Episode 67 - Laura Wallen and Reid

On the first day of school at Wild Lake High School in Columbia, Maryland in September 2017, beloved social studies teacher Laura Wallen didn’t turn up and had vanished without a trace. Just days later, her body was discovered in a shallow grave — shot dead. Laura was four months pregnant which a wanted child called Reid. The man accused of killing her was her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Tyler Tessier. He was arrested for her murder but would never face justice, taking his own life in prison a year later.

This is the story of Laura Wallen and Reid.

Information and support 

·       Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans 

·       Women’s Aid Home - Women's Aid

·       National Domestic Abuse Helpline UK 0808 2000 247

·       Mental health support USA Mental Health America | Homepage | Mental Health America

·       Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline 

References 

Laura Wallen: Pregnant high school teacher was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend, Tyler Tessier

Laura Wallen: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?

MURDERED: Laura Wallen | Crime Junkie Podcast

Father of slain Montgomery Co. teacher says student tribute comforted family - WTOP News

 Murdered mother's family speaks out

Who Is Tyler Tessier? 9 Things To Know In Columbia Teacher's Murder | Columbia, MD Patch

Homicide leading cause of death for pregnant women in U.S. | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Governor Hogan signs Laura and Reid's Law

Credits 

Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton 

Produced by: Clare Laxton  

Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)

Music from Pixabay. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 67 of Killer in the Family podcast, and I am so excited to let you know that the podcast has just passed 75,000 downloads. Honestly, team, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your listens, downloads, subscribes and feedback. As you know, this podcast is a total labour of love, so all of this just means the world. And, on that note, without further ado, let's get into today's episode.

Speaker 1: 1:00

On the first day of school at Wild Lake High School in Columbia, maryland, in September 2017, beloved social studies teacher Laura Wallen didn't turn up and had vanished without a trace. Days later, her body was discovered in a shallow grave, shot dead. Laura was four months pregnant with a wanted child called Reed. Four months pregnant with a wanted child called Reid. The man accused of killing her was her boyfriend and father of her unborn child, tyler Tessier. He was arrested for her murder but would never face justice, taking his own life in prison a year later. This is the story of Laura Wallen, and read. This is going to be a really tough listen team, not only because it is about the murder of a woman and her unborn child, who is named Reed, but also because the alleged perpetrator never faced justice. It's a really tough one and, as usual, there are links in the episode notes to information and support if you need it, as well as all my sources for the episode. So let's start by talking about Laura, who was just 31 years old when she and her unborn child were murdered.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Laura Elizabeth Wallen was born to parents Mark and Gwen, and she also had a sister called Jennifer, and they were really really close, and Gwen and she also had a sister called Jennifer, and they were really, really close. I think she was born and grew up in Columbia, maryland, as that is where her parents lived, where she lived and where she worked when she grew up. Columbia is in the state of Maryland in the United States and is sort of northeast of Washington DC and southwest of Baltimore. Now, laura went on to become a teacher at a high school and it seemed that this profession really matched her caring personality. When she was killed, she was a teacher at Wild Lake High School in Columbia, maryland. She has been described as really caring and having a bubbly personality.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Now, after after she went missing, one of Laura's former students, a woman called Lindsay Murray made a video to highlight her case and in the video she said, quote I instantly fell in love with her bubbly personality, her welcoming smile. She's the kind of teacher that really genuinely cares about her students and we all care about her. Another former student called Natalie said in the video quote, hands down I can say I wouldn't be here at university if it wasn't for her love and support during those years. And wow, I mean Laura. She was just really clearly a really well-loved teacher and member of the local community. With her caring personality. I can imagine she was the person people would turn to for help with a project or when they needed support. She seemed like she would offer a really lovely shoulder to cry on. And such was her dedication to her students that the year before she was killed Laura was voted teacher of the year at the high school where she taught. And just to flag that, most sources I use said that Laura was a social studies teacher, but a couple of sources said she was a history and law teacher. So I think she might have covered a range of subjects at the high school where she taught. But I just wanted to flag that because it's a bit of a differentiation in the sources.

Speaker 1: 4:47

But apart from teaching, laura apparently also made jewellery in her spare time and just loved spending time with her friends, sisters and parents. She had a really great group of friends and a close-knit family as well. Now I couldn't find out how they met, but Laura was also in a relationship described as an on-off relationship in lots of sources with a guy called Tyler Tessier. They were in a relationship for around seven years when Laura was killed, but apparently they had known each other for about 10 years now. Tessier was a couple of years older than Laura and her sister said that they had always had a bit of an on-off relationship. According to Patchcom, he studied agriculture and worked in landscaping and sales for a farming company.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Now, in the summer of 2017, laura found out she was pregnant with a much-wanted child. She told family and friends that she wanted to call the baby Reed, regardless of its sex. Apparently, after finding out about their baby, tessia was planning to propose to Laura. He had even asked Laura's father, mark, for his blessing for that proposal. So we seem to have here a happy couple expecting their first child together, but, as usual, all was not as it seemed In the summer of 2017, as well as being pregnant and looking forward to that, laura found out that she was not Tessia's only girlfriend. In fact, he was not only seeing another woman I'm not going to name her here he was engaged to her, so Tessia had a fiancé at the same time that Laura was excited about having a child with him and probably wanting to marry him as well. I just cannot imagine how she was feeling at this point probably just reeling from the news. Now, at the end of August in 2017, laura actually messaged Tessier's fiancé asking her to meet up to talk about what's going on. She didn't want a confrontation, just to sort of talk like woman to woman. Now his fiance told Tessie about this message from Laura and he replied to her quote. I could literally kill her Now.

Speaker 1: 7:36

At the beginning of September 2017, it was the start of the new school year. Friends and family of Laura knew that she had put weeks of preparation and thought into her lessons and her classroom for the start of the school new year. However, on the first day of school, on the 5th of September, she was not there. As the Crime Junkie podcast would put it, laura was a no-call, no-show. She didn't let anyone know that she wouldn't be at school and she didn't arrange for a substitute teacher either, which was very unlike her. The school called her parents to see if they knew where Laura was. They had no idea and were immediately concerned, as it was so unlike Laura not to turn up to work and not to let anyone know if she wasn't coming in. Her parents called Tessier to see if he had seen her and he said he hadn't. Her parents were so concerned because, as we said, it was the first day of school and she had done so much preparation to make her classroom feel welcome to her students and put so much effort into thinking about that first day of school that it just seemed so unlike her that she wouldn't turn up. And they were also concerned because they knew that Laura was four months pregnant and were just really worried about her. So they called the police.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Now the police went over to Laura's apartment to carry out a welfare check. They didn't find Laura there, but they also didn't find anything that sort of looked out of place either, like there weren't any clear signs of a struggle or a fight or, you know, any blood or anything there. Everything looked relatively normal. The police did notice, however, that Laura's car wasn't there. Now they started investigating straight away, and props to the police for this, because sometimes you know you report an adult who's gone missing and you know they don't always take it as seriously as you would want them to.

Speaker 1: 9:36

It turned out that Laura's sister, jennifer, was one of the last people to hear from her. So Laura sent her sister a message on the weekend, on the 2nd of September, saying that Tessier had taken her to a field in Damascus, maryland, where he said he was going to build a home for them and their child. Where he said he was going to build a home for them and their child. Laura sent a photo of the field as well. Now, damascus is around 31 miles sort of northwest of Colombia, so about a 45-minute drive, and Jennifer actually did say to police that she did receive other messages from Laura after that, a couple of days later, but these messages were different because they were about the paternity of her baby and Laura in them was saying she thought maybe Tyler wasn't the father of her baby after all. Instead, the text said that the baby was an ex-boyfriend's, a guy named Antoine, and the text included, quote I am like 95% sure Tyler is not the father and quote I'm going to try and get hold of Antoine Now. Interestingly, in these text messages Antoine's name was misspelled, so the correct spelling is A-N-T-O-I-N-E and the in the text that Laura sent to her sister it was spelt A-N-T-W-A-N, so I guess sort of phonetically like it sounds, and Jennifer thought it was really weird at the time, as Laura didn't generally misspell names and the text also just sort of wasn't written like Laura normally would write a text. And when you text someone a lot, you know, like Jennifer did with her sister you get used to how they text and their little quirks and emojis they use. So if someone is, for example, pretending to be someone else on their phone and they don't pay attention to how that person normally texts, it's pretty easy to spot, to how that person normally texts. It's pretty easy to spot. So more on this later.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Now, as soon as the news was out that Laura was missing, as you can imagine, the community came out for her. They made missing flyers. They scoured neighbourhoods near her apartment and the school. They were talking to anyone who might have seen her, and it was near the high school that police found their first clue, in an apartment block opposite the school. They found Laura's car, a 2011 black Ford but they still hadn't found Laura. She was still missing.

Speaker 1: 12:12

So on the 11th of September, just a few days after she'd been reported missing, the police hosted a press conference with Laura's parents and Tessier you know her boyfriend calling for more information to help them find Laura. As you will probably know, this is quite common in police investigations for missing people, so would have seemed like the next logical step for police. Laura's parents also, at that press conference, offered a $25,000 reward for any information that might lead them to finding Laura. At the press conference, tyler Tessier called for Laura to come home. He said quote Laura, if you are listening, it doesn't matter what's happened, it doesn't matter what type of trouble. There is nothing we can't fix together, myself and your family. There are so many people, so many people that miss you, so many people who are out, who haven't slept. We haven't eaten. We're just looking or praying that you are safe, like many men who make public statements after their wife goes missing in inverted commas where, in fact, they have killed them. Chris Watts and Scott Peterson, I'm looking at you.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Tessier was talking absolute BS and notice how he tries to put the blame on Laura, saying you know, it doesn't matter what's happened, doesn't matter what type of trouble you're in really trying to sell that narrative that she's done something wrong and is therefore on the run. Now this man really has no shame. Little did Tessia know at this point he was already suspect number one for the disappearance of Laura. He was already suspect number one for the disappearance of Laura. The press conference was actually a set up by the police with the agreement of Laura's family to assess Tessier's reactions and interactions with family, police and press. So he probably thought he was like playing the doting boyfriend really, really well. But actually he was already on the police's radar. And he was on their radar for a few reasons Mostly because he kept changing his story to the police and secondly because they found out that he had texted a friend a few days before saying that he was quote cleaning up a mess, which is very suspicious.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Some of Tessier's lies, including him saying that he last saw Laura at her home but there was actually CCTV of them together at a supermarket. He also said that they'd arranged to meet up in a cafe in a shopping centre but she never turned up. He also admitted that he was the one who left Laura's car in the apartment complex. He hid her driving license and other belongings because she had asked him to to buy her time, so really trying to again drive that narrative that she's done something wrong, she's running away. He also finally admitted to sending those texts to Laura's sister about the paternity of the baby, and I think we could have all guessed it because of how he spelt Antoine and how he didn't really pay attention to how Laura texts. But I think it's really important that that was an important clue for police. This guy is just a bit of an idiot. Like I said, he probably thought that he was being really clever, but actually police were onto him straight away and didn't believe any of his blatant lies.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Just two days after the press conference on the 13th of September, laura's family got the news that they had been dreading. Police had found Laura's body in a shallow grave, had been dreading Police had found Laura's body in a shallow grave. She was dead and had been shot in the back of her head. She was actually found near that field in Damascus where she told her sister that Tessia had taken her just a few days before she went missing. Police had been led to that location when they found out that Tessia had made quite a few trips there over the days before. They searched the area. They found tyre tracks in a field. They used cadaver dogs and they found a spot where there was freshly dug soil and discovered Laura Della dead. Tessier was arrested for the murder of Laura on the 14th of September. Tessier was arrested for the murder of Laura on the 14th of September. In response to his arrest, mark, laura's father, said that Tessier was a monster and a liar, and saying that he had deceived his daughter their entire existence.

Speaker 1: 16:50

Now, we've spoken about this before on the podcast, but I just wanted to remind you that research from Harvard from a couple of years ago found that women in the United States who are pregnant or who have recently given birth are more likely to be murdered than to die from obstetric causes, and that these murders are often connected to intimate partner homicide. So once again, let's sink in. Again, let's sink in. Homicide is the leading cause of death, not pregnancy-related complications or giving birth, but being murdered for women in the United States who are pregnant or who have recently given birth. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about men's violence against women and what needs to change. I don't know what will. Pregnancy has also been identified as a risk factor in domestic abuse as well, and we've seen it in cases such as Lacey Peterson, fawzia Javed and Shannon Watts, who were all killed by their husband when they were pregnant. There's something about the impending responsibility, the loss of control not being someone's primary concerns anymore, that leads abusive men to decide that killing their partners and unborn children is the best course of action they can take, and most of them, like Tyler Tessier, think they are so clever that they will get away with it as well.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Idiots Hi Leticia was due to face trial for the murder of Laura Wallen on the 6th of September 2018, just over a year after she and her unborn child, reid, were killed. That morning, he rose early, around 5am, and was subsequently found dead in his cell. He had taken his own life. Although he wasn't on suicide watch in the jail, he did leave notes that illustrated that he intended to take his own life, and despite the fact that there was no defendant, prosecutors of the murder of Laura set out their evidence in a news conference later on that day. Montgomery County State's attorney John McCarthy said quote to Tyler Tessier lying was like breathing. He lied about everything. I think today was when it was all going to crush down on him.

Speaker 1: 19:34

Laura's family reacted to the news with a statement from Mark, her father. He said, quote Laura was a wonderful, remarkable woman and I don't believe that there is such a thing as closure, but the year, including today, has been a day where it feels like people have thrown bricks at our head and we've had to dodge. But at this point we can move on and hopefully remember our daughter as the wonderful woman she was Following on from this. Laura's sister, jennifer, said quote I was so looking forward to experiencing the incredible journey of motherhood with you and, for me, becoming an aunt. It is just so heartbreaking for everyone concerned that not only they lost Laura, but also the chance to see justice truly served, and I just cannot imagine how they felt.

Speaker 1: 20:26

Laura's parents, mark and Gwen, turned their grief into action, though, and wanted to change a gap that they saw in the law, and even though he didn't actually face trial, prosecutors were only able to charge Tessier with the murder of Laura, not the murder of their unborn child Reid. So Gwen and Mark called for a change in the law to enable 10 years to be added to the sentence of someone who knowingly commits a felony like murder against someone they know or believe is pregnant. The law named Laura and Reed's law was signed into Maryland in 2019 and it exists around 38 other states in the United States as well, and just to be really clear here as well, this law does not change women's access to abortion rights or change the law around that. Its focus is on deterring violence against women, and we know pregnancy is a very dangerous time for women, so that does make sense, but it doesn't take away any other reproductive rights that women have. When the law was passed, laura's mother, gwen, said quote it was a little like an out-of-body experience, but it was also really hard to hear Laura and Reid's name. When they said Laura and Reid's Law, it's happy, but it's painful too. This episode is dedicated to Laura Wallen and her unborn child named Reid, to the happiness they should have brought to her friends and family and to the difference she made in the lives of her many students. We remember them.

Speaker 1: 22:05

This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, claire Laxton. I'll be back next week with a new episode. Don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my insta at killerinthe family pod or through a text via a link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well. Also, don't forget you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help support it's running. The link is in the episode notes and thank you so much to everyone for your support so far. Until then, I've been claire laxton. This is Killer in the Family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you. Thank you.