Poisoned Her Ex Boyfriend’s Mom As Payback?
By: Holly Alexis
Tags: Crime, Violence Against Women, True Crime, Poisoning, Murder

After 60 year old Mary Yoder was poisoned to death in July of 2015, the culprit was leaning toward being her own son, Adam Yoder.

An email account with Adam’s name was linked to the very account that ordered the poison which was called colchicine, a drug commonly used to treat gout. If taken and you don’t have gout, it causes all liquids to leave your body, eventually resulting in death. A letter was also sent to police which pointed the finger at Adam Yoder. It said that a bottle of colchicine that poisoned Mary could be found under Adam’s passenger seat in his car. When police searched the vehicle, the letter ended up being completely correct. A bottle of the poison was right where the letter said.

When Adam was confronted with all of the evidence against him, he was genuinely shocked. Police needed to speak to those who knew Adam best and that started with his on again off again girlfriend, Kaitlyn Conley.

She was very close to the Yoder family and worked as an office manager/receptionist for Mary and Bill Yoder’s chiropractic firm. Kaitlyn was identified as a “loved one” in Mary’s obituary, and she even posted a Facebook status mourning the death of Mary.

Adam and Kaitlyn had a rollercoaster relationship with constant breakups. During one incident, Adam was guilted back into dating Kaitlyn after she told him that she miscarried his child. Yet, shortly after, he broke up with her again due to suspicion that she was cheating with his best friend. Kaitlyn could not stand a life with Adam and did everything in her power to talk her way back into his head. However, in July of 2015, Adam put his foot down for good and rejected Kaitlyn twice telling her that they just weren’t meant to be.

In the interrogation room, Kaitlyn told police that Adam admitted to her that he poisoned his mother, but they needed more proof. Authorities looked deeper into the email account that purchased the poison. The password on that Gmail account bought the poison was “adamisgay”, suggesting it was someone that had a vendetta against him. The account was only accessed from two different locations; Kaitlyn Conley’s house and phone. In addition to these twists in the case, police tested the DNA on the letter and it was linked to a female.

Kaitlyn admitted that she was the one who wrote the letter. She got the envelope and stamp from the Yoder’s chiropractic office. Shortly after, she made a tearful admission that she was the one who poisoned her boss/her boyfriend’s mother for revenge.

However some of Mary’s own family wasn’t too sure that Kaitlyn did it. Instead, they pointed the finger at Bill Yoder, Mary’s husband. Right after Mary passed, he began a relationship with his sister in law, Kathy (not Mary’s sister). One of Mary’s sisters insisted that there must have been some type of secret affair happening before Mary’s murder and that motivated Bill to kill her in order to start his new relationship.

Considering all of the physical evidence, a jury found 24 year old Kaitlyn Conley guilty. She was sentenced to 23 years in prison for first degree manslaughter.

Adam addressed the court and blamed himself: “Make no mistake — as much as I hate her, which is more than I ever thought I would be capable of hating anyone, I hate myself infinitely more,” he said. “I introduced her to my family. I got her a job with my parents. And if I hadn’t done those things, my mother would still be alive.”