Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out on Patreon. Hey guys, Courtney here. As a listener of my show, you know how important it is for me to share details about the victim in the case and talk about who they were before they became crime victims. Highlighting and talking about the victims is so important to true crime. That's why I want to share with you the podcast, Jeffrey Epstein, The Prince and the Pervert.
It's an amazing show hosted by two Aussie moms and journalists, Lisa and Jen, who've been researching the case since July 2019. This podcast covers it all. Epstein, Maxwell, Prince Andrew, these two hosts don't hold back. They cover it all. What I love even more about Jeffrey Epstein, the prince and the pervert, is that they speak directly with some of his victims.
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Over the course of 48 hours in February 2007, a decorated U.S. astronaut and Navy officer would destroy the life she spent 43 years meticulously crafting. She went from a wife, mother, NASA crew member, and a U.S. Navy pilot to a convicted felon.
Over February 4th and 5th, 2007, Lisa Nowak went from a role model for young girls to being the butt of every joke on the internet. Lisa Nowak was accused of driving 900 miles cross-country from Texas to Florida to confront a woman who was also her rival. She took with her what many would describe as a kill kit.
Gloves, a BB gun, rubber tubing, a knife, and a pair of adult diapers. What caused Lisa Nowak to go from a NASA astronaut to a convicted felon? And what did she really intend to do on her cross-country trip? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 55, the story of Lisa Nowak. ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast that covers real crime.
Bone-chilling true crime stories with a forensic science twist. Some of the cases have been solved by a little help of forensic science. Others have turned cold. The stories we cover each week send a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
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Another great way you can help support Forensic Tales is by leaving us a positive rating with a review. Now, let's jump right into this week's story. Hi, everyone. Before we get into the episode, I've got some more exciting news to share with you.
We have added additional benefits and tiers up on Patreon. Some of the added benefits include ad-free episodes, as well as free show merchandise just for signing up and supporting the show. So to support Forensic Tales and also get some really cool perks along the way, make sure you head over to our Patreon page.
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So to get some Forensic Tales merchandise, just go to our website, ForensicTales.com, top right-hand corner, click the link Merch, and start shopping today. One last thing before we get into the case this week, on Wednesday the 20th is our show's first birthday. Forensic Tales is turning one.
So to celebrate our birthday, make sure you're following the show on Instagram at Forensic Tales as well as on Facebook. I'm going to be making some really big announcements on our social media accounts so you don't want to miss out. So this week on the show, we're covering a story that didn't really get much attention back in 2007. In fact, to be completely honest with you, I didn't hear about it until last year.
But it's a case that raises some really interesting and important points of conversation that don't really get talked about as much as they should. And it's a case that really looks at the forensic psychology, my favorite field of forensics.
what was going on in Lisa Nowak's mind back in February 2007 to cause her to go from a world-renowned, celebrated NASA astronaut to a criminal, a convicted felon. Forensic psychology attempts to explain this intersection between basic psychology, human behavior, and the law, our criminal justice system.
Forensic psychology helps to explain how mental illness can lead to criminal behavior. Right now, in the United States, the Bureau of Justice Statistics report that 26% of inmates in our local jails meet the criteria for having a serious mental health condition. That accounts for about one in four of the inmate population.
Forensic psychology can also help explain why women and men offenders often receive different treatment by the criminal justice system. In the U.S., on average, men receive 63% longer sentences than women do, often for the same crime. And the story we're covering this week talks about it all. But sometimes...
Sometimes the explanations aren't so simple. They aren't so black and white. Sometimes our behavior, especially when it turns criminal, can be hard even for the field of forensic psychology to try and explain. And that's exactly what we'll be doing into this episode. The person at the center of what happened on February 4th and 5th, 2007 in Orlando, Florida is Lisa Nowak. But
What happened in February 2007 didn't start then. What led Lisa to do what she did began years and decades earlier. Lisa Nowak was born Lisa Marie Caputo on May 10, 1963 in Washington, D.C. Her father was a highly successful computer consultant and her mother worked as a biological specialist.
In 1969, when Lisa was just six years old living in Maryland, she did what practically every American did that day. She watched on television as Apollo 11 landed on the moon. And like many young kids, Lisa watched Apollo 11 and thought about what it would be like to become an astronaut and what it would be like to go to the moon.
By her junior year of high school, Lisa knew she wanted to become an astronaut. During her senior year, she was accepted at Brown University and was also offered admission to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Lisa's parents hoped that their daughter would go to Brown University. It's an Ivy League school after all, very prestigious, but Lisa declined.
And she decided that if she went to Annapolis, she would have a much better chance at ultimately fulfilling her dream and getting a job working for NASA someday. Lisa knew that women in the field of space was one of a glass ceiling, that the barrier to entry for women was difficult, to say the least.
Women hadn't even been accepted at Annapolis until 1976, which was just five years before Lisa was accepted. So when she entered into the program, women represented roughly 6% of the entire student body there, which is, of course, a gross underrepresentation of the population that we live in.
But the glass ceiling and the barriers to entry didn't really seem to bother Lisa. If there was a woman who was going to go on and work for NASA and was going to become an astronaut against all odds, it had to be someone like Lisa Nowak. Lisa graduated the program at Annapolis in 1985.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, and she quickly accepted a job working with the U.S. Navy. Even though this was during the 1980s, women were still banned from combat assignments in the Navy. Even with this ban, Lisa started flight training.
Many, probably mostly men, didn't understand why women would train to perform a job they wouldn't even be allowed to do. But Lisa, well, Lisa didn't let that noise bother her. And by June 1987, she qualified as a Navy flight officer. And she actually graduated the program at the top of her class.
Over the next couple years, Lisa had an extremely successful career with the Navy, as well as much success in her personal life. She completed her master's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1992 from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and she also met her husband, Richard Nowak. Lisa and Richard had met while they were both in flight school together with the Navy, and
and they would go on to have three children together. They had a son and two twin girls. As you can imagine, Lisa was a really, really busy lady. I think we can all relate to that, but Lisa was juggling a demanding career with the Navy. She was working tirelessly to get accepted as an astronaut with NASA. She was a wife to Richard, and she was the mother of three small children.
She was also a woman who was known for her big Easter brunches where she invited the entire neighborhood. She was a cyclist. She had hobbies like growing African violets and collecting stamps. This lady pretty much did it all. In the Navy, Lisa had logged over 1,500 hours of flight time across 30 different aircrafts.
and she earned several awards, including the Navy Achievement Medal. To say that Lisa had been burning the candle at both ends may have been a slight understatement. After years of waiting and years of proving herself in the Navy, Lisa finally achieved her lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut, and she was accepted into NASA's space program.
In 1996, Lisa really achieved almost the impossible. She was selected out of over 2,400 applications to work as an astronaut assigned at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. And when I say she was one of 2,400 applications, I mean, becoming an astronaut with NASA isn't like applying to a regular job.
She had to submit her application to a board who then would approve the applications and then forward the qualified applications on to NASA. So the applications that actually get to NASA's desk are a tiny microscopic fraction of the entire applicant pool of people who want to become astronauts. The screening process also isn't easy.
Lisa, along with the others who were selected to join her class at NASA, went through some really extensive psychological evaluations and screenings to ensure that she was mentally fit to do the job. Her mental fitness will, of course, be at the center of this story.
But at least back in 1996, 1997, NASA deemed her mentally fit to be one of their astronauts, which is something only reserved for a tiny fraction of the population. One of her first assignments with NASA was to operate the Space Shuttle Endeavor's robot arm.
She was a member of the STS-100 mission back in April 2001, where she helped the crew on Endeavor install a robotic arm on the International Space Station. This was a position and a job that no female had ever done before. This was really big in history. Lisa also worked as one of NASA's personal casualty assistance officers.
Basically, Lisa had the job of notifying as well as working with families of fallen NASA astronauts who were either killed in space or in some sort of other disaster, which to me sounds like an extremely sad and difficult job to do. So you can only imagine the type of stress that having that job could have for someone like Lisa.
Now, things for Lisa started to take a turn, and it was a turn not in the right direction. In 2003, with the explosion of the Columbia Space Shuttle that killed all seven astronauts on board, including one of Lisa's best friends, Laurel Clark.
We all probably remember that on February 1st, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it attempted to reenter the atmosphere. And the cause of the crash was a piece of foam had broken off of the shuttle's exterior tank.
and the piece of foam struck the left wing of the orbiter, causing the entire space shuttle to disintegrate, to explode. The Columbia disaster was one of the worst NASA tragedies we've ever witnessed, we've ever experienced, especially after watching what happened in the Challenger disaster. So after the Columbia disaster, the tragedy happened,
Lisa became the personal casualty assistance officer to her late friend, Laurel Clark's family. She had to help this family and provide assistance after the tragic, tragic loss of Laurel, who was also a wife and mother herself. And it wasn't easy for Lisa to deal with all of this. On top of all of her other responsibilities as an astronaut, she
As a wife and mother of three, she now provided full-time care and assistance to the Clarks, one of her best friend's families, while she was also left grieving the loss of her very own friend. Shortly after the loss of Laurel Clark, her best friend, in 2004, Lisa's personal life took another turn.
In 2004, Lisa began an affair with a fellow astronaut, a man by the name of Bill Offelman. Bill, like Lisa, was also married. He would stay married to his wife for almost 19 years. Lisa and Bill started their affair while working together at NASA. Beyond the fact that they were both married to other people, they had to keep their relationship a complete secret. They had no other choice.
Because since they were both Navy officers, if the Navy found out about their affair, they both could have been charged with conducting behavior unbecoming of a Naval officer. Their affair would be against the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So they kept it a secret. Their relationship was kept in the dark.
A couple years later, two years later in 2006, this is now three years after the Columbia disaster where she lost her best friend. Lisa was finally selected for a mission that would allow her to go to space for the very first time. Besides becoming an astronaut with NASA, being selected for a space mission was her second biggest dream.
So in July 2006, Lisa became a member of the STS-121 crew, a mission that spent two weeks in space on the Space Shuttle Discovery. If it hadn't been for the fact that NASA didn't make small enough spacesuits,
Lisa and another female astronaut on the mission would have been the first all-female spacewalk in history, which of course is something that we just recently witnessed. Now, when Lisa returned home from space, things really continued to spiral downwards. At first, the excitement of returning home, returning back to Earth, was really exciting for Lisa and her entire crew.
Astronauts, when they return home from a mission, are regarded as heroes. There's this instant catapult into stardom for many of them. Lisa and her fellow crewmates embarked on a series of public events and different interviews. They attended the X Games. They threw out the first pitch at a Houston Astros game.
Lisa went on to a number of different elementary and middle schools to talk to kids, especially young girls, about what it was like to be a NASA astronaut and what it was like to go to space. After her mission, she was really on top of the world. But just as quickly as that stardom begins, it comes to a crashing end. After a few weeks, a few months of excitement,
Nobody seems to remember these astronauts' names. It's like some of them go from this really big high to this incredible low. The best analogy that I have is with Olympic athletes. There's a really great documentary on this that my fiance and I watched with Michael Phelps, the swimmer, and it's called The Weight of Gold.
That talks about what Olympic athletes go through after achieving stardom in the Olympic Games, then returning home to a completely normal life. There's this transition from this really, really high moment of competing in the games, then coming home and feeling this letdown. A few months later, you go to the grocery store and no one knows who you are anymore.
And that swing in emotions carries a lot of mental and psychological side effects, many of which are similar to what some astronauts or even some members of the military experience once they return home, once they return to normal life.
Lisa Nowak was someone who certainly, after returning from a two-week mission in space, experiencing the stardom of being a celebrated female NASA astronaut, felt this stress or this mental psychological rollercoaster that she was on.
So a few months after Lisa's return home from space in early 2007, she was still feeling the downswing of returning to normal life and started experiencing some major trouble in her relationships. In early 2007, after 19 years of marriage, Bill, her boyfriend, filed for divorce from his wife.
I think he thought that once he filed for divorce, Lisa would do the same and they could finally be together in a normal relationship. But she didn't. Lisa didn't want to divorce her husband. She also didn't want her relationship to end with Bill, which lays this foundation for more trouble in both of these relationships.
the one she has with her husband, and the one she has with her secret boyfriend, Bill. Not surprising, this caused some friction in the relationship. Bill divorced his wife, yet Lisa refused to divorce her husband. Bill wanted a normal, out-in-the-open relationship with Lisa, but that was never going to happen as long as Lisa was still married. And that's the moment...
When Bill met Colleen Shipman. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn. When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but also for my listeners. That's why I choose Podcorn to find sponsorships for Forensic Tales. Within just a couple short days of signing up, I found my first sponsorship.
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When I'm not listening to true crime stories, I can't get enough of pop culture podcasts. And to stay up to date with pop culture, I subscribe and listen to the best pop culture podcast out there today. The Pop Culture Show, hosted by award-winning hosts Barnes, Leslie, and Cubby.
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I highly recommend you subscribe today and give them a listen. That's the pop culture show at the pop culture show dot com or wherever you get your podcasts. In January 2007, Bill started dating a woman by the name of Colleen Shipman, who was also a captain in the Air Force. And pretty quickly, things got serious between them.
Bill could actually see a future with Colleen, something that he couldn't see with Lisa if she was going to stay married. So Bill decides to completely break it off with Lisa. He tells her about his relationship with Colleen, how things are getting serious between them, and that he doesn't want to see her anymore. They're over. They're done. This news was devastating to Lisa.
She had just gotten back from space. She's in a negative headspace. She's never fully stopped grieving the loss of her best friend. This is when Lisa starts to mentally break down. After learning that her boyfriend Bill is now seeing someone else, Lisa receives yet another blow. Her marriage with Richard also falls apart.
In January 2007, Lisa and her husband Richard separate. They're going to get a divorce. At the same exact time, as if things cannot get any worse for her, Lisa is also passed over by NASA for an upcoming mission in February. Lisa wouldn't be returning to space for a second mission.
This is now when Lisa would embark on a trip that would forever coin her as Astronut. At some point in late January 2007, Lisa still had with her a key to Bill's apartment. Even though they had broken up, Lisa decides that she's going to use those keys. That she's going to find out for herself just how serious his relationship is with Colleen.
Inside Bill's Texas apartment, Lisa starts going through his emails. She goes through his entire computer. One of the first things she comes across are emails between Bill and his new girlfriend, Colleen Shipman. Just like you'd expect emails to be between two people who recently started dating. They're sexual. They're talking about how much in love they are with one another.
They were just the type of emails that if you're in Lisa's shoes, aren't going to make you feel too good. Also in the emails, Lisa learned that Colleen had an upcoming flight. She was returning home to Orlando, Florida after a quick trip where she visited with Bill at his apartment in Houston, Texas. So after reading that Colleen had been staying at Bill's apartment with him,
This is when something went off in her head, and she would start a chain of events that would completely unravel her entire life's work. This brings us to February 4th and 5th, 2007, the dates that we mentioned at the top of the episode. This is when Lisa Nowak decides to embark on a 900-mile journey from Houston, Texas to Orlando, Florida.
wearing adult diapers so she didn't have to make any bathroom breaks along the way. Lisa took off three days from work in preparation for this drive cross-country. Besides the adult diapers, she also packed what many would describe as a kidnapping kit, a murder kit. On her way from Houston to Orlando, Lisa packed with her latex gloves, a black wig, a BB gun,
pepper spray, a hooded trench coat, a drilling hammer, black gloves, an eight-inch knife, a steel mallet, four feet of rubber tubing, duct tape, garbage bags, and if that's not enough, she also brought with her a floppy disk containing nude photographs and bondage instructions.
After driving over 900 miles, Lisa arrived at the Orlando International Airport just after 1 o'clock in the morning. Also at the airport was Colleen Shipman, whose plane had just landed from Houston. Lisa watched as Colleen waited for her luggage at baggage claim for just over an hour. There had been something wrong with the luggage, so it took a little bit longer.
After Colleen gets her luggage, she heads in the direction of the shuttles to get to where her car is parked. And right away, Colleen got the feeling that she was being followed. Someone, who we now know was Lisa Nowak, was following Colleen to her car, wearing a wig and a trench coat.
Once Colleen started suspecting that some lady was following her, she started walking with a little more purpose. And then she started running towards her parked car. The second that Colleen got inside of her car and shut the door, Lisa approached her driver's side window.
Because of the wig and because of how she was dressed, Colleen had absolutely no idea this lady was Lisa Nowak, her current boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. Lisa approaches the window and tries to tell Colleen through the closed window that her boyfriend forgot to pick her up at the airport and she's desperately in need of a ride.
At first, Colleen was skeptical, but it wasn't like this person looked threatening. She was a female, not a male, which helps. It seemed totally believable that this lady just simply needed a ride, that her boyfriend wasn't there to pick her up. If Colleen was in her shoes, if she was on the other side of the window, if Bill, for some reason, forgot to pick her up at the airport...
She, of course, would want someone to do the same for her. So Colleen doesn't open her car door. Instead, she goes to the button to open up the window. Now, she doesn't intend on opening the window all the way. She wanted to just crack it open so maybe she could talk to this lady a little bit clearer. It's a little bit harder to hear her. But with power windows, the window accidentally opens all of the way.
And that's when Lisa pulls out a can of pepper spray and unloads it on Colleen's face. I, for one, thankfully, have never experienced pepper spray. But I think we all know how painful and how uncomfortable it is. And even worse, Colleen's inside of her car. She's got no escape from this pepper spray. And she had just been pepper sprayed in the face, point blank.
By a woman she doesn't even know. She doesn't know if this woman is trying to carjack her, to kidnap her, or worse, if she's there to murder her. Somehow, someway, Colleen is able to drive away from this woman, from Lisa. And she's able to flag down the police to tell them what's happened to her and also to get some aid. Her eyes are burning.
What happens next really, in my opinion, really highlights what kind of mental state Lisa Nowak must have been in. Instead of running away or trying to get away, she hangs around the area. She hangs out near the airport. She'd just pepper sprayed her ex-boyfriend's current girlfriend in the face. She's got what some would say is a kill kit or a kidnap kit inside of her car that
She just drove 900 plus miles in diapers so she wouldn't have to stop. Why didn't she drive away? Why didn't she just leave the area? If she would have left, gotten out of the area, she would have gotten away with all of this. Colleen didn't know who this woman was. She didn't know who pepper sprayed her. The story would have been over right here and now. So the Orlando police quickly apprehend Lisa.
When they spot her, when they get eyes on her, they watch her as she pulls off the wig and tries to throw the trench coat that she was wearing into a dumpster. So it's very clear to police that this woman is the person who assaulted Colleen inside of the airport parking lot. There wasn't really too much effort done on behalf of the police. This was an easy one.
When police apprehend Lisa, she still has inside her car the pepper spray, the knife, rubber tubing, the BB gun, the mallet, and the computer floppy disk. The discovery of these types of items inside the car are really disturbing to police. These are items found inside of a woman's car who was just discovered to have pepper sprayed a woman in the face.
This clearly looks like Lisa was out there to, at the very least, kidnap Colleen and at the very worst, was there to murder her. So the police don't waste any time. They don't have to. And she's placed under arrest. She's going to be going to jail. Now, at the Orlando police station, police had with them Lisa's driver's license. They recovered it from inside of her vehicle.
And when police ask Colleen if she knows who Lisa Nowak is, the person who attacked her earlier that night, Colleen is completely taken off guard. She told police she wasn't quite sure, but she knew her boyfriend Bill had an ex-girlfriend by the name of Lisa. She didn't know her last name, but she knew there was a Lisa in their lives.
So Colleen pulls out her cell phone and calls up Bill. And Point Blank asks him if his ex-girlfriend Lisa is actually Lisa Nowak, to which he answers, yes. Why? Lisa was initially charged with felony counts, including attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary, and destruction of evidence.
By this point, she'd now become the first U.S. astronaut in history to be charged with a felony. While Lisa was in jail, two fellow NASA astronauts hop on a plane from Texas. They fly out to Florida to be there at Lisa's arraignment in court. They wanted to show their support and provide the judge some character testimony about Lisa.
How she was a highly regarded, highly respected astronaut at NASA. That this behavior was completely out of character. It wasn't in line with the Lisa Nowak that everyone knew and worked with. So at the arraignment, the prosecution had a different opinion about Lisa. And frankly, they didn't really care that she was an astronaut. The prosecution argued that based on what was found inside of her car, the kill kit, the kidnap kit,
And based on the circumstances, it was clear and obvious that Lisa had at the very least a well thought out plan to kidnap and perhaps cause physical harm to Colleen. Lisa, on the other hand, maintained right from the beginning that she didn't intend to kidnap or cause physical harm to Colleen. Her story was that she simply went out there to confront her.
She, of course, didn't really have an explanation for all the stuff that she brought with her if her only motive was to speak with Colleen. But that's all the explanation she would offer, that she simply was going to go confront her, that she just wanted to speak with her. Now, that's a tough hurdle to get over, at least in my opinion.
It's hard to argue you drove over 900 miles just to talk to someone, let alone you basically had a kill kit inside of your car. The knife and BB gun alone are enough. You just don't take weapons with you to simply have a conversation. And I think it's obvious. Given the relationship between them, their connection to Bill, the top point of this love triangle,
that Lisa didn't go out there to simply talk to Colleen. So prosecutors made a move. Prosecutors threatened to charge Lisa with more serious charges, including attempted murder. They really couldn't believe that she was trying to get out of this. So Lisa pleads not guilty and is released on bond. And her defense attorney opts to have a jury trial.
I think this is a very smart decision here. I know I've said in previous episodes on the show that I would personally always opt for a bench trial, but in this case, it's a smart move. Lisa is a decorated NASA astronaut. She's a female, and a jury is going to be a lot more lenient on her than probably most judges would be.
Now, before her case moved to trial in front of a jury, Lisa's defense attorney filed paperwork for an insanity plea. And this is when the forensic psychology of the case really comes into play. Lisa's defense attorney argued that she'd been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, insomnia, major depression disorder.
And because her condition meets the criteria for a serious mental condition, she can't. She cannot be held criminally liable for her actions. The report noted that two different forensic psychologists noted in their report that these symptoms were present and they were severe in February 2007 when she pepper sprayed Colleen.
This is a really important step in the case. Her attorney is claiming insanity that Lisa's mental condition rose to a level where she can't be held criminally responsible for what happened back between February 4th and February 5th, 2007. I mentioned at the top of the episode that almost one in four inmates in our local jails meet the criteria for a serious mental condition.
However, a very, very tiny percentage of those qualify or even meet the conditions for an insanity defense. Mental illness does not equal insanity. Different states in the U.S. use different tests to determine insanity. And whichever test is used, insanity in terms of criminal law is really, really difficult to prove.
The stat that I could find reported that only about 30 cases, not 30%, but 30 cases every year are successful at an insanity defense. 30 cases, that's it. So in terms of success rate, an insanity defense is extremely low.
Now, in Lisa's case, this insanity defense was believed by many to be a result of her work at NASA and how her work affected her mind. Those who were close with Lisa believed that what happened to her best friend on the Columbia incident may have played a part in her mental breakdown.
Some even say that NASA may have missed changes in Lisa's mental state after returning from space. We know we talked about before anyone is admitted into NASA's training program, they go through extensive mental screening and evaluations. Being put inside of a tiny shuttle or a high-powered rocket and then being catapulted into space is not an easy feat, right?
NASA needs to make sure they're putting people inside of their rockets who are mentally fit to handle all of what comes with being an astronaut. The problem is, is that NASA does not conduct any follow-up tests or check-in evaluations on their astronauts. Once you pass that initial screening, that's it. NASA doesn't regularly check in with their staff. They aren't required to do any additional follow-ups or check-ins.
They don't even do anything when an astronaut retires. So some point to the lack of care that NASA showed for Lisa. They say that they should regularly assess and reevaluate the mental fitness of their astronauts, especially when they return from space missions. And maybe if NASA would have followed up with Lisa and checked in with her mental state,
Maybe her encounter with Colleen could have been avoided completely. It would have never happened. This, however, also begs a really, really important question. What if Lisa would have sought out attention or help for her mental state? Then she would have likely lost her spot in the program with NASA. She had waited years to go to space.
If she would have sought out counseling or some sort of other treatment for mental illness, or not even that, just sought out counseling or some sort of therapy to talk out some of the feelings she was having, who knows what would have happened to her career. It's a completely double-edged sword we're talking about.
Finally, some look to Lisa's recent mission to space as a cause to her mental state in February 2007.
She knew that this was likely her only chance at space travel, and she had trouble readjusting to normal life afterwards. Again, it's that Olympic athlete, that person in the military. They go from instant stardom to a person who goes unrecognized at the grocery store. In mid-May 2009, this is now a little over two years after the incident,
Lisa decides to withdraw her insanity plea. It's entirely unclear exactly why they decided to withdraw the insanity defense, but instead, Lisa ended up pleading guilty to lesser charges of felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. In my opinion, my personal opinion, Lisa got really lucky with this one.
I think the prosecution had a strong case for much more serious charges against her. I don't know if they would get attempted murder like they wanted, but I would say felony attempted kidnapping probably had a good shot. I'm really troubled by what Lisa brought with her. I'm troubled by the fact she drove 900 plus miles, allegedly in diapers, so she could quote, talk to Colleen.
I'm troubled by her entering Bill's apartment and reading his personal emails. To me, that's scary behavior. That's behavior that tells me Lisa didn't drive all the way out to Orlando to simply talk with Colleen. On the other end, I think Colleen got really, really lucky. The only thing that happened to her was getting pepper sprayed in the face.
Not to mention, though, just how scary that must have been for her. She didn't know if this person was there to carjack her, to kidnap her. She didn't know anything. And I can only imagine the trauma and the stress that she must still deal with because of what happened. So Lisa ended up pleading guilty to felony burglary and misdemeanor battery.
The judge in the case sentenced her to one year of probation. She had to do some community service hours and she had to write an apology letter to Colleen Shipman. Again, Lisa really lucked out. I think this is where gender certainly plays a role in our criminal justice system.
I also mentioned at the top of the episode that men receive much longer sentences than women do, sometimes for the exact same crime. To play devil's advocate, if Lisa Nowak was a man who did what she did, I don't think the judge would sentence him to probation with community service hours. He would have been given jail, possibly prison for sure.
So in my opinion, Lisa was extremely fortunate with the sentence that she received here. Colleen Shipman, the victim in all of this, wasn't happy with the judge's sentence either. In her victim impact statement that she read in court, Colleen expressed her feelings that she really thought Lisa was going to kidnap her that night. She spoke to the evil she saw in Lisa's eyes.
in which she described as, quote, a blood chilling expression of limitless rage and glee, end quote. Colleen reports that the incident has left her with regular nightmares, that she suffers from dizzy spells. She also carries a weapon on her in order to protect herself. This incident really had a profound effect on her that she will have to carry for the rest of her life.
After Lisa pled guilty and was given her sentence, her career was completely over. Her and Richard divorced in 2008, and in 2011, she received an other-than-honorable discharge from the Navy, and she no longer worked for NASA. She was able to have her criminal case sealed in 2011, but there's no way Lisa Nowak will ever escape what happened back in February 2007.
If you've heard about this story before this episode, you've likely only heard about it in context of a former NASA astronaut who wore diapers to confront her ex-boyfriend's girlfriend. That's typically the headline, the storyline. In 2007, Law & Order, Criminal Intent did an entire episode based on this love triangle involving NASA astronauts.
Practically every late night show joked about the diaper. There was a 2019 movie called Lucy in the Sky where Natalie Portman plays a character that was largely based on Lisa Nowak's story. It's really something that Lisa will never be able to fully get away from.
The latest that I could find on where Lisa is now and what she's up to is that in a 2019 Time magazine article, they reported that she's living quietly in Texas. She's keeping to herself. After the divorce from Richard, she got full custody of the three children, and she reportedly works in the private sector. Her attorney has stated on numerous occasions that she's, quote, doing well.
This is a story where there actually is a happy ending of sorts. So after all of this, Bill and Colleen, well, Bill and Colleen stayed together. The two other people in this crazy love triangle. They both retired from the military in 2008. They relocated to Alaska. And now they're happily married and have a son together.
In Alaska, Colleen published her first book, and although she may never fully get over what happened to her back in February 2007, at least it's good, it's refreshing to hear that she seems to be moving on with her life in a very productive way.
So to share your thoughts on this week's story and the story of Lisa Nowak, be sure to connect with the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales. Be sure to let me know what you think drove Lisa to make that 900-mile drive cross-country. Do you think she received an appropriate sentence? To check out photos from the case, be sure to head over to our website, ForensicTales.com.
The website is also where you can learn about ways to support the show and shop official show merchandise. I'll see you guys next week, next Monday, where we'll cover a brand new story, a brand new case. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
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For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Please join me next week. We release a new episode every Monday. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.
Thank you.