
Something was taken out.
Furnace.
This is a new furnace.
This is new.
Okay, and I don't know.
There was something about shoving it in.
Shoving it in.
Was somebody killed down here?
Or was this the same man from upstairs?
We're dead already.
They went through all of this to kill this one man?
I mean, listen, this guy has like nine lives
because he's running all over.
He's still running all over the house.
He's running.
He runs all over the house.
Do you hear him running in the house?
We have heard footsteps all over the house.
He runs.
Whoever did this didn't know what they were doing.
Okay, they just didn't know.
It was like a butcher job.
He was watching it in spirit like as he had passed.
He was watching this going on,
crying about the desecration of his body
because it was desecrated.
Anna, it's uncanny you could tell that much
without having any of the history.
You know, I walked into the house
and all I saw was blood.
It was like it assaulted me.
The feeling of there's like,
it was this like very frantic energy running around.
It was unbelievable.
We're coming up.
What kind of murder caused that much blood?
And who was the man who was so brutally butchered?
Stay with us.
She's losing sleep over her husband's snoring.
It's like I sleep with a beatbox.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with crime correspondent Melissa Moore
and medium Anna Ramondi.
You've been investigating this horrific mob hit
for quite a while.
Melissa, give us some details of what happened in the mansion.
Well, I found it very interesting
that Anna hit on so many key points
and I believe she was communicating
with the first victim, which is Robert McKelvey.
He was involved in organized crime,
angered a man named Gino Galistro.
So Gino Galistro put a hit on him for $8,000,
hiring the hit man who happened to be
the caretaker of the mansion.
So his name was Joseph Young.
Joseph Young and a couple accomplices went together,
lured Robert into the mansion
and then overkill is an understatement.
First, they strangled him, unsuccessful.
They stabbed him, unsuccessful.
And then the blood that Anna's talking about
is that after they drowned him in the pond,
they took him down to the basement
and then dismembered him and fed him into the furnace.
Yeah.
So when she says there was a lot of blood,
they took a hacksaw.
I mean, there would be blood everywhere.
And what's interesting too, when I watched your piece,
is that you stated that something's missing.
Well, the furnace is missing
where they disposed of his body.
Oh, yes, you did mention that.
I didn't understand why.
He was just saying to me some things.
He wanted the whole story told.
Like, this is what they did.
You know, he was watching it as they were doing this
because he had died.
You know, they were hacking up his body.
You know, they desecrated him.
And you did use the word butchered.
So I thought that was interesting.
There's no way that she would have probably known this
unless she dug deep into the history of it.
And, of course, I purposely told you nothing ahead of time
because we wanted to go in there,
eyes wide open to figure this out.
Robert's murderer, Joseph Young, you said?
Right.
What happened to him?
He's serving life in prison,
and then the mob hit man,
the man who hired the hit,
is serving 20 years.
And we don't know the other men who were involved?
No, we don't.
Aha.
So, Anna, you went in there.
The energy was...
Overwhelming.
Overwhelming?
Overwhelming.
Not just from the man who was killed,
but then you had the energy of the other people
that lived in the house as well.
So, you know, I could hear a woman crying.
It was the original owner,
the wife of the man who had purchased the house
and the children that lived in there,
the older children as well.
What was really freaky, and what's not on camera,
is that Greg, who works with the camera crew,
and I got locked into a room.
So I went to open up the door.
It wouldn't move.
He literally walked over to it.
Greg, he's right here.
I know you're one of the uber-skeptics,
like so many of us are.
I'm a very big skeptic.
Even watching the segments on the show,
I was never 100% sure about it.
So the whole day we were shooting,
I was always looking for a spirit in the house.
I couldn't find anything.
It wasn't until we were packing up,
I let my guard down a little bit,
and then something happens.
So Anna's trying for the door.
She's pulling on it.
It's bowing out at the bottom,
so it almost felt like it was bolted at the top,
and the door's bowing out at the bottom.
I reach for it almost effortlessly,
and it opens up.
It does.
Someone didn't want Anna to leave that room.
Aha.
Yeah.
Are you still a skeptic after this?
Not anymore.
I never thought I'd even begin to believe in this stuff.
But some of these tales are...
If I wasn't personally involved in making sure
you did not know about this house,
I would assume you went through there, read it up,
knew everything, and then confabulated a story.
You know, I think that a lot of people
who may walk over the threshold in that house
would probably feel something.
Now, they may not be able to see what I saw
and feel it the way I feel it,
but the house, the energy is so high.
Like, I could see them.
I could feel them.
They're very present.
They don't want you to leave
because they want to keep talking to you?
I think they just wanted to keep talking to me
because I could actually communicate with them.
You know, they're not at rest.
All right.
Joining us next are Rick and Elizabeth.
They're the caretakers of the Chrysler mansion.
For the moment, anyway.
They're the caretakers.
They both say they've had several encounters
with restless spirits who they believe
are refusing to leave the property,
and coincidentally, they both knew the murder victim
that Anna just encountered.
Robert.
Yes.
You actually were a classmate of him.
Yes.
And you seemed to even get a little emotional
as she was recounting the details of the murder.
Yes.
Did you know all those details?
I read about it,
but hearing somebody to actually explain it,
it struck a nerve.
Why do you stay in the house
if there's a possibility that someone you knew
who was murdered there
might not have crossed over totally?
I personally don't feel threatened by him.
Maybe because we hung out and rode bicycles together
as a child.
So it just doesn't scare me.
So you said you've witnessed other strange things, Rick,
things that you don't understand.
Yes.
Can you give us a little bit of an idea?
Tell us about...
Are these from Robert or from somebody else?
We don't know.
We think it's both.
Both?
It's Robert and the original people from the house.
So what do you do when you're sitting there
and you hear these paranormal things happening?
They're two of you, so you know it's not just in your mind.
Yes.
Did you hear that?
We look at each other and say,
did you really hear that?
And then he usually wants to leave.
I usually get freaked out sometimes.
I'd be freaked out.
I don't understand how you're not freaked out by this.
Slamming doors, locked doors, footsteps.
The guy got used to it, to be honest with you.
It is a beautiful old house.
And what about these orbs?
I heard that you actually brought us some evidence.
Yes, we've caught orbs.
Oh my goodness.
Is it that same spot all the time?
No, it actually...
They move.
Oh, the blue, on the stairs there, the blue thing.
Yeah, there's four orbs in them pictures.
The white dot with the blue.
And I actually moved five pictures there.
They moved to five different locations.
If you follow all the pictures, they move in a circle.
I don't understand how this is even possible.
We've actually caught other evidence, too,
of some figures in the windows and stuff like that.
We've got some pictures and stuff like that.
As far as the noises, we've caught some photos.
I want to dive more a little bit into the other family besides Robert
and understand a bit more what the heck is going on here.
So up next, Anna's not surprised at any of this.
She says that the mob murder victim, Robert McKelvey,
is definitely not alone in that mansion.
Who else is there? Stay with us.
Tainted alcohol.
Laced with methanol.
How a vacation turned deadly.
They told me I had until 3 p.m. to come up with the money to get her cremated
or I would never receive my mother's remains.
All nuance.
That's coming up on Tuesday.
We're back with medium Anna Raimondi and crime correspondent Melissa Moore
along with mansion caretakers Rick and Elizabeth.
We've already seen Anna's powerful reaction when she first entered the mansion
where she says she came into contact with the 2005 mob hit victim, Robert McKelvey's spirit.
Anna says that Robert is far from alone in that mansion.
She says the original family has never moved out.
Take a look at the rest of her visit.
This house is crying.
There's like, there's crying in the house.
There's a younger man here and he's very depressed because his brother
is, there's a lot of sibling rivalry going on.
I don't know if he gets hit in the head or he shoots himself.
Something happens.
But I feel, it didn't happen in this house though.
I don't feel like, he didn't die here.
I feel like he died someplace that if I stood on top I could see it.
And he's crying.
Both, you got three men crying in here.
Feels like there was a woman who stayed in this room and she keeps pointing over there.
What was back there?
Walter's house.
The father's house was on the hill.
Because she keeps saying, this is not my house.
That's my house.
And she's saying arson.
So did the house burn?
Yes.
The older man, he's crying.
He's crying because this was what he lived for.
Not his kids.
He lived for an empire.
Yeah, the three houses and the factory right down on the water.
So one of the brothers died at that factory?
Did he commit suicide or did his brother kill him?
It was suicide.
Supposedly suicide, but there is a rumor of his brother.
His brother had something to do with it, but I don't think his brother killed him.
Okay, do people talk about the woman who they see up here?
Yes.
Okay, because from the car I could see a woman.
Standing.
And she stands sometimes by herself and sometimes a man stands with her.
I think the man is the old man.
But he stands with her because he's crying over, so there was the factory.
He's crying that his empire no longer exists.
So he was like the lord of the manor.
He owned this whole town.
Which is how he felt.
He felt like the lord of the manor.
Like he was king.
It was finished and then he was gone.
My goodness.
So Melissa, what did you discover about this family's past?
Well, this house has a lot of history.
This was actually a twin house.
The father that Anna spoke about made this empire in fireproof bricks.
As you also talked about.
So he was living for his dynasty.
He was living for his empire.
And he died a year after he built these three mansions.
His own, the twin mansions.
And one of them burned down, which you said arson.
That was interesting.
That was Edward's house.
And he died from suicide in the factory.
The house that Anna and the caretakers are living in now is actually Charles' home.
And he died of natural causes.
But I can see why they're still trapped in this house.
There's also rumors that there was a chef that was killed in that house.
Oh my goodness.
Anna, did you experience this family as described?
Yeah, the energy of the house.
It was so occupied.
You could feel the lord of the manor, so to speak.
And his pain that this was not sustainable.
But the two brothers, there was animosity.
You know, there was anger over the two of them.
Rick Elizabeth, what do you think about all this?
Well, there is a lot of stories from there.
The whole Chrysler family had a lot of turmoil.
Between them, it wasn't a business.
And as soon as the father died, the brothers sort of both took over.
And there was a lot of animosity, I guess.
I must say, I think you've changed some minds today.
If you or someone you know lives in a murder house,
document your experiences like this wonderful couple has done.
Send us the details, the pictures, the video.
Go to DrRoz.com forward slash Crime Hunters.
And we'll see if Anna can help you, too.
We'll be right back.
Today, an exclusive update on a story we've been covering since the beginning.
Since their investigation into one of the most dangerous modern-day cults
hidden in the suburbs of Albany, New York,
its leader, Keith Ranieri, was arrested and locked behind bars
for brainwashing, starving, and even branding his initials into the flesh of women.
But today, brand new details about this case are emerging
with questions surrounding the safety of former members.
Does Keith's conviction really mean the end of NXIVM?
Or could this small-town cult that shook the country to its core still be a threat?
One woman says yes.
Keith's ex-girlfriend and NXIVM whistleblower, Toni Natalie, joins me now.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you, Dr. Roz. Thank you for having me.
I should tell everybody, the last time you were here, Keith had not been convicted.
You were in fear, obviously, because everyone else was in fear.
How do you feel now knowing that he's not there anymore?
He's not able to threaten you.
How has your life changed?
I have a sense of validation that I did not have before,
having to have him arrested and found guilty.
The PTSD that you experience as a doctor, and you understand through something like this,
it doesn't go away.
It's better, and things are moving in the right direction.
But it's not over.
Let's unwrap this a little bit.
First off, is he remorseful at all?
You said earlier to my producers that when he was in the courtroom,
he would actually signal to you using his fingers.
Describe what happened at the trial and the hearings
that reflect how he's thinking about you as a person.
There was only a few of the hearings that I missed.
I was at the trial every second, every minute,
and what he would do is he would use his middle finger,
and in fact, I won't do it for the audience,
and use it to push his glasses up.
And then he would push up his glasses to kind of signal that to me.
And look at you while doing it.
Or glare at me while he was doing it.
So I would brush my bangs back with my hand
to let him know that this childness, the act that he was doing,
was, I get it, but look where you are.
Look where he is, but it doesn't mean that you're safe.
I should say, Toni Bravely has been working with our show
since the story of Maxine and Brooke,
but the one thing she wouldn't ever talk about, out of fear of attribution,
was the system Keith used to manipulate the woman in NXIVM
to become his sex slave.
It was called DOS, D-O-S.
Can you explain, are you comfortable talking about this now?
Sure, sure.
So what was the process of DOS?
So the distilling down of individuals
started with finding people that had a crack
or didn't have a strong family to be supportive of them
and look for their insecurities.
And those were the women that he would select
to bring into this organization.
So he was grooming, from the larger group,
the few that would ultimately become his disciples,
but his slaves, really.
Very much so.
He's a predator on every level.
I understand that suicide was something that Keith felt was honorable.
Yes.
Do you believe any of the women who had been groomed,
filtered to become his sex slaves,
or even others in the organization,
might have killed themselves for him?
I believe that through his teachings,
in one of the modules called The Suicide Honorable,
they teach if you're no value to your family,
isn't it more honorable for you to not be in this world
than to cause harm to your family?
Now, there's been two deaths that we're aware of,
one girl who has not been found, her body's not been found,
and they had no idea that he was the head.
This is the part that's so confusing.
By the way, this is Tony and Natalie's book, it's called The Program.
That's Keith Ranieri's picture on the cover.
You chronicled the eight years that you dated this man,
you had a relationship with him.
Yes.
When did he crack?
When did he go from someone who had a seemingly good idea
of getting people to understand how they could change their lives,
to, and maybe he wasn't a good person, I don't know that,
but he certainly went from bad to evil at some point
while you were with him.
So I realized when other girls started coming to me after I had left,
I became a bit of a lightning rod for people to come to
because one of the modules he teaches, called The Fall,
is what is a suppressive?
And even in the trial, one of the girls that was a witness said,
well, what's the worst thing that could happen?
And she said, well, I could become a suppressive.
And they said, what's a suppressive?
And she said, Tony and Natalie, that's a suppressive.
This is a young girl that I never laid eyes on.
He's been, he's been...
But what is a suppressive? What made you a suppressive?
Why is Tony and Natalie the bane of his existence?
Because I left.
Because I didn't follow him.
Anyone that goes outside of the realm of his teachings or his beliefs
that he doesn't have control over.
With Keith, it's all about control.
And when you can't control someone, he has to destroy them.
Let's talk about destruction and the power he has to do that.
You alluded to this earlier. I want to ask you very directly.
You believe even though Keith is behind bars,
NXIVM is far from over.
Yes, very much so.
How could NXIVM hurt you? How could it hurt others?
Well, it's my understanding he was recently caught with a cell phone in prison.
So...
In prison?
In prison, yes.
So the question is, A, how did he get the cell phone?
And B, who's he calling? And why?
What does that mean for you and other suppressives who have escaped?
It means we still have to be careful. We still have to be diligent.
We still have to be aware.
And hopefully more people, now that he's in prison,
will step forward with information.
Last time you were here, I could feel the fear.
Yes.
How does it feel for you now, knowing that you were successful?
That the power of one person to stand up and say,
I was closest, man. I know I'm better than anybody.
I'm telling you, it's not good.
Now that the world really understands who Keith McNary is,
how does it make you feel?
It feels like justice has finally served.
The fact that 12 individuals...
I mean, Dr. Oz, you were the first to give us a platform
on a national stage to hear this.
And to have 12 people that were able to understand
this very convoluted story,
bring it down to, I think, in five hours, they found him guilty.
When you came on the show,
I was impressed by how brave you were with your physical life,
but I also understood that you were going to get sued
or being certainly threatened with that.
We received letters of a threatening nature as well.
I think the system doesn't always protect the victim.
That's why I'm so passionate about people stepping up and saying,
Hey, I'm here. There are probably others around me.
Come join us, because together we can actually overcome
whatever corruption might be out there.
It's been reported that Keith McNary maintains his innocence
and his lawyers plan to appeal his conviction.
I want to thank Tony for sharing his story.
The program that you talk about is unbelievable.
It's called Inside the Mind of Keith McNary and the Rise and Fall of NXIVM.
Look for it, that program.
You'll want to understand more about it. Be right back.
I'm so honored you came out last time.
Coming up, a truly inspirational example of the power of one.
Meet the grieving parents whose heartbreaking plea sparked a movement.
A message will change your day.
It's a tragic story that has gone viral.
All over social media, people are reacting to a heartbreaking plea
from working parents after the sudden death of their 8-year-old son.
Their story is an incredible example of the power of one.
Proof that you have the power to inspire others to change the world in a meaningful way.
On September 3rd, millions of people logged on to LinkedIn, ready to network,
but found themselves gripped by two parents' heartbreaking posts.
There were photos of a happy family, twin boys smiling, laughing,
but J.R. and Jessica wrote that they were grieving the sudden loss of one of those boys,
their 8-year-old son, Wiley.
Wiley seemed to be sleeping quite late.
Later that morning, I became suspicious that sleeping in had lasted too long.
As I pulled the blanket back, and I traced the deep purple color of luvidity,
I felt for a pulse and somehow felt surprised by the cold skin I touched.
I started to call 911, but hung up because there was a more important call I needed to make.
When I got the call from my wife, I was sitting in a conference room
with 12 people in the office talking about PTO policies.
When I answered with, hey, what's up, her reply was icy and immediate.
J.R., Wiley is dead.
The couple went on to detail the chaotic scene at home
that included a rush of first responders preventing them from seeing their Wiley.
Two and a half hours passed incredibly slowly while we begged for the ability to hold our son's hand,
body, touch his hair.
We were finally granted this opportunity, but our time was limited.
It was not the way a parent should have to see their child, but it was all we had.
I laid down next to him in the bed that he loved, held his hand, and kept repeating,
what happened, buddy? What happened?
Wiley's parents believed their son's death may be related to a previously diagnosed mild form of epilepsy.
J.R. and Jessica's post resonated not just for their tragedy,
but for their personal plea.
Many have asked what they can do.
Hug your kids. Don't work too late.
If there's any lesson to take away from this,
it's to remind others and myself not to miss out on the things that matter.
If you are a parent and have any capacity to spend more time with your kids, do.
When it ends, there's just photos and leftover things and time is no longer available to you.
You will not regret the emails you forgot to send.
J.R. and Jessica are here today with a vital message for all of us.
You guys okay?
Yeah.
It's a lot to watch.
Why was it so important for you to be here today?
I think there's this incredible shock when you lose a child overnight in the way that we did.
It was completely unexpected.
We had no idea that that was even possible, that it could happen like that.
To give explanation to our friends and family,
how do you go from having this incredibly happy, healthy eight-year-old to nothing?
I had so many people call me and say,
are you kidding? Is this a joke?
I was like, no, of course it's not a joke.
First of all, who jokes about that?
Secondly, of course not, but the disbelief is so real for people
that it's impossible to think that we could lose someone so fast, who's so young.
I'm sure it's still raw for you,
but at least you've had some life experience to cope.
How about Oliver, Wiley's twin brother?
How is he coping?
Yeah.
Oliver is actually doing really well.
He has lost his best friend,
and so he's desperate to hang out with other kids right now.
But he's in school, and he's back in soccer practice,
and so he definitely has a good support network of kids around him.
He's just now starting to figure out how to talk about it.
And he is the sweetest kid because he says,
oh, yeah, that's Wiley's.
Or, yes, oh, Wiley and I used to do this.
And so he brings up these fantastic memories for us as a family on his own,
which is so lovely to see that he's able to integrate his history there.
Is he able to articulate that he misses his brother?
Yes, and that's about as far as I think he can go right now.
He will say he's missing him, and we see him missing him,
but I think right now it's about as far as that goes.
I mean, the good news, I think, for him,
even though he lost his best friend,
is that he now has previously had split attention
from two parents who were very busy,
and now he has complete attention from two parents
who are much more focused on him than they were before.
I've heard you describe it as a powerful triangle now.
Yeah, I mean, that was a big change for us.
We'd always been a family of four.
It was twins, and it was like two groups.
We had the twins, and we had us.
And then we came together now and realized, you know,
now it's a triangle, just the three of us together.
Is that what that is on your forearm?
Oh, yeah, so we did decide to go ahead and get tattoos
to represent our new family.
So JR has one, I have one.
Wiley's favorite color has been blue for many, many years.
And so we decided to color it blue,
so that while he no longer is a part of the family unit,
it will always be colored by him.
He's coloring it blue.
So I know it's going to take a few months
to really work out exactly what might have happened,
because it's such a strange process,
an eight-year-old dying suddenly.
But you think it's something called
sudden unexpected death in epilepsy,
something that I've learned a lot about.
I thought it was extraordinarily rare.
It's not.
What do doctors tell you about the risks associated with it?
I think Wiley just had one minor episode of a small seizure.
That we're aware of, yeah.
His type of epilepsy was meant to be one of the most benign.
It was actually called benign epileptic,
benign Rolandic epilepsy.
And the doctors told us it's the best type that he could have,
and it's supposed to resolve by the time he was in his teenage years.
It grows out of it.
It does, yeah, it's just supposed to happen at night.
And the only reason we found out that he had it
was we were staying in an Airbnb,
and it had hardwood floors,
and she heard a thud upstairs, and he had fallen out of his bed,
and she went upstairs and found him having this seizure.
He was the only one who ever saw him.
That was about nine months before he died.
And after the diagnosis, you know, they were very clear.
We talked to multiple pediatricians and neurologists.
Just let him be.
Don't medicate him.
Don't do anything.
And it is fairly rare.
It's something like one out of 4,500 kids with epilepsy.
But it can happen to any kid who's had any seizure.
It can happen to adults, too, where it's one in 1,000.
Yes, much more common in adults.
And you're a physician, so you've had insights into this.
Cameron Boyce, the Disney star who died in July,
we believe died from the same thing.
So here's what I want to do today.
At least make the pain you're going through to talk about this useful.
I want everyone who has a child with epilepsy to hear me clearly,
because many doctors don't even warn families
about the risks of sudden, unexpected death and epilepsy,
because the philosophy is,
why share terrifying news when you can't do anything about it anyway?
But I'm not sure that's true anymore.
It can happen with anyone with epilepsy, but there are things we can do.
And while we can't get rid of all the risks,
there are things that are effective, right?
Yeah.
So there's definitely a list of criteria and risk factors
that are associated with a higher risk of SUDEP occurring.
Clonic seizures and the frequency of clonic seizures
being among those risks.
The seizure that I did witness my son have was clonic.
So the more severe the epilepsy, the higher the risk is.
There's new studies being done.
The research is really limited,
and it's going to stay unexplained until we have more information.
But why not just have a monitor?
So this is a great question.
So there's a wearable tech and there's alarm pad monitors.
These are new.
Not every physician knows about them.
Not everyone recommends them.
At the moment, both wearable tech, there's a watch,
and the alarm, like a mattress pad,
they only detect clonic seizures.
So if you're having a more minor form of a seizure,
it's not going to be detected by that technology.
But if we don't utilize the technology
and there's not enough people actively using it
and collecting data from it, the technology will not get better.
So I do think, I wish that we had had that.
I don't know that it would have changed the outcome for my son.
We'll be right back with J.R. and Jessica's advice for parents at home.
Welcome back.
Last month, parents J.R. and Jessica suffered an unimaginable loss
when their 8-year-old son died in his sleep.
Their viral message to make time for your children
has inspired millions and exemplifies the power of one.
So you wanted to inspire parents to hug their kids a little tighter.
Just send one last email.
Are you finding solace, I hope you are, in knowing that it's working?
Yeah, I think the big thing we're seeing is people reaching out,
as we've done with our own son Oliver,
and just having a perception shift,
which is not saying don't work or stop working
because most of us can't do that,
but just recognize that when you're feeling frustrated with that child,
that it's important time that you have,
and make those little adjustments, make those little changes,
and maybe just the extra 5 or 10 minutes are just the way you respond.
One of the biggest regrets I have is the night before Wiley died,
I yelled at him and made him cry, and I really didn't need to do that.
He was doing something that was frustrating and annoying,
but it was one of the last interactions we had,
and I could have been softer with him.
So we're trying to be softer now with Oliver
in ways that maybe we weren't before,
and we're hoping others will do that as well.
So you wanted to inspire parents.
Yeah.
Without question, you found some effectiveness there.
You take solace in the fact that you've been able to influence families,
and I've got tons of quotes over here, people written to you.
Do you feel like you've accomplished your goal by writing about your son?
It's a tough answer because it doesn't bring Wiley back.
Not to sugarcoat it, that's the deep down feeling.
We've heard stories of people who've said,
Hey, I'm not going to take this promotion,
or I'm moving back to my family,
or I canceled meetings this week
and I put one-on-ones on the calendar with my daughters.
And that stuff, it feels really heartfelt,
and that's the stuff we're trying to do now with Ollie.
So that's been good.
So I want to read one comment on social media.
Charlie came down to our room four times last night,
four separate times.
I got progressively frustrated with him for waking everybody up,
and then dot, dot, dot.
A genuine heartfelt thank you to J.R. and Jessica
for giving me the power to recognize the privilege
of having my sons here in my arms to be here to wake with me.
That was the goal, right?
You don't know what you have until you lose it.
When you see a post like that, Jessica, what's that like?
You know, parenting is kind of relentless, right?
They wake up in the middle of the night, they're sick,
you have a fever, you deal with this.
It's so touching to know that someone can take a step back from that
after what we've been through and recalibrate and say,
you know what, we have definitely implemented in our own household
a more tender approach to caring for our other son
because he's there, and we can, and Wiley isn't.
The most powerful line for me was when you said
you're not going to regret not sending that extra email.
Right?
If that is distracting you from spending time with your kids,
that you're like, just one more, I just have this one more email, right?
I regret that, right?
And I know that if I had waited another half hour until after they were asleep
or if I had waited until they went to school,
it would have been fine, right?
There's no urgency to that.
It would have been fine.
For all the parents who have changed their views
and the time they spend with their kids,
thank you for spending the time with us and for putting yourselves out there.
Thank you.
Important message.
Be right back.
Welcome back.
Last month, parents J.R. and Jessica suffered an unimaginable loss
when their 8-year-old son died in his sleep.
Their viral message to make time for your children has inspired millions.
It exemplifies the power of one.
Joining us now is Pastor Cora Jakes-Coleman.
She's a preacher and mother who's read the posts
and wanted to be here today.
She read your posts, actually, and was impacted by them.
What do you have to say to Jessica and J.R. about their grief?
Well, first again, I'm so sorry for your pain.
I think the three things that we get through grief is to hold on to our peace.
So they rest in peace.
And we cannot allow them to rest in peace if we don't find peace for ourselves.
Another thing is what you all are doing.
You're turning your pain into a powerful movement and moment for other people.
And then just giving yourself a moment.
Be angry.
Be upset.
Don't let anyone rush you.
Don't let anyone tell you it's not okay.
Grieving doesn't end.
You just get stronger.
My son's name is Oliver as well.
So when I read the story, it was particularly poignant just because of the name similarity.
But I thought if it's okay, I'll ask Pastor Cora to share three good ideas
of how parents can act on what you're urging us to do.
Spend time with our kids.
Quality time.
So come on up here, Pastor Cora.
We're going to walk through here.
Number one item is short bursts of undivided attention.
This is like interval training.
Yes.
I love it because you can do this anywhere.
You can do this at night.
I call it mommy and me time.
My daughter and I will sit for maybe 10 minutes and read about her body and her life.
And we talk about all of the drama going on at school.
And so you can find a pocket in time to just sit down and fully devote yourself to your children.
I think it's very, very good.
Number two, drive connection in the car.
I have always loved the idea of using the car because everyone's sort of focused on something outside of the relationship.
I'm the school bus.
So I've got this down.
Me and my kids, we do affirmation songs in the morning.
We do our prayers in the morning.
We talk about what our goal is for the day in the morning.
And so it's like that seven-minute drive of just boost and encouragement for them to go after what they need to go after.
And third, make use of phantom time.
Explain what phantom time is.
Well, I call these angel moments and memories.
So my mom used to leave notes in our lunch boxes and things like that.
Or my dad would leave videos for us if he was going out of town.
So it's just really like I'm a night owl.
So if you're up at like 1 or 2 in the morning, write a nice letter down for your kids.
Leave it in their lunch box or on their nightstand.
A video they can watch in the morning is really, really helpful.
I see that.
You can read lots more about Cora's advice in her book, Ferocious Warrior.
I want to thank you for being here.
Thank you.
And I wish you the best.
God bless Oliver.
I hope he has a wonderful time with the triangle.
Yeah.
Remember, the power of change lies in the power of you.
Just one person with one voice speaking the truth.
Goodbye, everybody.
