Ezra McCandless
Snapped: Women Who Murder
A young woman named Ezra McCandless, formerly known as Monica Carlin, claims to have escaped a violent assault and seeks refuge at the home
Key takeaways
- Ezra McCandless fabricated an assault claim to gain attention and reconnect with her ex-boyfriend Jason Mengel.
- The discovery of Alex Woodworth's body, brutally stabbed in a remote area, shifted the case from a missing person investigation to a murder trial.
Main topics
- False assault allegations
- Gender identity and personal transformation
Notable quotes
"I just remember being really scared. What were you scared of? Alex."
"She had knife wounds to her hands, to both of her legs... the word 'boy' carved into her arm."
Conclusion
Ezra McCandless was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with the
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:03) A young Wisconsin woman appears to be the victim of a horrifying attack. Speaker 4 (0:09) She had knife wounds to her hands, to both of her legs. The distinctive wound that stood out was the word boy Speaker 1 (0:17) carved into her arm. Her showing up in the condition that she was in, we had some major concerns there. Speaker 2 (0:25) The investigation uncovers a complex personal history. Speaker 2 (0:32) I just remember being really scared. What were Speaker 1 (0:34) you scared of? Speaker 2 (0:35) Alex. Speaker 4 (0:37) They had been dating since November to the middle of February when she broke it off with him. Speaker 2 (0:43) But when a body is discovered in a remote area, it turns the entire case upside down. Speaker 3 (0:51) There was a lot of blood around the vehicle. Feet had been Speaker 4 (0:55) stabbed several times. Speaker 4 (0:57) Once we found him, we realized he wasn't a suspect. He was our victim. Speaker 2 (1:18) March 22nd, 2018. It's a crisp spring afternoon in the small town of Menominee, Wisconsin. Speaker 3 (1:27) Picture northwest Wisconsin, rolling farm fields, patches of woods here and there. Speaker 1 (1:34) Not much going on. Speaker 3 (1:36) It's Speaker 1 (1:36) a community of about 70, 75,000 people. Generally a very safe community. Not a lot of crimes. Speaker 2 (1:48) This idyllic community is not accustomed to emergencies. So when a local dairy farmer calls 911 about a possible assault, it comes as a surprise. Speaker 7 (2:12) This Speaker 1 (2:15) young woman showed up at his door wearing muddy socks, covered in blood, very anguished, very panicked. Speaker 2 (2:34) The Sheriff's Department sends a deputy to the address, along with medical assistance and a state trooper for backup. Speaker 3 (2:42) The deputy that responded asked her what was going on, and she was very confused, said she couldn't really recall, everything was really fuzzy. What's the last thing you remember? How about we do that? Speaker 7 (2:54) Getting them? Yeah. So, are we talking like a man? More than one man? I don't know. Speaker 7 (3:24) While Speaker 2 (3:26) officers try to track down Jason, the young woman is immediately taken to the hospital for evaluation. Speaker 4 (3:38) When she arrived at the hospital, she had knife wounds to her hands that could be considered defensive wounds to both of her legs in the thigh region. The wounds were very superficial. Speaker 3 (3:52) It's just strange. It's bizarre. But the distinctive wound that she had in them, the one that stood out the most, was the word boy carved into her arm. At that point in time, Eau Claire County detectives responded to the hospital to interview this young lady. Speaker 7 (4:14) I just remember being really cold and just kind of like it's kind of like the feeling of like you don't know what's happening and you're scared and you just need to keep walking and walking and running and I don't know kind of like I felt kind of like a scared animal I don't know how to describe it Speaker 5 (4:37) We do see that trauma can impact memory. We tend to remember things that we do much more clearly and more often than we might remember things that other people are doing to us. Speaker 3 (4:49) The deputy is like, give us a description of their car. Give us a description of them. Where exactly did this occur? She wasn't able to do that. So we don't know what suspects to look for, and there's an extreme sense of urgency to find the suspect. Speaker 2 (5:09) Monica Kay was born in Stanley, Wisconsin on October 6, 1997. Speaker 8 (5:15) She was raised by a single mother. She didn't know her biological father growing up. Speaker 5 (5:22) Monica had some challenges really from birth in the sense that her mom was very, very young when she had her. She was 14 years old. And I think growing up with a mom that's that young, that would have a big impact on her. Speaker 8 (5:34) Her mom went through a lot when she was a kid, and Monica felt a big responsibility to be an adult or to be a parent in the household. She was really, really close to her family, but she cited a lot of generational trauma. Speaker 1 (5:50) Her mother later married a man named Joe Carlin, and at age four, he adopted her. Speaker 5 (5:56) She became Monica K. Carlin. Speaker 2 (6:04) In high school, Monica didn't quite fit into any social circle, but her outgoing personality helped her make friends easily. Speaker 8 (6:13) She was two years younger than me, and we shared an art class together. She was always kind of a zany, weird individual, and I think that's why we connected, because we both had similar interests. Speaker 7 (6:25) She was a great artist. Anything and everything she could find to make art, she would. And her car was no exception. It had all these, like, doodles and little things, and you could definitely tell it was her vehicle. Speaker 8 (6:41) I think she expressed her admiration for the beauty of the world through her art. Speaker 2 (6:51) Monica's creativity wasn't the only thing that made her stand out among her classmates. Speaker 5 (6:58) When she was a teenager, around 15, 16, she started really experimenting with her gender fluidity. Speaker 8 (7:07) For the whole time that we were together, Monica had a really masculine appearance and was dressing and presenting more outwardly as male. As time progressed, she started to dress a little bit more feminine, so she was wearing more tightly fitting clothing, as well as doing her makeup more often. Speaker 2 (7:26) Monica started identifying as masculine during high school, before eventually identifying as both feminine and gender fluid. Speaker 7 (7:35) A Speaker 2 (7:36) big part of her was Speaker 7 (7:37) changing her style to make it how she wanted it and not how others wanted it. The whole idea of her Speaker 2 (7:42) doing her own thing, being her own person. In 2015, when she turned 18, Monica legally changed her name to Ezra McCandless. She played around with her Speaker 5 (7:55) name for a while. She thought Ezra was kind of a gender-neutral name, which really embodied her for both masculine and feminine. Speaker 8 (8:04) McCandless was inspired by Chris McCandless from Into the Wild. She really resonated with that character, kind of on his soul search, finding himself. Speaker 7 (8:18) We all transitioned with her and knew her as Ezra. Like, Monica was dead. That was not who she was anymore, and we all accepted it. So from then on, it was Ezra, and Speaker 2 (8:30) that's how we knew her. After high school, Ezra attended the University of Wisconsin in Marinette. She started hanging out in a coffee shop in Eau Claire where she met someone new. Speaker 1 (8:49) At 19 and still somewhat in search of herself, Ezra meets a 33-year-old Jason Mengel, who is a medic in the Army National Guard. They develop a Speaker 8 (8:59) relationship. Jason was always a cheery guy, always had a smile on his face and wanted to make friends with everybody. Speaker 3 (9:07) He had things going for him. He was kind. He was generous. She described this boyfriend as the love of her life, that they shared an ancient love that would never die. Speaker 8 (9:17) It really felt like there was a spark there to Ezra. It was just her and Jason and nothing else could stand between them. Speaker 2 (9:29) Ezra and Jason moved in together and everything seemed to be going well until Ezra found out she was pregnant. I would imagine Speaker 5 (9:39) it would be very confusing for Ezra at a relatively young age. Jason didn't push her to do anything one way or the other. It was her decision. Speaker 2 (9:51) At 20 years old, after agonizing over the decision, Ezra chose to get an abortion. Her relationship with Jason struggled to recover. Speaker 3 (10:03) Shortly after, their relationship seemed to unravel, and he's sleeping on the couch. Speaker 1 (10:09) She begins to seek comfort in a man named Alex Woodworth, and their friendship evolves into a romantic relationship. Jason learns about this through text messages that he discovers, and that causes Ezra and Jason to break up. Speaker 3 (10:26) Obviously, there were some tensions because of everything that transpired, but they remained friends throughout this. Speaker 2 (10:38) Now, just a month later, Ezra has become the apparent victim of an assault and struggles to remember details. Speaker 1 (10:48) She's only asking to see one person over and over. I want to see Jason. I