Southern fried True crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion is advised. The
morning of December twenty ninth, two thousand and five was gearing up to be
a beautiful day in the small rural town of Sawmills, North Carolina. When
forty nine year old Emily Anderson got out of bed at six point thirty that
morning, it was about forty six degrees out. It was chilly, but
no rain or snow. Not that snow is common in this area, nestled
in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but it would have been the rainier
part of winter on that day. Snowfall is not common in Sawmills, but
you may see a few light snowfalls there each season. As a dairy farmer,
Emily would normally be grateful for such clear weather anyway, but as it
was, it was shaping up to be a nice day for running errands,
which is what she had planned. She put on a cozy, old navy
sweatshirt as she got ready to head out that morning. It was supposed to
get up to near sixty degrees later. There was no need for a jacket.
That morning, Emily probably tossed back some coffee fast because she was out
of the house early to do list ready. She was doing the normal errands
and tasks necessary to run the dairy farm she owned with her husband, Jerry.
The only thing different about that day was a dinner party she and Jerry
were attending that evening friends of theirs were hosting, and Emily was looking forward
to it. She knew her husband was chronically late, so she made a
point of reminding him to be on time. That was early in the day
when she touched base with him briefly at the farm. The plan was she
would meet him at the dinner party later, and when Jerry arrived at the
dinner party that evening, he was on time. In fact, he was
thirty minutes early, but Emily wasn't there. Jerry called her to see where
she was. Her errands shouldn't have taken that long, but Emily didn't pick
up. A Few hours later, Jerry contacted the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department to
report his wife missing. Welcome to episode two twenty one, The Disappearance and
Murder of Emily Anderson, Part one, Emily Young Griffith was born on July
eighth, nineteen fifty six, in Lexington, Kentucky, to doctor and missus
Joseph R. Griffith. Her mother, Amanda, had been a Waterson before
she married Emily's father. Doctor Griffith, was a World War Two veteran.
According to government documents, he worked for the military as a physician, and
at one point, doctor Griffith was a prisoner of war, but thankfully he
made it back home in the spring of nineteen forty five, which is when
he and Amanda married and soon began a family. They had three kids.
Emily was the middle child. She had one older brother named Mike and one
younger sister named Dee. They all grew up in Kentucky, just like their
parents before them. Although Emily was born in Lexington, she spent most of
childhood one hundred miles south in adare County, Kentucky. The Griffiths moved to
Dareck County when doctor Griffith began working at the local health department. The Griffiths
lived in a historic two story brick house in Columbia. Doctor Griffith was a
beloved physician from the health department and the whole family were strong Adair Countians with
so many friends. Judge Anne Melton was friends with both Griffith's sisters and became
blood sisters, with the girls breaking their fingers and touching them together. De
said we were blood sisters for after that, she said. The oldest Mike
Griffith, was a prankster but excellent student who grew up to be a veterinarian
an animal lover like his sister, d short for Adelia, became a second
grade school teacher. The Griffiths seemed to have lived a charmed life. In
the nineteen seventies, Emily attended Adair County High School. She was briefly on
the drill team, but her friends and classmates remembered her more for her sense
of humor, quick smile, and infectious laugh. Even after Emily graduated from
high school in nineteen seventy four, her laughter would continue to be one of
her most defining traits. In the nineteen eighties, she lived in Corbin,
Kentucky. There she met a woman who had become a lifelong friend. Her
name was Patricia Thorpe. Emily and pat worked together at an Optometrius office.
Pat told the Hickory Daily Record. The best time when she was in the
car with me and my daughter, and I would deliberately get them both tickled,
and then you'd have two snorters in the car. The more they snorted,
the more they laughed. It was hilarious. More than once I've had
to pull off the road because I would be laughing so hard at the two
of them, I couldn't drive. Emily also had a fantastic singing voice.
Pat said Emily would call her every year on her birthday. When she picked
up the phone, Emily would sing Happy Birthday to her sweet friend. Emily,
who was a pretty devout Christian, also sang in her church's choir,
and she also taught Sunday School and vacation Bible School. Those who knew Emily
said she was a loving woman. She cared deeply for her friends and family.
She is described as witty and warm. In her obituary. She was
known as Annie em to her six nieces and nephews and four great nieces and
nephews. I love that like Annie em from the Wizard of Oz. Emily
was also loved by her friends as such a caring and compassionate woman. She
was the kind of friend who would draw hours to attend the funeral of the
parent of one of her friends. She had lost her own parents just a
year apart from each other when she was twenty three. That's still so young.
I am positive that colored her beautiful empathy for the rest of her life.
Another friend said of Emily, she loved everyone for what she saw in
them and made us feel as if she was honored to be in our presence.
Emily was also a member of the American Red Cross. She donated blood
regularly, and she helped clean up the damage in the wake of the nineteen
ninety seven tornado that ripped through Caine Valley, Kentucky. Emily brought breakfast for
the other volunteers. Pat described Emily as a trusting soul who never saw the
bad in anyone. But Emily wasn't just kind of people. She had a
big soft spot for animals too. It was fairly common for Emily to take
in strays, and she was a huge fan of the beach. She loved
to just sit and watch the water. She found the waves soothing. Emily
married for the first time in July of nineteen seventy three, when she was
only seventeen years old he was nineteen, but the couple didn't last long,
and Emily remarried in August of nineteen seventy nine, when she was twenty three,
about the time when she lost her parents. This husband was about six
years older than her. Emily seemed to falter in the relationship and marriage department.
It happens some people are just unlucky in love, but she kept on
trying. According to her attorney, Emily was married two more times before she
met Jerry Anderson, her final husband, in the late nineteen nineties. Jerry
Lee Anderson was born in nineteen sixty. Like Emily, Jerry was also from
Kentucky. We don't know much about his childhood, but he was a dairy
farmer when he and Emily met. Around nineteen ninety six, Jerry moved to
North Carolina. He managed a growing dairy farm there with approximately five hundred heads
of cattle. The dairy farm, which was called Carolina Holstein's, was located
in Sawmills, North Carolina. Jerry was described by some who knew him as
talkative, nice and kind, but others said he wasn't overly friendly. I
get the feeling that Jerry didn't express a lot of emotion. He was described
more as hard working and driven. Some said work was his life, so
a serious man. Before Emily, Jerry had been married two other times.
He had a son with his first wife, named Matt, born in nineteen
ninety three. Around the year two thousand, Jerry and Emily got married.
Jerry was forty and Emily was forty four. We don't know much about their
private life, whether it was always the plan or not, but they never
had children together, though Matt did live with them some Over the years.
With the help of some fellow investors, Jerry was able to purchase the Carolina
Holstein's dairy farm. Now he was the owner and operator, and after Emily
married Jerry, she also had a wide range of responsibilities. But she was
especially good at handling the young calves. Diyke's wilson, whose family previously owned
Carolina Holstein's, told the Charlotte Observer she get out there and wrestle them cows
and give them shots. Over the course of about five years, Jerry and
Emily became very involved in the local sawmills community. They were both div Christians
who attended draw Pins Baptist Church regularly, and they would assist in church events
like ice cream socials. In a small town like this, where everyone knew
everybody, the townspeople were aware of who Emily and Jerry were, even if
they didn't know them personally. But although Emily and Jerry were newer to the
area than some locals, they were still fairly well known and had made many
friends. They made a point to socialize in their community, and they were
well liked. That's why when Emily went missing, the town of Sawmills was
shocked and rallied to try and help find her. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. On Wednesday, December twenty eighth, two thousand
and five, Emily got her hair done. She told her stylist she wanted
colored freshly before dinner parties. She and Jerry you were going to the next
evening on Thursday. So on Wednesday Emily had her roots touched up with some
blonde highlights. Then on that Thursday, Emily's day began like any other.
As I said in the beginning, By six thirty am, she was up
and ready to run errands, as I'm sure you'd guess, like any farmer.
Jerry was up before the sun and ready to hit the farm by six
point thirty himself. First, she stopped by the grocery store for a couple
items, and the clerk noticed that Emily's hair was different, lighter, and
also that Emily was more dressed up than usual. Instead of her usual farm
work clothes, she was wearing khakis, brown loafers and had tucked in her
shirt. When the grocer asked her why she looked so nice, Emily replied
that she was just running errands that day. By seven am, she had
purchased a new pair of work gloves from Sawmills Hardware. It was owned by
Tim and Jenny Wilson, the couple who were having the dinner party that evening.
After chatting with Tim, Emily headed out to the farm to drop off
the gloves. While there, she also spoke to Jerry. She made a
point of fussing at Jerry to be on time for the dinner party. After
that, she traveled about eight miles to Lenora, North Carolina. She got
there at about eight fifteen am and paid a bill at Martin Marrietta Materials.
Then she was supposed to go to Sam's Club in the nearby town of Hickory,
but that's where her trail ends. We know she never made it to
Sam's club. By six o'clock that evening, Jerry was at Tim and Jenny's
house for the dinner party. He had made sure he was there before six,
since Emily had specifically warned him about being late. He was on time,
but Emily wasn't there, which was strange, if not alarming. Yet.
He called his wife's cell phone to see what was going on, but
she didn't pick up, so he finished dinner with their friends and then he
went home. Jenny Wilson also tried calling Emily and left her a couple of
messages. Now it was becoming alarming because Emily was known to live by her
phone. You got to remember this was two thousand and five, and while
people had cell phones, they weren't the many computers we are obsessed with today.
The first iPhone was released in two thousand and seven. Not everyone used
a cell phone regularly, but Emily had her clip to her belt. You
also got to remember she didn't just need it for work. Her family lived
in Kentucky, her best friend lived in New Jersey, and she liked to
talk to the people she loved often, so she was a dedicated phone chatter.
By eight pm, Jerry still had not heard from his wife, so
he drove about eight minutes to the nearest police station in Granite Falls. He
asked if his wife had been reported in an accident. He worried he needed
to file a missing person's report. The communications employee he first talked to said
he was calm and didn't seem too concerned. At just before ten pm,
a Caldwell County Sheriff's deputy arrived at Jerry's home. That's when forty nine year
old Emily Griffith Anderson was officially reported missing. Search for Emily began immediately.
A bolo was issued for her truck, her description passed out, and the
tough phone calls to friends and family were made. She drove a white two
thousand Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. She had been driving it when she vanished,
and it was nowhere to be found. Local authorities used helicopters to try to
find her truck. The Dry Ponds Baptist Church passed out more than twelve hundred
flyers with Emily's photo on them. They held prayer services dedicated to her safe
return, and their church letter board read please pray for Emily Anderson and her
family. Emily's disappearance left Sawmills Residence scared and confused. Reverendret Cross from Emily's
church told the Charlotte Observer. I am as mystified as anyone else. That
doesn't happen in this area, this small community we have, everybody trusts everybody.
It's been an eye opener to people here that this could happen here.
But then most small town folks will tell you that Sawmills is six point three
square miles with a commanding view of the Appalachian Mountains. Incorporated in nineteen eighty
eight, it's called the biggest little town in the Foothills, with around five
thousand residents. The Town of Sawmills website touts it as having safer streets as
a bedroom community to the big cities around it, but actually the crime rate
is fifteen percent higher than the national average. It has its good areas and
it's not so good areas. I'm not trying to crap on Sawmills, but
just wanted to give you a fair look. Anyway. Despite the best efforts
of those who looked for Emily, no one had a clue where she was.
No one knew if she had left of her own volition, or if
something worse had happened. For nearly ten days, Emily's case grew colder and
colder. Then, at twelve thirty pm on Saturday, January seventh, two
thousand and six, an unknown man called a waffle house in Duncan, South
Carolina. The anonymous caller said that the white pickup truck in the parking lot
of a hotel behind waffle house was connected to a North Carolina missing Parsons case.
The caller said that someone should check it out, So a Duncan police
officer arrived at the waffle house just off Interstate eighty five and ran the truck's
tags and realized that Caldwell County was looking for this exact vehicle. It was
Emily's truck. Initially, this discovery led to more questions than it answers.
The Duncan waffle house and the quality and parking lot her truck was found in
were more than one hundred miles away from where Emily was last seen. It
wasn't even the same state. Caldwell County authorities decided to tow Emily's truck back
to North Carolina. There they searched the vehicle. When they pried opened the
toolbox compartment in the truck bed, they found Emily. Her body was stuffed
face down in the toolbox in her own truck bed. It was clear that
Emily had been shot to death. Emily Griffith Anderson's funeral was four days later
at four pm on Wednesday, January eleventh, two thousand and six. Her
service was held at the Dry Ponds Baptist Church. Grissom Funeral Home held a
memorial service the next day, Thursday, at three pm, at the Cane
Valley Christian Church in Columbia, Kentucky, back in Emily's home state, in
lieu of flowers, her family asked for donations to be sent to the Red
Cross or Humane Society. A private burial ceremony for the family was held not
long after. Emily's obituary noted that she was survived by her husband, Jerry
steps On Matt as well as her older brother, doctor Mike Griffith, and
younger sister d Watson. Her six nieces and nephews were also named, as
well as her four great nieces and nephews. Her headstone reflects her special family
relationship as beloved aunt. It reads Annie m Emily Young Griffith without her married
name. The epitaph below cherishes Emily's memorable laughter. It reads take time to
laugh. It is the music of the soul. She was buried in the
Cane Valley Cemetery in Kine Valley, Kentucky. I'm going to pause nowitar a
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That's neutrofol dot com promo code Southern Fried. Before Emily was buried, an
autopsy was conducted as the formal investigation into her murder got underway. The medical
examiner confirmed that Emily had died from two gunshot wounds. One bullet had entered
her back to the left of her spine. It tore through her ribs along
and her heart before exiting through her upper chest. The second bullet had entered
the left side of Emily's abdomen. It passed through her ribs, spleen,
a kidney, and her spine, then it exited through her right lower back.
Emily had also suffered multiple abrasions above both eyes, on the bridge of
her nose, her left cheek, her chin, her right hand, and
her right knee. Her old navy sweatshirt had holes from the bullets, and
there was dirt and grass in the bottom of the toolbox near Emily's face and
hands. The items in Emily's pockets included her damaged cell phone, thirty dollars,
a pocket knife, and a set of keys. Later, concerns were
raised about why the authorities hadn't found Emily's body before moving her truck more than
one hundred miles back to North Carolina. After all, who knows what evidence
was lost during that trip. Anything can fly off at seventy plus mis miles
per hour on a highway. The lieutenant on the scene claimed that he hadn't
seen any blood in the truck bed when they started their journey from the waffle
house. I'm going to go ahead and simply question why the truck wasn't searched
in South Carolina. This was a missing persons case, not just as still
in vehicle case. I would think any law enforcement officer would or should know
the importance of blood and trace evidence or any kind of evidence really in a
victim's vehicle. I mean, hell, there could have been a damn ransom
note in the glove box anything. But Duncan, South Carolina, is an
even smaller town than Sawmills, with a crime rate twenty one percent lower than
the national average. So maybe local PD just weren't accustomed to this kind of
crime. I guess it's not surprising that they just called Caldwell County in North
Carolina to deal with their own case. And I guess they lifted up to
Caldwell County call in the FEDS if they wanted to. Emily and her truck
were taken across state lines. That easily makes it a federal case, I
guess, unless you believe she was dead before she was taken over state lines.
Later, an SBI agent working with the FBI was said to have been
consulted. According to an investigating officer explaining to the Charlotte Observer quote, the
vehicle was locked, there was no odor coming from it. It was clean
as a whistle, though it did have a flat front tire. But interestingly,
by the time law enforcement arrived at their headquarters, Emily's blood pulled underneath
the toolbox. Later on in court, jurors could clearly see her dried blood
and crime scene photos. So I'm calling bullshit on this clean as a whistle
crap. I don't think they looked. Local officers ran the plates and called
it into Caldwell, and perhaps they wouldn't have been given clearance to search it
anyway. But I still find that really troubling, because again, this was
a missing person's case. What if Emily had been alive, bound and gagged
in that toolbox. Police show up, she hears them and thanks God,
now she is saved, and no one searches the truck. I mean,
I know that didn't happen, but it could have. That's why this feels
like such a serious mistake to me. Then Caldwell County showed up and decided
to tow it home before searching it. That's an even bigger mistake than local
Duncan officers made. Caldwell knew they were investigating a missing person from their community.
How could they not search that truck. That truck should have been treated
as a crime scene, carefully searched for clues about Emily's whereabouts, and then
given to forensic investigators to come through If they had done this, she would
have been found and surely the truck would have been investigated properly rather than towed
back to Caldwell. But who knows, they may have still made that choice.
Immediately after Emily's body was discovered, law enforcement officers told the Charlotte Observer
that the case was wide open for suspects. They had no clear ideas about
who had killed Emily. I know what you're thinking. Emily was a married
woman, so we know her husband, Jerry was the first suspect. But
when Emily was still missing, Jerry had provided the authorities with a statement.
That statement detailed his exact whereabouts on Thursday December twenty ninth, the day Emily
went missing. For the most part, Jerry's time appeared to be accounted for.
Jerry claimed that he had gotten out of bed at four thirty am,
then he went for a walk before getting ready for work. He arrived at
the dairy farm at about six thirty am, right about the time that Emily
was getting out of bed. Then Jerry said that he had a quick meeting
with his employees. Later that morning. Jerry said he saw Emily briefly.
He said she gave him a list of items that she needed, and then
she reminded Jerry not to be late for their six o'clock dinner party. Then,
he said, she loved to go finish her errands. I do wonder
what was on the list she gave him since she was doing errands herself.
A to do list he was the boss at the farm, A honeydew list.
Maybe details like this bother me Anyway, As his wife went about her
day of errands, Jerry said, he checked his emails and read an online
newspaper. At eleven fifteen am, he said that he left the farm.
After that he ran into his neighbor, Tony Ramsey. They were both at
the Hickory Home and garden store. Tony would later verify that this was true.
He specifically remembered their conversation. Tony was trying to get the things he
needed to fix his lawnmower. He had been having ongoing issues with it.
He remembered. Jerry said, I guess Santa Claus didn't bring you a new
lawnmar and you have to fix the other one. Next, Jerry said,
he called Emily. He asked her to pick up owl filters for their tractors.
After that he ate lunch at als Diner at about twelve fifteen pm,
then he went to the Granite Falls post office. According to Jerry, he
was back at the farm by one fifteen PM, and he stated the farm
for the rest of the afternoon, Jerry said he was working on fixing a
broken tractor. At approximately five to fifteen pm, he said he went to
get gas. That's when he saw his friend Walter Moore. Walter would later
say this was accurate too. Ultimately, the only time that Jerry was unaccounted
for was for a few hours in the afternoon, and that's when Jerry claimed
that he was working on the dairy farm as he usually would be. Before
Emily's body was discovered. Jerry had also's so taken a three question polygraph test.
The first question of the test was did you have anything to do with
Emily's disappearance? Jerry responded no. The second question was right now, do
you know where Emily is? And he said no. The last question was
do you know for sure where Emily is right now? And Jerry said once
more no. According to the polygraph machine, Jerry was telling the truth when
responding to all three questions. But keep in mind polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable.
We all know that the results are rarely admissible in court unless the prosecution
and defense both agree to allow the results to be entered as evidence. Even
then, many courts do not allow it. But anyway, all this is
to say that when Emily's body was found, Jerry wasn't necessarily a suspect,
but I'm sure he remained a person of interest, especially since investigators noted that
Jerry's reaction to learning about his wife's death was odd. According to court documents,
Jerry had shown very little emotion, and at one point he even laughed.
But people react to trauma differently and grieve differently. It's impossible to predict
how a person will react to a horrific situation, but I'm willing to bet
most investigators either have gut feelings or they've seen enough reactions to feel confident about
their own assessments, and others would later testify that Jerry did cry about Emily's
loss. These people even noted that they distinctly remember Jerry crying because of how
rare it was. He wasn't known to be a demonstrably emotional man. Around
the time investigators found Emily's body. Jerry told the Charlotte Observer, there's comfort
that she's home now. It's not the way I wanted her home, but
I'm glad she's home and I'll deal with the rest later. She's safe,
She's dead, sir, not safe. Yeah, quotes can be taken out
of context. And I know what he means. But would you really say
your murdered wife was home safe. That was just weird. But Jerry was
kind of different, very dry, kind of all business. In some ways.
It probably hurt how he was perceived, and others his friends said he
was the same old Jerry regardless, it seemed that Caldwell County investigators weren't pointing
a finger at Jerry yet, or at least they weren't in the beginning.
Then they spoke to Emily's friends and family, because although Emily and Jerry ran
a thriving business together, their marriage was not as successful as their dairy farm.
For about three years, their relationship had been strained, and two years
before, in two thousand and three, the Andersons had separated for about six
weeks. During that time, Emily stayed in Kentucky. Most of Emily Lee's
family still lived there. We're not sure what caused Emily and Jerry to take
this break, but her court documents Jerry had at some unknown time found cards
addressed to Emily from a man named Bill and someone, though we're not sure
who sent Emily flowers on at least one occasion, but they evidently made up
because eventually Emily returned to her North Carolina home with Jerry, and their merry
life seemingly continued on as usual. But two years later, in the fall
of two thousand and five, Emily and Jerry were on the rocks again.
A few days before Thanksgiving that year, Emily visited her older brother Mike in
Nicholasville, Kentucky. Emily told Mike that she was considering leaving Jerry. She
said that Jerry overworked and bullied her. He belittled her in front of their
employees. But Emily's brother urged her to stay with Jerry, at least for
a little while longer. He thought he had a good reason. Emily and
Jerry were planning on moving to Mountain City, Tennessee. There, they planned
to build a new cattle feeding operation called High Mountain Holsteins. This new farm
was going to bring in more money than their dairy farm in North Carolina.
And at this new farm, Emily would be a part owner. She wouldn't
just be working for Jerry, she would be a partner. Mike advised Emily
to wait until she was an owner of this new farm to divorce Jerry.
That way, she would get a larger settlement. According to the Charlotte Observer,
Mike said, get as much as you can out of it. I
don't think Mike was particularly vindictive toward his brother in law. He just wanted
what was best for his sister. Though Mike would later state that he thought
it was weird that Jerry never went to any of Emily's family functions. He
seemed to pretty much stay away from his in laws. Shortly after speaking with
her brother about a pta divorce, Emily called her friend Pat Thorpe. I
mentioned her earlier in the episode. Emily and Patt met when they worked together
in Corbin, Kentucky. By this time, Patt had moved to New Jersey.
Despite living multiple states away, the friends still talked on the phone regularly.
That's how Pat knew that Emily and Jerry's relationship had been going downhill.
According to Pat, Emily often complained that Jerry was verbally and emotionally abusive towards
her. She told the Charlotte Observer. I talked to her many times when
she was in tears because of things he had said to her. He had
told her basically that she wasn't smart enough to do anything really. Patt did
clarify that Emily never mentioned Jerry physically abusing her. Still, it's clear that
Emily was very unhappy in her marriage and felt emotionally abused by Jerry. And
since her brother seemed to be worrying about Emily's finances, going so far as
advising her to wait to get out of the marriage until she was co owner
of their business, maybe Jerry was financially abusive. He held the purse strings.
Later it was found he even ran a credit check on his wife.
He was pissy that he found a Victoria's secret credit card that he didn't know
about, especially since Emily was known only to wear long John's. So the
Saturday after that Thanksgiving, on November twenty sixth, two thousand and five,
Emily called Pat told her that she had finally gotten the courage to leave in
divorce Jerry. Pat told the Charlotte observer. She told me she was going
to contact a lawyer, that she had made her mind up. She said,
I have to get out. Emily also explained to Pat that she was
waiting to tell Jerry about the divorce. She wanted to be out of the
house before she let him know she was leaving him. She was afraid of
how Jerry would respond. Concerned for her friend, Pat asked Emily, is
it really that bad? And she said Emily said yes, it is.
Following this, Emily reached out to another friend for a divorce attorney recommendation.
She was referred to divorce lawyer Rachel Leclair. During Emily's consultation with miss Leclair,
she said her relationship with Jerry had reached a tipping point. Emily said
that Jerry had a bad temper. She claimed he would treat her like a
child or a dog. When she approached Jerry about his disrespectful behavior, she
said that Jerry would ignore her. He would even go so far as taking
out his hearing aids Without hearing aids. Jerry was about seventy percent death and
she said she and her husband hadn't shared a bed since late October were early
November of two thousand and five. Just like Emily's brother, Miss Leclair suggested
that Emily stayed with Jerry until they had started their new farm in Tennessee,
but Emily was adamant that she couldn't wait that long to end things with her
husband, and all of this was just a month before she went missing.
Patt spoke to Emily one last time on December twenty sixth. Their conversation wasn't
long, and she said that Emily didn't reveal any information pertinent to the investigation.
But in an interesting turn of events, Jerry actually called Pat on January
third. This would have been while Emily was missing, but before her body
was found. Jerry and Patt spoke for seventy two minutes. During their call,
Jerry acknowledged that his marriage had not been going well. He told Pat
he was pretty sure Emily had left him for another man, which surprised Pat.
While Emily had complained at length about her marriage, she had never told
Pat that she was having an affair. But now multiple people could confirm that
Emily Anderson wanted to leave her husband and was making plans to just a month
before she disappeared and was found murdered. I'm going to pause now for a
final commercial break. Equipped with this new information about Emily and Jerry's marriage,
law enforcement held a news conference on January ninth, two thousand and six.
Sheriff Gary Clark said that he was confident Emily's case was solvable. He said
it again on January fifteenth in a phone interview with Fox News. He would
later appear on National TV on a Fox station. By January twentieth, the
authorities got a search warrant for Jerry's home and the farm. Less than a
week later, on January twenty sixth, investigator searched his properties again. Following
that second search, an investigator told the Charlotte Observer that they had found very
compelling evidence, but they wouldn't share what that evidence was not yet anyway.
That same officer later said during a news conference, this story's only beginning as
far as I'm concerned. Shortly after that second search, employees from Jerry's dairy
farm contacted the authorities. These employees told investigators that they were scared of Jerry
Anderson. They were worried he would harm them. Law enforcement would not disclose
why these employees were worried, or even how many employees had reached out,
but this concern caused the authorities to move quickly to arrest Jerry, even though
the investigation was ongoing, and they publicly said they were still open to other
suspects. So on Friday, January twenty seventh, forty seven year old Jerry
Lee Anderson was arrested in his home just after midnight. The Caldwell County Sheriff's
Department charged Jerry with first degree murder. He was held in the Caldwell County
Jail without bond during his arrest. Jerry fully cooperated with the authorities, and
he requested a court appointed defense attorney right away. He was indicted by a
grand jury on first degree murder two weeks after his arrest. But a few
days after Jerry was arrested, the local newspapers began reporting that Jerry had taken
out a life insurance policy on Emily. Initially, the Sheriff's department would not
confirm how much that life insurance policy was worth, and since the search warrants
and affidavits related to this case were sealed from public viewing, there was no
way for anyone to find out. So the Charlotte Observer and the Associated Press
requested that Caldwell County unseal those documents. They had questions that they believed these
documents could answer, like what witnesses had the authorities talked to so far?
And what evidence had investigators found on Jerry's properties. The prosecuting lawyers were opposed
to this. They argued this information, among other things, might bias the
community of potential jurors. But the presiding Caldwell County judge believed that the court
shouldn't put its judgment ahead of the public ability to understand the legal system,
he said, and on Monday February twentieth, two thousand and six, that
same judge unselled sixty pages of documents. The information within those pages caused an
absolute uproar. On the morning of December twenty ninth, the day that Emily
went missing, several people had seen Emily and Jerry together at the dairy farm.
They saw the couple go into a tree filled area behind the property.
Jerry had driven his tractor and Emily had followed behind him in her truck.
Shortly after, multiple witnesses heard gunshots come from the same area where Jerry and
Emily had gone. Then Jerry emerged alone Afterward, Jerry asked some of his
employees to powerwash his tractor, a task that, according to Jerry's employees,
he had never asked them to do before. During the authority's investigation, they
found traces of fluid inside the tractor. Samples of this fluid were sent to
the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for DNA analysis. While the
crime lab was able to confirm that, yes, this fluid was blood,
the samples were too small for DNA testing. They couldn't even tell if it
was human blood. It may have come from an animal. But this didn't
mean Jerry was in the clear. In fact, for these court documents,
he had exhibited even more concerning behaviors. Sometime after dis Zember twenty ninth,
Jerry asked an employee to replace the oil filters for some tractors. Those filters
he had asked his wife to buy the last day she was seen. The
employee was supposed to write that day's date on the oil filters, but Jerry
told them to put down twelve twenty nine, two thousand and five, even
though that day had since passed. Jerry also wanted this employee to tell anyone
who asked that he was working with his employees between nine am and ten am
on December twenty ninth, and Jerry also wanted the employee to say that they
had both been working on changing the oil filters between one thirty pm and three
pm that same day. Then Jerry hid the old tractor oil filters that had
been replaced During the two searches of Jerry's properties, investigators found these discarded oil
filters in a nearby drainage ditch and miner pile. You can imagine how damning
this information was. Jerry, whose wife was actively seeking a divorce, was
seen going into a secluded location with her. Then gunshots were heard coming from
that area. Afterward, he had allegedly asked his employees to lie about his
whereabouts from nine am to ten am and one thirty pm to three pm.
Those afternoon hours were the exact same hours that Jerry had been unaccounted for during
that statement he had provided to the authorities. Also, Emily's phone record showed
that she had not used her cell phone at all since December twenty eighth,
the day before the last witness in town saw her, and that's not the
end of it. Also revealed in these unsealed court documents, Jerry had recently
taken out a one point five million dollar life insurance policy on Emily. This
newer policy was in addition to a previously established life insurance policy for three million.
In total, Jerry would receive approximately four point five million in the event
of Emily's death in twenty twenty four dollars. That's almost seven million. And
as if that wasn't enough, Jerry had also obtained his passport on January fifth.
For context, that would have been a week after Emily went missing and
only two days before her body was found on January seventh. Dude, come
on, I guess you could see this as an innocent man with nothing to
hide, or as a man about to flee the country. Most people would
think the worst. The realization that dairy farmer Jerry Anderson might have killed his
wife caused chaos in this rural North Carolina community. A neighbor who lived across
the street from Jerry's dairy farm told the Charlotte Observer, the whole incident has
been difficult for our entire community. There are thousands of unanswered questions right now,
and we're patiently waiting for them. Answers. Some of the biggest questions
were, had Emily truly intended to divorce Jerry, did Jerry have time to
get to Duncan, South Carolina that afternoon? And why on God's green Earth
did Jerry get a passport so soon after Emily's disappearance. He had to have
known how bad that would look. Local residents were split in their opinions.
Some stood by Jerry. They couldn't believe that he would harm his wife.
Jerry was their friend and neighbor, a fellow churchgoer. They couldn't fathom that
Jerry there Jerry could do this. One member of the Dry Pond's Baptist church
told reporters, I believe in Jerry until he tells me that he killed Emily,
which wow, okay, but wouldn't you at least want him to legally
clear his name? And one neighbor of Jerry's said, ninety percent of the
people around here think he's innocent. Anyone who knows Jerry doesn't think he did
it, But there were plenty of other people who thought Jerry did kill his
wife. The manager of a local grocery store in Deli, Jean Bristol,
told the press after Jerry's arrest. I think it's more of a sigh of
relief. I know it is for a lot of the women. And Another
Dry Ponds Baptist church member said she wasn't shocked in the slightest about the news
about Jerry. She told the Hickory Daily Record that he never showed no tears,
no emotions. It's a real shame. For months and months, Jerry's
innocence or lack thereof, was a hot button topic in the Sawmills area.
One local told the Charlotte Observer, if the paper comes out with an article
about Jerry on the front of it, it will be sold out in two
minutes. If something like this happened in Charlotte, it just be an ordinary
thing. But when it happens in a small community like this, it just
threw you off center. And that is the stopping point for Part one,
folks. As this started as a one episode case. Part two will come
out pretty quickly in the next couple of days. I appreciate your patience.
Some cases like these drag you down rabbit holes and you keep going and suddenly
it's fourteen thousand words, which is crazy. That's almost as long as a
feature length film and I know a lot of you love two parters. Anyway,
Jerry's trial and more details about the investigation will be covered in the next
episode. This case is a wild ride with a twist I didn't see coming,
so stick with me. It'll be worth it. Southern Fried True Crime
is hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched and written
by me and Andrea Marshbank. As usual, any editorial comments and opinions are
my own. Southern Fred's original music as by Rob Harrison of the game I'm
a Radio and the original graphic artist by Khely Horner. Today's episode was edited
and mixed by Sarah Wendell of VW Sound LLC and Erica Kelly. Thank you
to Sarah and Kristen for suggesting today's case. If you have any case suggestions,
please go to my website, Southernfred True Crime dot com and click on
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