M. William Phelps

How could it be a coincidence that this car of kids was at the scene of a murder close to the time Dr. Schwartz had been killed in the driveway of the victim and they did not have anything to do with the crime?

Most importantly right now though, who were they and where were they?

My name is M. William Phelps.

I'm an investigative journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of dozens of true crime books.

From Sony Music Entertainment and M. William Phelps, LLC, you are listening to Fatal Fantasy.

This is episode two, Mud.

The day after the body was found, detectives Locke and DiBenedetto headed out to James Madison University, over 100 miles southwest of Leesburg, to locate Schwartz's daughters, both of whom lived on campus, to inform the girls in person of what had happened.

It's one of the most difficult and heart-wrenching tasks a cop has.

Telling loved ones their father or wife or sister is not only gone, but their life was snuffed out by a murderer.

Michelle and Clara could not have been any more different.

Michelle was prim and proper, dressed trendy, highlighted her dark brown hair, kept it long and straight, and had an active social life on and off campus.

She went about her studies in a studious way and excelled.

And whenever she could spare a moment, she checked in on her father.

Clara had more of a rebellious attitude.

She told people she had an IQ of 190, which is profoundly rare and considered to be in the gifted category.

Based on photographs and also, as Clara's friends would later tell me, she came across kind of frumpy, homely-looking.

She wore Little House on the Prairie-type dresses she'd bought at a thrift shop, full skirted with fabric up to the neck.

So, needless to say, this made her a bit of an outcast.

Both girls, despite their differences, even if they didn't know it yet, could probably help with the investigation.

People respond in a variety of ways to being told a loved one has been murdered.