Paul's frame-up wasn't just about the arson. False drug accusations and the manufactured criminal record led courts to strip Kelly of custody of her son — which Paul knew was the most devastating thing he could do to her. She eventually got full custody back, but the trauma remains.
Where this was said
At 25:05 · chapter starts 21:35
Brought in after Paul filed his insurance claim, attorney-investigator Zach McCune quickly grew suspicious. Paul's phone contained a contact for Spoofcard — a service that lets users disguise their caller ID — which explained the fake 60, 90, and 100+ calls 'from Kelly' that Paul had been posting to Facebook. Then, digging through a phone Paul shared with a woman named Terri Sweet, McCune found receipts from 'That's My Face,' a company that manufactures custom wearable face masks from photos. The person in the arson video wasn't Kelly — it was someone wearing a lifelike mask of her face, deliberately walking in front of cameras to be identified. Kelly was being framed with movie-level precision. McCune concluded Kelly was 'the main victim in all of this.'
Paul Hicks staged the burning of his own house, ordered a custom wearable mask of Kelly's face from a company called 'That's My Face,' dressed an accomplice in it, and used a service called Spoofcard to fake hundreds of calls from Kelly's number. The scheme was designed to frame her for arson — and it nearly worked.
Paul Hicks used Spoofcard — a phone spoofing service — to manufacture fake records of Kelly calling him over 100 times to make her look like a stalker before the arson.
Paul Hicks ordered a custom wearable mask of Kelly's face from a company called 'That's My Face' and used it to frame her for arson.
A man used ChatGPT as a de facto lawyer, sharing self-incriminating details in his chats. When the transcripts were subpoenaed, the judge ruled no attorney-client privilege applied and admitted the chats as evidence against him. AI first passes are useful — treating AI as your counsel is dangerous.
CIA operative Edwin Wilson armed Muammar Gaddafi with 10,000 machine guns and 20 tons of C4 hidden in barrels of mud and flew them to Libya himself. He was sentenced to 52 years and served 12 in solitary. He was also a founder of the same arms network Oliver North contracted for the Contras.
Kim Dotcom's legal nightmare had nothing to do with copyright infringement. He donated to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange — and the US government charged him under RICO statutes, seeking 186 years in prison as payback.
More than a decade after his indictment, the US is still trying to extradite Kim Dotcom from New Zealand — even after he suffered a stroke. He cannot be convinced the authorities are on his side; only the legal process, run by his lawyers, keeps him free.
The illegal wildlife trade and the drug trade aren't just parallel industries — they actively overlap. Smugglers force-fed cocaine to boa constrictors to evade customs, packed drugs beneath layers of live animals in crates with spitting cobras on top, and exploited the chronic under-resourcing of US Fish and Wildlife inspection teams.
Mario Tabraue was sentenced to over 100 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking. He served 12. Nobody — not even the DEA agent who put him there — knows why he got out. That agent, Larry Lovelace, now lives in rural West Virginia with a gun within reach every night, still expecting retaliation.
Anson Wong from Malaysia was the Pablo Escobar of the global reptile trade, supplying rare animals — including Komodo dragons — to buyers across the world. He was caught in a sting, extradited to the US, and served the longest wildlife crime sentence at the time. The animals seized from him went on to stock some of America's biggest zoos.
Zelig Williams landed a role in Hamilton at just 19 while still in college — a rare achievement in a world where most Broadway dreams die young. By 28 he was a veteran ready to mentor the next generation, until he disappeared without a trace on October 3, 2024.
Season 5 of Dateline: Missing in America brings six new unsolved mysteries. The show is explicitly asking listeners to engage — because a detail someone remembers might be the break investigators need.
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