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Kaitlyn Conley was convicted of poisoning her boss Mary Yoder in 2017 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. However, Conley, who was at the center of a years-long legal battle, was released from prison in February 2025. According to AP News, she had her conviction vacated after an appeals court ruled that evidence from her phone exceeded the scope of the original warrant.
The evidence, critical to the prosecution, included references to "poison" and "colchicine," an anti-inflammatory drug that authorities claimed was used to poison Yoder. Conley's boss, Mary Yoder, who was also her ex-boyfriend's mother, was killed in 2015.
According to Spectrum News, the appellate court cited ineffective assistance of counsel. The court determined that Conley's defense failed to properly challenge the phone search, which could have altered the trial’s outcome.
The case, which sparked public debate and media attention, is set to feature in a new Dateline report, set to be released on Friday, March 21, 2025, at 9/8c on NBC. Andrea Canning will revisit the case and take a look at is recent legal developments. According to NBC, Dateline had previously reported on the case in 2017, on season 26, episode 10, titled Poisoned.
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Has Kaitlyn Conley been released from prison?
Kaitlyn Conley has been released from prison following a New York appellate court decision in February 2025. The decision overturned her 2017 conviction for first-degree manslaughter in the poisoning and death of her boss, Mary Yoder. According to Spectrum News, Conley was released after serving over seven years of a 23-year sentence.
The court found that her trial attorney failed to effectively challenge a warrant that allowed law enforcement to search Conley’s phone. The appellate ruling determined that the phone search exceeded the scope permitted by the warrant, making key pieces of evidence inadmissible.
Kaitlyn Conley worked as a receptionist at Chiropractic Family Care in Whitesboro, New York. Mary Yoder, a chiropractor, was Kaitlyn's boss as well as the mother of her ex-boyfriend Adam Yoder. In 2015, Mary died after ingesting colchicine, a drug often used to treat gout which is fatal when taken in larger doses.
Authorities were initially suspicious of Yoder's husband, Bill, and her son, Adam. The men were scrutinized during the early phases of the investigation.
According to a February 2025 news report by AP News, Bill became a person of interest because of his relationship with Mary's sister following her death. Meanwhile, Adam was linked to colchicine, which was found under his car seat, a discovery prompted by an anonymous letter later traced back to Conley.
During questioning, Kaitlyn Conley admitted to writing the anonymous letter that pointed investigators toward Adam. Apart from this admission, Conley also made suspicious remarks during her police interviews, which led police to suspect her as well. One of the things she had said was how "men don't use poison," calling it a "lady's weapon."
After Mark Van Namee, an investigator on the case, quoted Caitlyn saying that, police pursued Conley as their prime suspect. They also claimed that she had acquired colchicine using a prepaid debit card.
Conley was put on trial twice, one of which ended in a hung jury while the other resulted in an acquittal on murder charges but a conviction for first-degree manslaughter. Kaitlyn had her first trial in 2017 and the second one was held in 2018.
Prosecutors had argued that evidence from her phone, including searches related to poison and colchicine, was key to proving her intent. However, according to Syracuse.com, the appeals court ruled that investigators violated Conley’s privacy rights by exceeding the authorized parameters of the warrant when examining her phone.
The appeals court noted that such a violation if challenged at trial, could have altered the verdict. Additionally, much of the data extracted from Kaitlyn Conley’s phone also appeared in a backup file on Adam Yoder’s computer labeled “Katie’s iPhone,” complicating the chain of custody for this evidence.
Throughout the legal process, Kaitlyn Conley has maintained her innocence. In Little Miss Innocent, a docuseries produced by ABC News Studios and released on Hulu in 2024, Conley stated that she hadn't killed her boss.
Kaitlyn Conley also expressed frustration with the justice system’s handling of her case. Some of Mary Yoder’s relatives, including her sisters, supported Conley post-conviction and advocated for a re-examination of the case as per AP News.
The Oneida County District Attorney’s office is now considering whether to re-present the case to a grand jury, a challenge that DA Todd Carville acknowledged.
“We have to really evaluate the evidence now and make a determination as to whether or not there’s legal sufficiency to move forward to a grand jury,” Carville said.
The case has been the subject of national attention and is set to be featured in Dateline’s upcoming episode Poison Twist, airing on March 21, 2025.
In this new report, Dateline’s Andrea Canning will interview Kaitlyn Conley, her attorney, and members of the Yoder family. The episode is set to revisit the complexities and emotional toll of the case nearly a decade after Yoder’s death as per NBC.
Stay tuned for more updates.
