20. Exploited? This is MY Story Too

EPISODE 20: EXPLOITED? THIS IS MY STORY TOO.

CONTENT WARNING:

This episode discusses homicide, domestic violence, childhood trauma, family estrangement, and contains strong language.

Where does advocacy end—and exploitation begin?

After six years of silence, I finally received a message from my younger sister. But it wasn't the reunion I had hoped for. She told me she was afraid that anything and everything between us would be "exploited for more views and followers."

That accusation cut deep.

In this episode, I respond—not to shame my sister or expose the private details of her present-day life, but because I need to confront an impossible question: How do I tell the truth about our shared childhood trauma without telling part of her story?

Thirty-three years ago, two little girls lost their mother.

I was ten. My sister was three. We sat beside each other in the back of a Sedona Police Department vehicle while my little sister repeatedly tried to tell the adults around us what she had witnessed:

"Papi killed Mommy."

Her voice can be heard on the 911 recording. Her words appear throughout the police reports. Her role in that night cannot be erased from the evidence—but neither can mine.

This is her story, but it is also my story. Mom was her mother, and she was my mother too.

There is a difference between discussing the documented events surrounding my mother Stacy Marie Wasilishin's homicide and exposing every private detail of my sister's life today. I can respect that boundary. I can leave the door open for her to speak someday, in her own words and on her own terms.

But I will not stop telling our mother's story.

I can not erase my sister from my memories. I can not erase her voice from the 911 call. I will not ignore what she reportedly told police because those words may be among the most important pieces of evidence in our mother's case.

And I will not erase myself from this story either.

Since Episode 19, my mother's case has reached places I once could only dream about. Senator Mark Kelly's office has formally received my request for assistance and is reviewing the case. Crime Junkie requested access to the case materials I assembled. Joseph Scott Morgan followed me and may examine the forensic evidence for Body Bags. An independent journalist is producing an Arizona Unsolved mini-documentary about Mom's case.

My podcast crossed approximately 300,000 downloads and entered the Apple Podcasts charts for a fourth time.

And I have an interview scheduled with Dateline Digital.

I am also officially taking my mother's story to AdvocacyCon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks to several extraordinary people who believed in what I am doing, Mom will have her own booth—her face, her case, and her name placed in front of investigators, journalists, legal professionals, victim advocates, content creators, and families fighting battles of their own.

In this episode, I also pull back the curtain on what advocacy really costs: the unanswered emails, stalled media pitches, false hope, personal expenses, exhaustion, and the emotional toll of repeatedly asking strangers to care about the worst night of my life.

I am a preschool teacher. I am an independent podcaster. I am the daughter of a murdered woman. I do not have a television network, production company, podcast network, or public-relations department funding this fight.

It is me behind this microphone.

It is me writing the emails, organizing the evidence, contacting the media, filling out submission forms, recording the episodes, editing the audio, and continuing to say my mother's name.

This episode includes breakthroughs, disappointments, two new sponsors, a painful confrontation with my father, and one promise holding everything together:

I did not sacrifice my privacy so I could steal my sister's.

I did it because silence was protecting everybody except Mom.

This is not exploitation.

This is advocacy.

This is a daughter refusing to let her murdered mother be forgotten.

And this is my story too.

HELP ME KEEP MOM'S CASE MOVING:

Submit Stacy Marie Wasilishin's case to Crime Junkie:
Suggest a Case

Submit Mom's case to Dateline:
Have a story to share with Dateline? Submit it here.

Contact AZFamily Investigates:
Contact Investigations

Email ABC15 and ask its reporters to investigate the homicide of Stacy Marie Wasilishin:

share@abc15.com

Email 12News/KPNX and ask the newsroom to investigate the homicide of Stacy Marie Wasilishin:

connect@12news.com

Email Phoenix New Times and ask its newsroom to investigate the homicide of Stacy Marie Wasilishin:

editorial@newtimes.com

Email The Arizona Republic/azcentral and ask its newsroom to investigate the homicide of Stacy Marie Wasilishin:

newstips@arizonarepublic.com

You can also submit an investigative tip here:

https://static.azcentral.com/watchdog-tips/

Learn more about AdvocacyCon:
AdvocacyCon 2026 | Crime Advocacy Conference, Albuquerque NM

BECOME A PAPI KILLED MOMMY INSIDER:

Subscribe through Apple Podcasts for exclusive episodes, personal updates, and unheard material, A seven-day free trial is available.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/papi-killed-mommy/id1820673703

BUY ME A COFFEE—or, realistically, a sugar-free Red Bull:

If you'd like to fuel the late-night recording, research, editing, and advocacy behind Papi Killed Mommy, you can support me here:

https://cash.app/$NicoleWasilishin

Every little bit helps me keep the microphone on and keep saying my mother's name.

SPONSOR PAPI KILLED MOMMY:

If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast or helping me build my independent media company, email me:

papikilledmommy@gmail.com

Every listen, rating, review, share, case submission, and conversation helps put my mother's name—and the evidence in her case—in front of someone new.

If the courtroom won't, the public will.

Be my mother's grand jury.