The Sleepwalking Murder

His neighbour witnessed him drowning his wife of 20 years in their swimming pool

“Get down!” the police officers shouted with their guns aimed at Falater, the man that caused the gruesome crime scene downstairs. They were on high alert after finding a woman murdered brutally and left floating lifelessly in the swimming pool. The pool had so much blood that the police described it as a shark attack.

But, nothing about Falater screamed murderer.

Dressed in clean pyjamas, he was midway downstairs and seemed confused about the ruckus. He made no attempt to fight nor escape.

Except for a bloodstain on his neck.

What happened that day?

January 17th, 1997, was just another regular afternoon for Scott. He came home from his day job and had dinner with his family. Shortly, he prepared his materials for a religious class the next morning before his day job. Around 9 PM, he tried to fix the pool filter as requested by his wife, Yarmila Fartela but failed. It was getting late, so he decided to work on it the next day instead.

He gave a goodnight kiss to Yarm, a nickname he adoringly used for his wife, who was asleep on the couch with the T.V. Series E.R. on before he climbed into his bed around 9:30 PM to 10 PM.

The next thing he knew, he had guns pointing at him.

Scott’s neighbors, however, were able to fill in the time gap and the tragedy in it. Around 10 PM, Greg Koons and Stephanie Reidhead were getting ready to turn in for the night when they heard someone softly moaning in pain outside. It was coming from their neighbor’s house. Koons decided to take a look.

He peeked over the fence and saw his neighbor, Yarmila Falater, lying on the ground, barely moving. In the beginning, Koons thought Yarmila was just passed out drunk until her husband, Scott Falater, put on a pair of gloves, rolled her to the pool, and held her head underwater.

Panicked, Koons ran back to his house and called 911 for help.

But, when the police arrived, it was too late. Yarmila was gone. They found the Falater’s children asleep in their bedroom, unaware of what happened.

The Investigation

Possible Motives

There was no doubt that Scott was the killer but, the big question was why?

There was never any clear motive behind this murder.

Scott Falater and Yarmila Falater were childhood sweethearts that happily tied the knot, soon giving birth to a baby boy and a baby girl. According to friends, they were in love and did not have any marital issues. Yarmila’s friend, Marci Blau, attested to this as she asked,

“I would say, ‘Come on, Yarmila, there’s gotta be something that drives you nuts.”

To which, Yarmila answered,

“Nope, no, he’s just a really great guy.”

Scott and Yarmila’s son, Michael too agreed,

“I never saw my parents argue or fight or yell at each other. It was a very loving home.”

The Falaters’ were successful without any reports of financial issues. Scott worked as an electrical engineer and product manager in a large corporation, Motorola. On the other hand, Yarmila worked in a medical lab specializing in parasitology and hematology before becoming a housewife after the birth of their 2nd child.

The prosecutor, however, said the couple was having troubles as Scott wanted more children, but Yarmila disagreed with it. It was usually only her taking care of the children as Scott was usually busy teaching in the church and his day job.

Yarmila was raised Catholic before converting into the Mormon faith with Scott. The prosecutor stressed Yarmila’s dwindling faith in Mormonism while Scott was a firm believer.

His side of the story

Scott was arrested and brought in for interrogation around 1 AM that day. In the police interview, he genuinely seemed confused and without any memory of the murder.

Scott had a history of sleepwalking, especially when he was stressed or sleep-deprived. Scott’s sister and mother testified for him, recalling the times where young Scott would be fully dressed for school even though it was midnight and the time when young Scott came down stark naked.

Scott’s sister also told how she tried stopping sleepwalking Scott from leaving the house, but Scott turned violent, grabbed her by her shoulders, and tossed her. She said,

“He looked just so angry. He looked almost demonic. I have never seen him look like that — never.”

But, when asked, Scott claimed that he had no recollections of any of them.

Reasons of Doubt

For someone sleepwalking, he did fairly several complex tasks.

He changed out from his bloodied clothes into a fresh pair of pyjamas, placed the bloodied shirt, pants, and murder weapon into a clear container, kept his boots and gloves in a black garbage bag, and hid them all in his car trunk. He also put on gloves before drowning his wife and allegedly controlled and quiet down his dog.

While there was a possibility of Scott doing all that while sleepwalking, it was slim. Most of the time, sleepwalking involves routine tasks like getting dressed. The defense brought up that Scott was fixing the pool filter with the murder weapon, a hunting knife that night which could have led Scott unconsciously to use the hunting knife on his wife. One of the jurors talked about the hunting knife and said that the knife was “not used for any other purpose, except for killing.”

Prosecution

Scott admitted to physically killing his wife but not consciously. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Aftermath

Till today, Scott stood by with his defense, that he has no recollection of that night. Scott kept a clean record in prison and often worked as a tutor as he did in church before the murder.

“Move on. Do what you have to do to live a good life. I couldn’t be prouder of both of them,” Scott told his daughter, understandingly who expressed that she felt guilty after visiting him in prison.

In 2020, Michael, now an attorney and a father, said in an interview with ABC News that he forgave his father and would like to maintain their father-son relationship.

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