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Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is

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not intended for all audiences.

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Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advice. Gary is in the no, he

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is in the And I said, what.

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Speaker 1: Are you ready for some murder?

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Speaker 2: Is that a yes?

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Speaker 1: I can't hear you speak? Up Here we go. On

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July fifth, twenty eighteen, in Cherokee County, Georgia, a family

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goes looking for their missing dad. The addresses twenty five

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to fifty five per cll Lane, a dead end gravel

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road off a two lane highway north of Atlanta, but

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a long way from the city. The expansive house sits

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on ten fenced an acres back from the road, past

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pasture and trees, the kind of semi rural property that

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could be a small farm, or just a place to

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be left alone. Out here, it would be easier to

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disappear into your own routine, into something worse. The faire's

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property isn't a commercial operation so much as it is

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a hobby farm with a pasture, a pond, a barn, apartment,

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and a small collection of animals a few horses, a

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few little milk goats, and some chickens. Essentially, this is

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Melody's dream life. The kind of charmed Southern life she

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had always envisioned for herself, the kind they sell in magazines,

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lots of kids, animals in an outdoor space. Her husband,

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Gary Ferris, is a prominent attorney in the Atlanta area,

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a partner level lawyer whose practice and income are centered

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in the city, not on the land. By this time,

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their children have all married, some divorced, and grandchildren often

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come to stay. Known to the grandchildren as Big Daddy.

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Fifty eight year old Gary Ferris hasn't answered calls or

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texts for at least a day, and no one knows

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his whereabouts. His truck is still in the driveway. His

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seapap machine, the one who uses religiously every night, is

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still inside. His wallet and other personal things are in

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the house. Nothing about it, says, I left on my own.

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Gary's four children are grown, including his son Scott, But

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Scott just happens to live on the property, working as

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a farm head. When his mother Melody asks him, have

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you seen your daddy? In her southern drawl, the answer

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is no. This wasn't entirely unusual. The property is huge,

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and Gary tends to mind his own business. Besides, Scott

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has mostly been away for the previous few days, but

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his son Scott, goes out to the property with Melody

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to look for The kids are half playing outside, half looking.

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Melody and Scott separate. They check the house, the barn,

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the pasture. They call his name. Just as soon as

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he releases aloud, Dad, he hears his own name. It's

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his mother, urging him to come back and check out

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the burn pile. Scott walks to the back of the

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property to a spot where his dad sometimes burns trash

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and brush. It's obvious Gary has been out here. Scott

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sees a large burn pile there and for a few seconds,

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the smoke burns his eyes. The burn pile is blackened,

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still warm, with chunks of debris fused into the ash.

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It's early July in Georgia. The air is thick and damp,

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and the heat radiates off the ground. Melody and Scott

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both stand at the perimeter of the large pile, and

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Melody points out something odd to her son.

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Speaker 3: Hi, when the goats on there for something? You know,

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maybe one died, you know, because we have.

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Speaker 4: Several of them. I said, you saw a.

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Speaker 5: Goat on there or something?

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Speaker 6: Because it was just something.

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Speaker 7: That just looked.

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Speaker 3: It was like, wouldn't be ball of just you know

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in all I said, you saw a goat on there

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or something?

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Speaker 8: And he went over there.

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Speaker 9: And looked, and you didn't.

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Speaker 3: He said, well no, but that didn't mean daddy, you

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know it didn't.

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Speaker 6: Then he really looked.

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Speaker 1: Scott stepped closer and looked down. At first, it was

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just shapes in the ash, charred would metal, bone colored fragments.

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Then his brain caught up to what he was seeing.

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One of those shapes wasn't just bone colored, it was bone.

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He realized he was looking at what appeared to be

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a human skull. He backed away and yelled for the

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others to get the kids out of there. Whatever this was,

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they didn't need to see it. Melody still wondered out

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loud if maybe it was an animal, a dead goat

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or something, but Scott was sure it was the skull

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of a human being. They called nine one one, and

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I will say he.

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Speaker 3: Actually took a stick and picked up he could.

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Speaker 4: Do over the business.

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Speaker 10: It was a you know that, you.

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Speaker 11: Say that thought, you love it.

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Speaker 12: And as he tell me that that's a goat or

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a coat or an aising, I mean, you know, yeah,

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he took off an calumn, not only one.

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Speaker 1: Now the skull Scott uncovered was human, and when he

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poked at it, the remains of a face stared up

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at him.

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Speaker 2: This was no goat kind of that one the pace

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of emergency.

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Speaker 13: Here one uh here one fa pap or so boyant uh.

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My father has come up missing. And we just searched

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the properties a small farm and I just sails something

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near a phone that doesn't it was he was burning

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brush and I was just stall from the ball that.

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Speaker 2: It could be him.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but if anyone would know whether this

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was a human or animal, it would be Scott Ferris.

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Speaker 13: Now I'm calling you to say that I just I've

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we been walking around looking for him, and I went

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with the fires still smaller. I max the military. I

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was deployed to Iraq as and what burned the body

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looked like and this looks like big body.

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Speaker 2: Okay, said your father?

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Speaker 13: Yes, said I.

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Speaker 2: He just n uh me.

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Speaker 1: Gary wasn't without health problems, even though most would consider

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fifty eight to be relatively young. He'd been having what

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his wife called spells, but was refusing to follow through

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with his doctor visits.

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Speaker 5: He's had these spells for years, and he talks, he

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is a very slurred speech.

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Speaker 11: His motor coordin issue gets very off these stumbles.

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Speaker 10: He his dad had Parkinson's, and I.

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Speaker 11: Had kind of wondered is maybe he had Parkinson's as

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they did. I never did personally talk to the cardiologists,

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but I did talk to his physicians assistant, and because

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Amanda and I went with Amanda to go look at

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a wedding venue and so we lived before the actual

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cardiologist came in.

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Speaker 14: But they found that he had a leaking a worry

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about and a leaking tra.

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Speaker 11: Cusband about, and they wanted him to go back to

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the cardiologist on Friday. He got out of late Wednesday,

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and wanted him to go back to the cardiologist on

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Friday to.

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Speaker 15: Be hooked up to a heart monitor.

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Speaker 11: Or length for time to see you know, what all

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was going on wrong with.

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Speaker 6: His heart, and he.

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Speaker 16: Refused to go.

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Speaker 1: Of course, this beg the question did Scott have a spell,

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stumble and fall into the fire pit? According to Melody,

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Gary loved burning fires, but she did not and for

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good reason.

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Speaker 4: Well, Tuesday.

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Speaker 15: He started to be burned.

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Speaker 11: Late Tuesday started to be burned this week, yes, and gosh,

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where all the time about him.

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Speaker 10: He had set the house on fire two years ago,

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the end.

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Speaker 6: Of the end of the August.

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Speaker 11: And I got so scared of the fire after that

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he had shot it in his office.

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Speaker 4: We think what he did.

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Speaker 6: Wasn't get a nice training. May I don't know, you

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know that's what started starting nice guy.

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Speaker 12: We're here.

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Speaker 10: Ind so much damage and so since then, I think

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it's so just scared of fire around here. Just ways

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Gary that he is all the time he has the thing.

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Speaker 6: It was starting fires.

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Speaker 10: He set one in my other house in the woods

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behind my house.

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Speaker 6: We would do the sub division.

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Speaker 11: We had called from the neighbor when the morning it

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so o'clock in the morning and our.

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Speaker 6: Department was there. He had started it like the week before,

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and it.

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Speaker 5: Had been smoldered and had gotten out of control.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like Gary might have been a little bit of

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a pyromaniac, not saying he actually was. I mean, that's

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a real mental disorder, and it's not the same thing

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as being an arsonist. Pyromania is an impulse controlled disorder.

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A person feels drawn to setting fires, fascinated by them,

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and sometimes even relieved by them, like a coping mechanism.

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A vice the way some people reach for alcohol or cigarettes.

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It's man and honestly, Gary had reasons to need advice.

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It was a high powered attorney with health issues and

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a big family. You didn't get out much, wasn't a

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partier and mostly kept to himself. His family described him

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as a social introvert, and he didn't really drink so

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pyromaniac maybe, or maybe Melody's fire incidents were just isolated moments,

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nothing more either way. His real daily habit wasn't liquor.

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It was a twelve pack of mountain dew. Yeah, twelve.

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He drank twelve mountain dews daily. That's got to be

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worse than alcohol.

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Speaker 9: Right, So he you know, and.

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Speaker 10: Maybe six months or so since your mind it before.

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Speaker 4: The spurn ball here, Yeah.

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Speaker 10: Means it has been saying it had.

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Speaker 5: We had pulled up when we did the fire put

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down here, We had an excavator here, and then he

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pulled up the minch tree stops and that kind of

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stuff and put on the burn pile.

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Speaker 10: So I had a lot of fixing and.

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Speaker 5: Stuff on him, and he said something not long ago.

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Speaker 6: But burns, please do not burn it.

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Speaker 5: It's too dry, it's too undius to you know, we

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always go in.

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Speaker 6: These keys don't burn well.

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Speaker 7: Scott came home.

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Speaker 15: I don't know what time it was when he got hit.

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Speaker 11: Because I called him and I I was chasing horses.

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Speaker 1: Gary had started the burn pile on Tuesday, the evening

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of July third. He forgot to close the gate and

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the horses got out. Melody remembered chasing the horses and

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calling for her son, Scott to help. She was worried

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about the fire getting out of control because it was

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going to burn for a long time. The next day,

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she says, Scott came up to the house for a

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credit card and remarked that the fire was still going.

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Right before Melody left the property, she saw Gary gathering

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up even more wood to put on the fire. She

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begged him not to make it any bigger, but he

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didn't listen. Not only was Melody worried about the fire

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and the property, she was also worried about his mental health.

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According to her, he had tried to commit suicide twice

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before they were married. Keep in mind they had been

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married for thirty eight years, but still he had a

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family history of all kinds of mental and physical problems.

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Melody didn't just say. Gary was struggling. She told investigators

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his whole family tree was steeped in mental and physical problems,

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his sister with both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, in and

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out of psych hospitals, his mother on antidepressants and antipsychotic meds,

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eventually being placed in a memory care facility with what

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she calls really bad Alzheimer sir dementia, and his father,

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who had mental illnesses of his own, later dying from

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Parkinson's disease. Melody claimed Gary would say things like I

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think I'm getting like my parents, yet they shrugged as

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a couple through the good and bad times.

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Speaker 6: And then somebody asked me, said, why do you say.

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Speaker 1: Unless in her mind she wasn't the unhappy wife looking

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for a way out. She was the one holding the

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line while everything around them got harder to manage. The

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more Melody spoke to officers, the more what she had

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to say seemed like low key versions of Yellowstone, not

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with the shootouts and land wars, but in the way

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she painted the whole family as locked in constant drama.

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Everything revolved around Big Daddy in the farm, growing kids,

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coming and going, relying on handouts from a weary patriarch.

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Then there was the constant tug of war between who's helping,

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who's taking, and who's just tired of the whole thing.

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You might have had some conversations in your family that

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sound pretty similar.

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Speaker 12: I told one of the.

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Speaker 10: Other debuties that was here.

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Speaker 5: I said, we've been having trouble with him taking.

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Speaker 12: Money, read over nine hundred dollars a month.

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Speaker 6: He's got to check in to him routing them.

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Speaker 10: And I said, Gary refuses to talk to him, refuses

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to I said, he sends emails and text messages and

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that's all he does.

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Speaker 1: She went on to allege that her oldest son, Chris,

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was unkind, bordering on abusive to his kids, who often

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stayed at the farm.

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Speaker 3: And I agree, is I'm going to stop you from

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taking money in some way, somehow, some mean.

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Speaker 17: You've got to get help.

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Speaker 10: You cannot treat them two girls like this, You cannot

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treat in the inna.

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Speaker 4: And you know, I said, I they you know, get help.

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Speaker 1: Melody talked about all the expensive trips her son planned

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a bachelor party in Panama, a trip out west because

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friend's dad died, and he had another leisure trip he

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was planning before all this happened, but Chris wasn't the

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only one taking advantage of Gary. According to Melody, Gary

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was just like, you know.

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Speaker 5: It's not like I can't you know he can say, well,

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I can't afford to do and said Gary does not

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at the point, I mean this spot that lives witheth,

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I larn.

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Speaker 12: He hasn't marked since he came back from Iraq for

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a very short time.

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Speaker 10: And I can't make it Mark, I can't make it

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an Gary in the yearly thirty.

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Speaker 5: Five Saturday, and as Garry he needs to work.

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Speaker 3: He said, well you don't work, Gary.

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Speaker 4: We imagine this place is a whole time job, full

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time job.

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Speaker 18: I mean it is.

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Speaker 6: You know, it's Scott. I mean adult in Scott is

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good hail. But I mean like this last week.

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Speaker 5: I mean he's played golf three days, He's gone to

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the lake stone on the.

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Speaker 10: He is just like, come home, man.

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Speaker 19: This is.

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Speaker 6: So he's just enjoying life. He's enjoying life to.

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Speaker 1: The bullst Melody gave details of a family under strain,

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a big property, lots of animals and not enough help.

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But she said she was working son up to sundown

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while her son Scott drifted in and out instead of

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helping consistently, and Gary's health was getting worse. All of

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the grown children were mooching off their generous dad, and

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Melody was trying to rein it all in and hold

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it all together while Gary was trying to keep the peace.

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In a setup like that, it isn't hard to imagine

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his heart finally giving out, or him having one of

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his spells at the wrong time near an open fire.

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And for a little while, that's exactly what this looked like.

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A tragic accident on a hobby farm with a burned

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body where a husband and father used to be. But

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when what's left of Gary was finally boxed up and

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sent to the medical examiner, detectives started digging into the

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burn itself and the digital trail it left behind. What

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they found in the ashes and in the timeline didn't

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fit the idea that this was just an accident. Soon

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the family would dissolve into bickering and finger pointing and

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blaming each other for Big Daddy's death. In Cherokee County, Georgia,

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Melody and Gary Ferris have spent the last five years

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of their lives on a ten acre hobby farm. Melody's dreamscape.

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Gary worked hard as an attorney, and Melody worked on

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the farm and managed the family four grown children with

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children of their own, including Scott, who lived on the property.

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The last time Melody saw her husband was on Tuesday

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evening July third, after he'd set a bonfire or burn pile.

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Melody said he came upstairs that evening asked if she

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was making dinner, and she pointed him to the food

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in the fridge. After that, he went back down to

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the basement bedroom, where he slept alone with a seapap

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on July fourth. Both Melody and Scott said they never

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laid eyes on Gary, and Melody told investigators this wasn't unusual.

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He kept to himself even on July fourth. It wasn't

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until the next morning on fifth, that two of his

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grandkids wanted to ride the RTV with Big Daddy, but

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couldn't find them. Their daughter Amanda was already there. Their

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oldest son, Chris, showed up soon after, and the adults

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started searching the house and the property. Scott walked down

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to the burn pile, looked into the ashes and saw

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a part of Dad's skull, so he called nine one

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one while detectives and medical examiners were sifting through the bones,

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and the days that followed, detectives continued processing the situation

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with the family. This is Chris.

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Speaker 20: What I want to think is he just had one

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of his spells and something happened, had a heart attack

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and fell in there.

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Speaker 6: Just I don't know, man, something seems something seems weird.

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Speaker 18: Well, I will tell you what we do is we

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handle try to handle it as if it's the worst

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00:20:56,039 --> 00:20:57,440
possible scenario, because.

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Speaker 21: Obviously, if you approach it like that, then when it

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turns out to me that he had a heart attack

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00:21:02,559 --> 00:21:04,920
in film the fire, you've done everything you could.

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Speaker 18: Yes, what we do is we investigate something like this.

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We followed the evidence, and we gather evidence and we

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try to get to.

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Speaker 21: The evidence is going to lead us to some sort

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of complaire in terms of what happened. So you know,

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he will go your father's remains will go to an autopsy.

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Speaker 18: So that is you know, essentially the next step we're

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going to you know, be documenting outside the inside of

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the house. That's why it's secured because because this is

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the house, it's not far from the house. You have

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to you know, look at everything and make sure we're

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not missing anything, and do a good job of documenting

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so that nobody can come and say, you know, if

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it does turn out that he did fall in the fire,

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nobody can and he just had a heart attack, nobody

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can say we didn't do a good job and we

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missed the fact.

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Speaker 21: That someone did something bad to him. I just want

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to know what happened to what we're gonna look at.

359
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Speaker 6: I hope to God that it's just an accident.

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Speaker 18: I just I understand, but we'll do everything we can

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to get all meats or something, because you know, we

362
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all loved him very.

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Speaker 1: Much, but someone obviously did not love Gary very much,

364
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because what the autopsy revealed after putting all of Gary's

365
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burned pieces back together was a bullet lodged in his

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rib cage. Unless it was suicide. But if that were

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the case, then why would you be hearing this story

368
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on Sword and Scale. Once the medical examiner confirmed he'd

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been shot, detectives took that news back to the family.

370
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One of the first calls was to their son Chris.

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Speaker 19: Well, I'm gonna tell you something, and I just want

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to make sure you're ready, and then I'm at I

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just want you to tell me what to think when

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I say it, Okay, okay, the evidence we have obtained

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and on the scene.

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Speaker 21: Suggest to us that your father was shot.

377
00:23:07,519 --> 00:23:07,720
Speaker 10: Wow.

378
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Speaker 22: Wow, that's a lot oh man for shure, and.

379
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Speaker 21: There are some other people that are aware.

380
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Speaker 22: I can't believe it, man, I know what I.

381
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Speaker 9: Told you.

382
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Speaker 23: I suspect you, but I just wanted not to.

383
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Speaker 20: Be everything in my soul's.

384
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Speaker 21: Not right with it.

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Speaker 9: That would be accurate.

386
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Speaker 2: Whatever.

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Speaker 1: When the medical examiner opens the bags from the burn pit,

388
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there's no body in the usual sense. Gary has been

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reduced to charred pieces of bone and scraps of tissue,

390
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divided into almost fifty bags labeled by quadrant. Gary was

391
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six foot five inches and more than three hundred pounds.

392
00:24:06,039 --> 00:24:10,039
The bones are blackened, brittle, and cracked from heat, with

393
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:15,039
fragments of pelvis, leg bones, and skull mixed in with

394
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the ash. The soft tissue left is moldy and wet

395
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,799
after sitting in its own liquid collected in the bottom

396
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:26,440
of the backs. The only way to be sure it's

397
00:24:26,519 --> 00:24:30,319
Gary is by matching the teeth to all his dental records,

398
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:35,799
and there's no guarantee that this bullet killed him. Investigators

399
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,799
quickly rule out an intruder. There's no broken glass, no

400
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,279
kicked in door, no drawers pulled out or valuables missing.

401
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,279
This isn't a burglary gone bad. It's a dead man

402
00:24:47,519 --> 00:24:50,920
on his own land at a house that sits by

403
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,519
itself at the end of a gravel road. Whoever did

404
00:24:54,599 --> 00:24:57,599
this was extremely close to Gary.

405
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Speaker 19: So like the night of the third and the day

406
00:25:00,759 --> 00:25:05,519
of the fourth, you were just never even in Cherokee County, Okay.

407
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:13,160
Can you if I asked you if there's anyone who

408
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:17,599
would want to hurt your dad, what would you say?

409
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 23: Would Scott ever want to hurt your dad? Did they

410
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:23,559
get along pretty well?

411
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:25,640
Speaker 17: Yeah?

412
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Speaker 20: I mean, you know they lived in the same place

413
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and they bickered back.

414
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Speaker 9: And forth on the time, of course. But you know,

415
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,960
let's be honest, like Scott has a pretty good life.

416
00:25:38,079 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 23: He's got his apartment, he's got I mean, my dad

417
00:25:40,519 --> 00:25:45,680
does a lot for him. And who would stand to

418
00:25:45,799 --> 00:25:48,839
gain it? Who would stand to gain anything of something happened.

419
00:25:48,559 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 2: To your dad?

420
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 9: Honestly, I mean.

421
00:25:57,279 --> 00:25:58,200
Speaker 15: As far as.

422
00:25:59,039 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 23: Money goes, far as anything, probably money wise, I don't know.

423
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: While the kids are still clinging to the hope that

424
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:15,920
this might somehow be a horrible accident. Investigators sent Melody

425
00:26:16,039 --> 00:26:18,759
back down and tell her what the medical examiner has

426
00:26:18,799 --> 00:26:19,519
actually found.

427
00:26:20,039 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 15: They've been sifted through the remains in the axes, and

428
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,720
they have found a projectile in some bones.

429
00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:30,279
Speaker 6: Does not occur to be self inflicted, okay.

430
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:33,079
Speaker 24: Some of them, I mean.

431
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:35,759
Speaker 17: What kind or what?

432
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,079
Speaker 1: The circle was already pretty small Gary, his wife, and

433
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,319
his grown kids who came and went, but it was

434
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,079
growing even smaller. You know how it all comes down

435
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:54,519
to motive and opportunity. The motive seems simple money there

436
00:26:54,559 --> 00:26:57,599
you go. Once you rule out a stranger, what you're

437
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:01,319
left with is the ugliest kind of murder. Someone inside

438
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,799
the family did it, and the rest of them were

439
00:27:04,039 --> 00:27:06,359
trying to decide how much they really want to say

440
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,839
out loud. The only two family members who were at

441
00:27:11,279 --> 00:27:14,039
or around the property at the time of Gary's murder

442
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:19,319
were Melody and Scott. Once detectives found the projectile in

443
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,960
Gary's remains, the search was on for the gun that

444
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:28,440
fired it. On ten acre farms and rural Georgia, guns

445
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,240
are pretty much part of the landscape. There are long guns,

446
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,440
but twenty two and according to Scott, about two weeks

447
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,799
before Gary's death, he saw a small pistol in the

448
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,200
basement close to where Gary slept when he was looking

449
00:27:42,279 --> 00:27:45,359
for a remote because AT and T was there at

450
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:47,079
the house trying to repair the internet.

451
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 9: That's what when I found on that thirty eight special.

452
00:27:51,599 --> 00:27:54,240
That's not where the hell did that come from? And

453
00:27:54,319 --> 00:27:56,480
the only reason why I didn't continue.

454
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:58,319
Speaker 22: To, you know, to ask him about it and everything

455
00:27:58,519 --> 00:28:00,559
was I have to at and T and I didn't

456
00:28:00,559 --> 00:28:03,759
want to pull the nuncker out and you know, start

457
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:04,640
the crap out of him.

458
00:28:04,759 --> 00:28:06,799
Speaker 9: I shut the drawer back and I was like, you

459
00:28:07,559 --> 00:28:10,880
playing on asking My mom and dad were coming from it.

460
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,319
Speaker 22: It just slipped my mind, and it was sitting right

461
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:20,759
there in Yeah, it was like this level leather, crappy

462
00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:25,039
looking pulster and you know, I just you know, I

463
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,400
saw it and just kind of pulled it out and

464
00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:31,319
he told it's just a thirty eight special.

465
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:36,119
Speaker 9: Small. Did it look I don't know how to.

466
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:36,599
Speaker 17: Say this.

467
00:28:38,279 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 9: Old her black more modern revolver? It did did not

468
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,319
look brand new. It looked like an age on it.

469
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 1: Now there's a pattern investigators can't ignore. Two weeks before

470
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,920
Gary's death, Scott sees a thirty eight in a drawer

471
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:59,480
in a basement bedroom. After Gary disappears, that gun is

472
00:28:59,599 --> 00:29:03,319
gone in the basement room. They later find a second

473
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:07,119
bullet on the floor. When the lab compares that round

474
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,319
to the one taken from Gary's ribs, they say both

475
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:14,720
bullets were fired from the same gun. One shot in

476
00:29:14,799 --> 00:29:19,400
the house, one shot that ends up lodged in Gary's bones,

477
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,200
and the gun that ties them both together used to

478
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,880
sit in a drawer beside his bed and it's not

479
00:29:28,039 --> 00:29:28,720
there anymore.

480
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 13: Huh.

481
00:29:31,759 --> 00:29:37,440
Speaker 1: At this point, detectives know two things for sure. Gary

482
00:29:37,599 --> 00:29:41,000
was shot and whoever pulled the trigger was close enough

483
00:29:41,039 --> 00:29:44,000
to know. They're way around the house. The pool of

484
00:29:44,039 --> 00:29:47,480
suspects is basically just the people who live on that

485
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,039
land and move through that basement, So they don't just

486
00:29:52,319 --> 00:29:55,480
look for bullets and phones. They listen to how the

487
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:59,640
family talks about each other, and when they ask Melody

488
00:30:00,039 --> 00:30:05,480
about Scott, she doesn't describe a calm, steady son.

489
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,759
Speaker 15: Does he have any PTSD or anything from.

490
00:30:10,359 --> 00:30:13,079
Speaker 14: He's always been very hot headed, ever since he was

491
00:30:13,119 --> 00:30:13,599
a little boy.

492
00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:15,559
Speaker 6: I mean, you look going that, I.

493
00:30:15,599 --> 00:30:17,519
Speaker 14: Mean anyway nine to one when he was born, and

494
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,200
he was just handful.

495
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,519
Speaker 15: You're not protecting in of your sons that you know of,

496
00:30:27,119 --> 00:30:29,119
and we're not gonna find any evidence to prove otherwise.

497
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 6: Can you shed any light on any of this? Yeah,

498
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,319
I mean I would like to. I don't know. I

499
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,880
don't know. I mean, like I said, Scott is very

500
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,720
hot tempered. I mean, and he and Gary I.

501
00:30:47,759 --> 00:30:50,319
Speaker 24: Have seen them get into the point that I was

502
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,279
just like, okay, y'all just.

503
00:30:53,319 --> 00:30:54,359
Speaker 4: Take it down a notch.

504
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 15: I mean, I'd really like to believe that it's Scott

505
00:30:59,119 --> 00:31:04,400
shot on your property or inside your house, and then

506
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:05,640
the body was the stones.

507
00:31:05,359 --> 00:31:06,079
Speaker 2: Over in your firepit.

508
00:31:06,599 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 15: You wouldn't probably know about it or find some evidence

509
00:31:10,519 --> 00:31:15,000
of it yourself or help clean up or Yeah.

510
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:17,559
Speaker 6: Now, like I said, I wouldn't know.

511
00:31:20,279 --> 00:31:20,759
Speaker 1: You were there.

512
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 6: Well, I mean I was, but I left and I

513
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:24,880
just saw it smoldering.

514
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:30,359
Speaker 4: The thing is in Okay, it's not blazing, it's not whatever.

515
00:31:30,599 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 6: We're good, you know, don't they?

516
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 18: You know.

517
00:31:36,079 --> 00:31:36,119
Speaker 9: That.

518
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,599
Speaker 14: I kept thinking last night, why did's God coming here

519
00:31:39,599 --> 00:31:40,880
and get so angry.

520
00:31:42,119 --> 00:31:42,599
Speaker 6: Last night?

521
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 10: But that's not all that unusual either for him to

522
00:31:47,799 --> 00:31:48,759
just blow.

523
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: Up s God insists he's not a hot head. He

524
00:31:53,039 --> 00:31:56,480
admits he gets angry like anyone, and he admits loud

525
00:31:56,599 --> 00:32:00,359
bangs still make him jump, but he pushes bat on

526
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,119
the idea that he's some kind of ticking bomb.

527
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 22: My version of PTSD is if I hear allow bang

528
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:13,519
or something, then I'm just not prepared for my Drilline

529
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:16,119
just goes through the roof my heart about pounding it

530
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,480
at my chest, and I've learned to start taking deep

531
00:32:19,559 --> 00:32:23,480
breaths and calms me down. But gunfire doesn't bother me.

532
00:32:23,599 --> 00:32:30,279
I can still be around that, and nightmares have ended,

533
00:32:30,359 --> 00:32:33,480
and they ended a long time ago. Other than that, no,

534
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:35,559
I don't get violent with anybody.

535
00:32:36,319 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 9: I'm just like my dad, who you know, I make

536
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:40,640
friends everywhere I go.

537
00:32:42,039 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: By all accounts, Scott and his dad were really likable

538
00:32:45,519 --> 00:32:49,519
guys who made friends everywhere they went, and they got

539
00:32:49,559 --> 00:32:52,880
along well together. When his dad wasn't able to keep

540
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:55,119
up with the farm anymore, Scott was a huge help.

541
00:32:56,079 --> 00:32:59,000
It was more Gary and Melody who didn't get along

542
00:32:59,079 --> 00:33:04,240
so well. And Melody had her own habit of making

543
00:33:04,359 --> 00:33:08,920
friends wherever she went. If you didn't know what I mean,

544
00:33:10,119 --> 00:33:12,319
what I mean is that Melody didn't just collect friends.

545
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,720
She collected other women's partners, starting with a guy named

546
00:33:16,799 --> 00:33:21,279
Ted who'd spent more than twenty years as the boyfriend

547
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:29,759
of Gary's sister. So yeah, Melody's brother in law. Melody

548
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,400
was fucking her brother in law. The truth is that

549
00:33:33,599 --> 00:33:37,359
Melody and Scott had been together for decades until something

550
00:33:37,599 --> 00:33:41,200
pulled them apart, and that's something the family would later

551
00:33:41,359 --> 00:33:45,680
say was melody. This was Chris's take on it.

552
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,519
Speaker 20: You know, my parents don't get along, they don't honestly

553
00:33:49,599 --> 00:33:53,720
don't really like each other, and so the communication with clog.

554
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,799
Speaker 21: They do not like each other. This has been going,

555
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:56,720
It's nothing new.

556
00:33:58,119 --> 00:34:01,799
Speaker 20: My grandmother about series of three months, my grandmother had

557
00:34:01,839 --> 00:34:04,720
open heart surgery that went really wrong. She survived, but

558
00:34:04,839 --> 00:34:09,519
it put her intability. At around a month or two

559
00:34:09,639 --> 00:34:14,000
after that, my ex wife told me she was leaving me. Then,

560
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,639
through that whole situation, my mother had to be in

561
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,599
Alabama because my mom's my grandmother's house because she could

562
00:34:21,639 --> 00:34:24,360
no longer function on her own, so my mom had

563
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,119
to go up there and get her house, deal with

564
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:28,639
the affairs.

565
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: This was a bit of a double entent. Melanie had

566
00:34:33,519 --> 00:34:36,599
to deal with the affairs of grandma and her house,

567
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,039
but also had her own affairs.

568
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 6: So during that period my mom started.

569
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:51,880
Speaker 20: The affairs affairs started withdrawing a lot of money out

570
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,280
of my father's account. I remember him calling me and say,

571
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,280
your mother just took fifty thousand dollars out of my

572
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,199
account that I had set aside to pay taxes with.

573
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,199
Speaker 6: So I'm scrambling with that. What I'm gonna do? She

574
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:03,360
spent a lot of money.

575
00:35:04,599 --> 00:35:08,599
Speaker 1: Everybody was spending oh, big Daddy's hard earned money, and

576
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,119
nobody seemed to be bringing in any of their own.

577
00:35:12,039 --> 00:35:15,559
According to Melody, Scott was constantly taking the debit card

578
00:35:15,679 --> 00:35:19,159
for cash, but Scott would say his dad knew about

579
00:35:19,159 --> 00:35:22,480
every penny and it was considered compensation for helping on

580
00:35:22,559 --> 00:35:26,519
the farm. Melody would say that Chris was abusive to

581
00:35:26,639 --> 00:35:29,639
his kids and constantly took vacations at the expense of

582
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:34,440
Gary big Daddy, but Chris would answer that his dad

583
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:35,920
didn't have a problem with it.

584
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 2: In fact, he was going to go with.

585
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:44,400
Speaker 1: Chris on vacation shortly before he died, and Melody wasn't

586
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:45,199
happy about it.

587
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 5: The last thing that Chris had done was booked a

588
00:35:50,199 --> 00:35:52,800
vacation to the beach that they're supposed to be leaving

589
00:35:53,039 --> 00:35:59,000
saturday this Saturday, and Gary had said, I'm going to.

590
00:35:59,039 --> 00:36:02,199
Speaker 4: Go with you instad just taking the money like what.

591
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 2: He usually does.

592
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:03,760
Speaker 25: I will go with him.

593
00:36:04,559 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 4: And he said, are you going to go?

594
00:36:06,039 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 3: And I said, no, I'm not going this very few

595
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,280
keys taking. I mean this serious money.

596
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 17: I mean it's like.

597
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:14,400
Speaker 10: Serious money.

598
00:36:14,639 --> 00:36:16,519
Speaker 2: I mean, like I said, it's anywhere.

599
00:36:16,159 --> 00:36:19,079
Speaker 5: From eight nine hundred dollars worth, plus the girls.

600
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 1: Airline tickets to hear Melody tell it, even plane tickets

601
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:27,440
for her granddaughters were one more example of everyone spending

602
00:36:27,519 --> 00:36:31,760
Gary's money. But the truth was that trips with the

603
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:36,159
kids weren't exactly what had nearly blown this marriage up

604
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:37,320
years earlier.

605
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:39,800
Speaker 6: I mean I told him he needed to find somebody else,

606
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:42,280
you know, because.

607
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,159
Speaker 20: She talks so bad about him to everyone to make

608
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:51,079
him out to be such an offer person. And now,

609
00:36:51,119 --> 00:36:52,920
granted she does that to a lot of people too,

610
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:57,960
my mother has issues. Basically, he's in a tough situation.

611
00:36:58,079 --> 00:37:00,559
He didn't want to break the whole family up. You're

612
00:37:00,599 --> 00:37:05,519
a very conservative, traditional person, you know, and I don't

613
00:37:05,599 --> 00:37:07,280
know the ins and Allison, when you're a kid, you

614
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:09,039
don't want to hear that kind of stuff about your parents,

615
00:37:09,079 --> 00:37:12,840
no matter how old you are. But there was definitely

616
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:17,800
a lot of a lot of problems, A lot of issues.

617
00:37:17,519 --> 00:37:18,320
Speaker 6: And a lot of problems.

618
00:37:18,639 --> 00:37:20,480
Speaker 21: Okay, have you ever known there to be any domestic

619
00:37:20,559 --> 00:37:21,400
violence or anything?

620
00:37:22,079 --> 00:37:26,199
Speaker 18: Is there any substance abuse going on, any anything other

621
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:27,800
than her cheating and money issues.

622
00:37:29,199 --> 00:37:31,159
Speaker 21: Do you know any names of anyone she had an

623
00:37:31,199 --> 00:37:32,639
affair with or you just know she had.

624
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 20: Fed and then some guy named Rusty. I think it's

625
00:37:38,119 --> 00:37:40,719
nice names Barton, and I don't know that that was

626
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:43,239
an affair that actually happened. That's just something we suspected

627
00:37:44,599 --> 00:37:49,679
because she would tell my daughters things, big day is

628
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,360
just said and down. Then she would have badmouth then,

629
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,039
but she'd be on the she would have like always

630
00:37:56,079 --> 00:37:58,800
on her phone, always talking to somebody, ends up getting

631
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:02,079
a tattooed right here that says XO. And my daughter said,

632
00:38:02,079 --> 00:38:04,400
well that's who when she calls people, that's it's his

633
00:38:04,679 --> 00:38:10,920
XO XO on her phone and the and like my brother,

634
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:12,519
so many days he's like, yeah, she's had a whole

635
00:38:12,599 --> 00:38:13,320
nother cellphone.

636
00:38:14,519 --> 00:38:18,320
Speaker 1: According to Chris, Gary tried his best to avoid divorce

637
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,400
for a while. They even moved away and tried to

638
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:26,000
hit the reset button. When that didn't work, Gary bought

639
00:38:26,079 --> 00:38:29,480
Melody's dream phone, where he ultimately died.

640
00:38:30,159 --> 00:38:32,840
Speaker 20: He thought buying this would to fix everything. He did

641
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,199
for a while, and then things started happening again. So

642
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:37,360
it's been an on and off thing.

643
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 21: And then has anybody ever actually filed for a divorce?

644
00:38:40,159 --> 00:38:41,840
Speaker 6: You know, I think my dad filed me.

645
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:46,400
Speaker 20: He withdrew it, okay, because I remember him calling me

646
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:49,719
and telling him he was gonna take her back, and

647
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,360
I told him, you know, I mean, I told him.

648
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 2: Not to buy this place because it's not going to

649
00:38:55,039 --> 00:38:55,320
fix it.

650
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:57,280
Speaker 6: I mean, I told him he needed to find somebody else.

651
00:38:58,679 --> 00:39:02,079
Speaker 1: Scott backed up chris statements about his parents' marriage in

652
00:39:02,159 --> 00:39:03,079
a separate interview.

653
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 9: Why do you think they'd reconcile when the never divorced?

654
00:39:06,199 --> 00:39:10,519
Why don't you think your dad it's all too My

655
00:39:10,639 --> 00:39:11,280
dad loved her.

656
00:39:13,159 --> 00:39:17,159
Speaker 22: He didn't like conflict, he didn't like to argue. He

657
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:21,159
you know, he always tried to find the easiest way

658
00:39:21,559 --> 00:39:21,840
out of.

659
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:22,840
Speaker 6: Any kind of conflict.

660
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 9: And that's part why need I knew he loved loved her.

661
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:33,679
He was the one. I mean, I think at one

662
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:38,280
point he said something to either Chris or somebody. I

663
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:39,960
just heard that he tried to get her to go

664
00:39:40,039 --> 00:39:41,760
to the marriage counseling, and she wouldn't do it.

665
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,559
Speaker 1: By the time detectives were done listening to everyone, Melody,

666
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,239
the two sons, and the two daughters, Emily and Amanda,

667
00:39:51,119 --> 00:39:56,800
they'd heard every angle on this family, the affairs, the money,

668
00:39:57,519 --> 00:40:01,039
the move, the dream farm get bought to try to

669
00:40:01,079 --> 00:40:05,159
hold it all together. Emily and Chris were pretty clear

670
00:40:06,119 --> 00:40:11,239
they think their mother is capable of this. Amanda, the youngest,

671
00:40:11,559 --> 00:40:14,400
was still defending Melody while planning her wedding with her.

672
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,119
Scott also thought his mother might be capable of it,

673
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:22,400
but he was a person of interest too. He was

674
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:24,679
the son who lived on the farm and stood to

675
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,360
game the property if Gary were to be gone. None

676
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,719
of this told them who actually pulled the trigger. Though

677
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:35,880
on paper it looked bad for Melody, but Scott, with

678
00:40:36,079 --> 00:40:39,599
his temper, his time on the farm, and his proximity

679
00:40:39,639 --> 00:40:43,519
to the missing gun, still seemed like the most dangerous

680
00:40:43,639 --> 00:40:48,679
wild card. So detectives stopped asking about feelings and went

681
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,920
back to the three days that mattered most July, third, fourth,

682
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:57,320
and fifth, to see what evidence said about who was

683
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:02,199
there when Gary died. At first, the family wanted to

684
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,000
believe this was an accident. Gary had one of his

685
00:41:05,079 --> 00:41:08,159
dizzy spells, maybe a heart attack, and fell into the fire.

686
00:41:09,079 --> 00:41:14,000
Poof burned quickly and gone just like that. But finding

687
00:41:14,039 --> 00:41:18,840
the bullet immediately rules that out. And the body burning

688
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:23,880
quickly in the fire, well, that's just not how it works.

689
00:41:24,119 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 2: Kids.

690
00:41:25,039 --> 00:41:28,320
Speaker 18: Bodies don't burn like that. You don't burn on bodies.

691
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:31,199
He's just don't throw them on a burn pile. That's unusual.

692
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:36,519
Speaker 4: The amount of effort needed to burn a body of significant.

693
00:41:38,199 --> 00:41:40,599
Speaker 3: I mean that was just I know that he burned one.

694
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:44,800
Speaker 18: Okay, I'm telling you, bodies just don't burn and fires

695
00:41:45,639 --> 00:41:50,800
or they just don't go away. Water incinerators are designed

696
00:41:51,639 --> 00:41:54,599
to burn for a very long time in an exceedingly

697
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,800
high heat that has not reached a regular bonfire.

698
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:58,719
Speaker 4: That's not reaching a brushfire, it's barely reaching. It's not

699
00:41:58,719 --> 00:41:59,599
even really reaching.

700
00:41:59,400 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 2: A house fire.

701
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,079
Speaker 18: House fires were houses collapse on people. We still find

702
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,639
more of those people than we did of your husband.

703
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:09,840
Speaker 5: Okay, then how did you.

704
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,719
Speaker 4: Learn it was outside your duderom window.

705
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:14,719
Speaker 2: I was hoping maybe you get said.

706
00:42:14,519 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 26: Somewhere on that Yeah, all I saw this of you know,

707
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:23,880
I'd never went down there, but someone did, because someone

708
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:26,440
would have needed to make sure the body itself kept

709
00:42:26,519 --> 00:42:30,280
burning until the job was done, and Melody was on

710
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,159
the property all day long.

711
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:36,159
Speaker 1: On July fourth, the fifth is when they all went

712
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:39,400
searching for Gary and found what Melody claimed to be

713
00:42:39,519 --> 00:42:39,920
a goat.

714
00:42:40,639 --> 00:42:42,599
Speaker 14: I mean when we were all down there the other day,

715
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:44,960
I mean everybody, Me and Man and Scott and Chris,

716
00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:48,360
even you know, Patison and Camera and I think we

717
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:53,280
were all circling around Scott actually when when we were

718
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,119
discussing that by the goade, I said, do we have

719
00:42:57,159 --> 00:42:57,880
a goat to die?

720
00:42:58,039 --> 00:42:59,280
Speaker 6: Did you put one on the burn?

721
00:42:59,400 --> 00:42:59,559
Speaker 17: How?

722
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:04,519
Speaker 6: And you did your daddy put one on? You know whatever?

723
00:43:04,679 --> 00:43:07,119
Speaker 5: Because all I saw was two legs what I thought

724
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:08,360
was two legs digging up.

725
00:43:09,559 --> 00:43:13,079
Speaker 1: Melody wasn't just playing along, so that fire it.

726
00:43:13,119 --> 00:43:14,480
Speaker 4: Had to be tendency for a while.

727
00:43:15,559 --> 00:43:17,199
Speaker 10: I just told you, I see, you got to keep

728
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:17,559
in all.

729
00:43:19,519 --> 00:43:20,760
Speaker 2: Someone had to go back.

730
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:27,199
Speaker 21: Repeatedly and do what did keep it burning?

731
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:30,760
Speaker 15: I did not do it.

732
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:32,880
Speaker 17: I did not do that.

733
00:43:36,199 --> 00:43:38,280
Speaker 14: I mean when not changing that fire was massive. It

734
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,519
was massive, and he had a bunch of Like I said,

735
00:43:41,639 --> 00:43:44,679
there was fencing and boards and.

736
00:43:45,519 --> 00:43:48,679
Speaker 18: All kinds of wolfully insufficient for the type of heat

737
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:52,079
and the amount of the burn and everything else about it.

738
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:58,880
Speaker 1: Woefully insufficient, woefully insufficient. It sounds like feedback on a

739
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,840
failed science project. But what he's really saying is her

740
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:07,360
version wouldn't come close to doing this. A fire like

741
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:11,480
the one she describes doesn't erase a three hundred pound man.

742
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:18,559
Someone had to stay with it and continue feeding the fire.

743
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:20,000
Speaker 4: That's all on it.

744
00:44:20,679 --> 00:44:21,559
Speaker 19: That is all on it.

745
00:44:23,519 --> 00:44:24,800
Speaker 6: That's all I know that was on it.

746
00:44:26,119 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 4: An here, she can't tell me about the blood in that.

747
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:29,599
Speaker 17: Well?

748
00:44:29,639 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 4: Can you tell me about the blood he found?

749
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:32,800
Speaker 10: I don't.

750
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 6: I didn't know that it was any I mean, how

751
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:38,039
much lore we go?

752
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:42,840
Speaker 4: We found blood? Do you know anything about the blood?

753
00:44:43,159 --> 00:44:44,760
I didn't know anything about the blood.

754
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:50,000
Speaker 18: Nothing, And the entire time you were there because this

755
00:44:50,159 --> 00:44:52,480
is where and see if this makes sense to you,

756
00:44:52,599 --> 00:44:55,039
and I'll let you try to explain how this could happen.

757
00:44:56,599 --> 00:44:57,559
Speaker 4: Something happened to him?

758
00:44:58,760 --> 00:44:59,440
Speaker 2: How did he die?

759
00:45:00,519 --> 00:45:01,199
Speaker 6: I didn't move.

760
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:05,440
Speaker 4: You were told, you were told how he died. Weren't

761
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,000
you what happened?

762
00:45:08,039 --> 00:45:11,880
Speaker 3: Well, we just assumed when Scott said this, this is

763
00:45:12,039 --> 00:45:13,440
human remains on this fire.

764
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,280
Speaker 1: But you know what they say about assumptions, right, it's

765
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,079
an old Benny hill joke.

766
00:45:20,679 --> 00:45:22,400
Speaker 21: Have you been told how he how he died?

767
00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 2: What we found?

768
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:25,000
Speaker 5: He told me that there was a.

769
00:45:27,119 --> 00:45:31,679
Speaker 10: Shot or whatever slow in the rim?

770
00:45:33,159 --> 00:45:35,079
Speaker 4: Okay, so what does that indicate to you?

771
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 19: The gunshot?

772
00:45:37,519 --> 00:45:38,239
Speaker 2: Woand okay?

773
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,239
Speaker 3: I mean it's like I mean, I told Amanda lest

774
00:45:41,320 --> 00:45:43,039
I mean, we told Colon last night here.

775
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,159
Speaker 5: And that's when I found out that it was when

776
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:47,280
we came here.

777
00:45:49,519 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 6: And it was like, how do you hear of your

778
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:53,440
hand around this? I mean, I'm thinking he just got.

779
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:54,079
Speaker 9: Caught of the fire.

780
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:58,079
Speaker 4: That's what we have is gunshot wound.

781
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:01,039
Speaker 21: Turned on body.

782
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:07,639
Speaker 4: On which took a long period of time. And you

783
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:11,239
were the only person in the house. So that's why

784
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:11,760
I was hoping.

785
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 18: I know, you keep saying you didn't you don't know

786
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,519
anything and you didn't do it, and you keep saying that,

787
00:46:19,199 --> 00:46:22,639
But the problem is is there's almost no way in

788
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:26,719
this world that you didn't see something, hear something, or

789
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:29,079
know something, and someone is shot.

790
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:39,000
Speaker 25: Moved and burned and burned and burned and burned thirty

791
00:46:39,079 --> 00:46:40,360
feet from your bedroom window.

792
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,880
Speaker 1: Of course, Melody knew how he died. It was absurd

793
00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:48,679
for her to sit there and claim she didn't or

794
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:53,159
she forgot or whatever. But this wasn't the detective's first

795
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:57,719
radio in Cherokee County, Georgia, and Melody's role in Gary's

796
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:02,840
death was becoming more and more suspicious or sus as

797
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:03,639
the kids say.

798
00:47:03,559 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 4: These days, I don't know anything. Does not make sense.

799
00:47:07,039 --> 00:47:09,239
It doesn't jib, it doesn't match the evidence, and it

800
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:10,159
just doesn't work.

801
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,880
Speaker 3: I don't know the count I mean, I know who

802
00:47:15,039 --> 00:47:15,639
not sel you.

803
00:47:17,199 --> 00:47:18,679
Speaker 4: You realize though this makes no sense?

804
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,519
Speaker 18: I did you realize that I have had hundreds of

805
00:47:21,599 --> 00:47:27,000
conversations with people that have lost loved ones, people who

806
00:47:27,079 --> 00:47:28,960
have had loved ones shot and we didn't know who

807
00:47:29,039 --> 00:47:31,719
did it, people that have had loved ones who they

808
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,719
have done something bad to. I have had these conversations

809
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,559
with people on both ends of both sides of the spectrum.

810
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:43,920
Speaker 4: I've had the countless ones. People tend to act certain ways,

811
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:44,880
whether they want to or not.

812
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:49,000
Speaker 10: But honestly, hearing you don't know.

813
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 7: And the problem is is that just doesn't fit. It's

814
00:47:53,519 --> 00:47:58,639
absolutely impossible that you don't know. I'm not saying I'm

815
00:47:58,679 --> 00:48:02,679
saying it is averity evidence we have. It is absolutely impossible.

816
00:48:04,079 --> 00:48:07,440
Speaker 1: By now, detectives had made it clear her I don't

817
00:48:07,519 --> 00:48:11,880
know act doesn't match what they're seeing. A body burned

818
00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:15,719
to fragments, bullets in the bones, blood inside the house,

819
00:48:16,599 --> 00:48:20,519
a fire that, in their words, would be woefully insufficient

820
00:48:21,079 --> 00:48:25,079
unless somebody kept coming back to feed it. They've pointed

821
00:48:25,119 --> 00:48:28,079
these things out to Melody, but she doesn't know yet

822
00:48:28,199 --> 00:48:31,480
that they've tret Gary's cell phone moving back and forth

823
00:48:31,519 --> 00:48:33,559
between the house and the burn pile on the very

824
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:38,119
day Melody said she never saw him. To add to this,

825
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,360
Scott says he searched for his dad's wallet the day

826
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,400
they found the body. He always kept it on him

827
00:48:45,519 --> 00:48:49,599
or in his room, never in the car. Scott searched

828
00:48:49,639 --> 00:48:52,920
the car twice over and found nothing. Yet later that

829
00:48:53,119 --> 00:48:57,119
day it was in Melody's hands. When he asked her

830
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,679
where she found it. She said the car detectives were

831
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:05,960
onto melodies lies, so they changed tact. At this point,

832
00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,360
if she won't talk about the night he died, maybe

833
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:13,320
she'll say more than she means to about how she

834
00:49:13,559 --> 00:49:14,840
really felt about him.

835
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:16,559
Speaker 4: Didn't anybody know I like him?

836
00:49:18,159 --> 00:49:18,599
Speaker 17: I like him.

837
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:21,440
Speaker 2: I loved him really like.

838
00:49:22,639 --> 00:49:23,960
Speaker 14: I mean, That's what I've always said.

839
00:49:24,079 --> 00:49:24,559
Speaker 1: I love him.

840
00:49:24,599 --> 00:49:25,679
Speaker 4: How do you feel about him?

841
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 17: Oh?

842
00:49:26,519 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 9: I love him?

843
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:27,239
Speaker 14: Today?

844
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:29,119
Speaker 10: I don't NeSSI really liked you.

845
00:49:30,159 --> 00:49:32,119
Speaker 11: I did not like the person that he had to come.

846
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:37,559
Speaker 1: Did you catch at she said she loved him to death?

847
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:44,000
Huh figure a speech. During the investigation, Chris and Scott

848
00:49:44,199 --> 00:49:47,360
both found themselves going back over the little things they'd

849
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,960
brushed off at the time, The meals she made for Gary,

850
00:49:51,639 --> 00:49:55,760
the way he'd get sick afterwards, the spells everyone talked

851
00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:59,639
about and nobody really named. They started to ask themselves

852
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:04,280
not did she really love him to death? But was

853
00:50:04,519 --> 00:50:07,559
death the version of him that she preferred.

854
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 6: My daughter when she landed, called my mother and asked,

855
00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:11,960
can we have that?

856
00:50:12,079 --> 00:50:15,119
Speaker 20: Remember the sleepover? Can we have a sleepover? They wanted

857
00:50:15,119 --> 00:50:17,079
to do it the third and she said tonight would

858
00:50:17,079 --> 00:50:19,400
not be a good night. That's what I know for

859
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:25,000
a fact. Other than that, other facts, I'll tell you

860
00:50:25,039 --> 00:50:28,119
what else I know, And I don't know. When I

861
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:31,239
was in when my dad was in the hospital was April.

862
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:36,639
I came in there, you know, I walk in and

863
00:50:36,679 --> 00:50:39,880
I was like, what's the deal with my dad? He's like, oh,

864
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:41,000
I'm okay, I'm okay.

865
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 17: I'm like, no, you're not okay.

866
00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:43,559
Speaker 2: What's the deal?

867
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:47,199
Speaker 6: He said, Well, you know, I'll just keep having these spells,

868
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:49,639
and I was like, well, what's going on?

869
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 20: He said, well, your mama says my blood sugar because

870
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:54,639
she has this test kit blah blah blah.

871
00:50:54,679 --> 00:50:56,559
Speaker 6: And I was like, okay. I go to the doctor

872
00:50:56,599 --> 00:50:58,119
and I say, what's up with this blood sugar?

873
00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 20: She tells me she's like I reme mar thumbs and

874
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,119
your dad is better blood sugar than I do, so

875
00:51:04,519 --> 00:51:05,400
don't say anything.

876
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 6: Let me finish. So I was like, oh, okay, and

877
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:13,519
now she could this like number one, can you like

878
00:51:13,599 --> 00:51:16,840
this whole blood sugar thing? Where did that come from?

879
00:51:17,199 --> 00:51:17,360
Speaker 17: You know?

880
00:51:18,039 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 6: And why does Melodie Ferris have a blood sugar test kit?

881
00:51:21,519 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 3: And how can she?

882
00:51:24,039 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 6: And then I asked the doctor that she tells me that.

883
00:51:26,199 --> 00:51:28,159
Speaker 20: So then my dad, I'm sitting there and she goes,

884
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,400
He goes, well, about a week ago, I was sitting

885
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,199
in the theater and your mother comes down and hands

886
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,519
me a tray of freshly.

887
00:51:37,239 --> 00:51:41,719
Speaker 6: Big cookies and he said, I ate them, And he said.

888
00:51:41,559 --> 00:51:43,360
Speaker 20: I probably shouldn't have it because she doesn't even have

889
00:51:43,519 --> 00:51:44,960
the time to even talk to me, and when she

890
00:51:45,039 --> 00:51:46,800
does talk to me, she's yelling at me and screaming

891
00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:47,039
at me.

892
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:48,800
Speaker 6: But I was like, well, they look good.

893
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:52,079
Speaker 20: So I ate him and he said, they started burning

894
00:51:52,119 --> 00:51:55,559
my mouth and burning in my throat. And he said,

895
00:51:55,719 --> 00:52:01,320
then I started feeling bad after them. So I called

896
00:52:01,599 --> 00:52:04,000
my sister and I called my best friend and I

897
00:52:04,079 --> 00:52:08,960
told him that, and so I said, and he was

898
00:52:09,079 --> 00:52:10,760
just like, oh, I think she's trying to poison me

899
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:11,360
or something.

900
00:52:11,199 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 6: And just laughing it off.

901
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:14,519
Speaker 20: And I thought, oh my god, you know, like nah,

902
00:52:14,599 --> 00:52:17,199
I mean, come on, you know, maybe, But he said, well,

903
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:22,159
then a few weeks before that, she brought home a

904
00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:25,400
pasta dish and the same thing happened.

905
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:29,639
Speaker 6: I said, So I just went to the doctor and

906
00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:31,679
I said, look, I said, they have a farm.

907
00:52:32,719 --> 00:52:35,599
Speaker 20: They have a lot of stuff going on out there

908
00:52:35,639 --> 00:52:38,039
with pesticides and Everything's like, maybe y'all should have run

909
00:52:38,119 --> 00:52:39,679
a talk psychology thing on him.

910
00:52:40,159 --> 00:52:42,119
Speaker 6: That might not be a bad idea. Just try not

911
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:44,760
to be like, holy shit, he just told me that

912
00:52:45,079 --> 00:52:47,119
he thinks my mom might trying to poison him.

913
00:52:47,559 --> 00:52:48,159
Speaker 18: You know, I didn't.

914
00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:50,280
Speaker 20: You don't want to just tell the doctor that and

915
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,199
set off something that doesn't need to be set off.

916
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,360
But now thinking back on it, I wish I would

917
00:52:56,400 --> 00:52:57,840
have said something.

918
00:52:57,679 --> 00:52:58,320
Speaker 2: A little bit more.

919
00:52:59,559 --> 00:53:03,440
Speaker 1: One of Melody's final acts of hospitality towards Gary was

920
00:53:03,519 --> 00:53:07,079
caught on tape. It appeared Gary knew that he was

921
00:53:07,119 --> 00:53:12,840
being poisoned, but maybe nobody believed him. This is the

922
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,400
voice of Gary after he's discovered a shattered plate right

923
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:20,519
outside his bedroom just hours before his disappearance.

924
00:53:21,159 --> 00:53:25,280
Speaker 2: That's what happens when you leave a plate forget to

925
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:30,960
take it upstairs. A minor temper tantrum. Of course, I

926
00:53:31,039 --> 00:53:33,440
hadn't supper tonight and it was sixed for me, so

927
00:53:33,679 --> 00:53:38,000
I'm sure I'll be feeling poorly here in minutes, but

928
00:53:38,159 --> 00:53:38,639
we'll see.

929
00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:43,119
Speaker 1: When the two brothers were interviewed together for hours, their

930
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:45,679
memories became clearer and clearer.

931
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:49,159
Speaker 24: Well within this past year, the fighting between the two

932
00:53:49,199 --> 00:53:52,519
of them just got, you know, worse and worse. And

933
00:53:52,639 --> 00:53:56,079
the comments my mother. My dad never talked said anything

934
00:53:56,199 --> 00:54:00,239
negative to me about my mother except for just like

935
00:54:00,320 --> 00:54:02,480
her going out and spending so much money.

936
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:03,800
Speaker 2: On stuff like that and all.

937
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:08,320
Speaker 24: But he never, you know, you know, said anything other than.

938
00:54:08,199 --> 00:54:11,599
Speaker 2: That negative way. But my mother, on the other hand, man.

939
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:13,519
Speaker 24: I can't tell you how many times I've heard her say,

940
00:54:13,599 --> 00:54:14,760
I can't wait till today.

941
00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:15,920
Speaker 9: I don't have to live with him.

942
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 2: I wish he would just have a.

943
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:18,400
Speaker 9: Heart attack and die.

944
00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:21,519
Speaker 6: And yeah, she would definitely.

945
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:23,519
Speaker 24: Try to turn all of us only to each other.

946
00:54:23,639 --> 00:54:26,360
She has said stuff about him, she has said stuff

947
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:31,239
about Emily. She's just trying to, you know, basically stir

948
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:33,480
the pot up with us. She's been doing that ever

949
00:54:33,559 --> 00:54:36,119
since all this happened. She's been trying to get me

950
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:39,079
to turn against him and my sister Emily. And I

951
00:54:39,159 --> 00:54:43,800
guess she's been, you know, vice versa with Amanda. I mean,

952
00:54:44,079 --> 00:54:46,360
trying to get Amanda turned on all of us. And

953
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:51,599
and that's not really mean, that's that's kind of crap

954
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:56,639
my mother would do. I mean, yeah, she loved drawing.

955
00:54:56,440 --> 00:54:59,119
Speaker 20: So it's been always really were and my mom would

956
00:54:59,159 --> 00:55:02,800
treat like strangers and people she recently.

957
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:07,159
Speaker 6: Knew, or or even like her heads a lot better

958
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:07,960
than her family.

959
00:55:09,079 --> 00:55:13,079
Speaker 1: It wasn't that Melody couldn't show emotion. It's that every

960
00:55:13,119 --> 00:55:17,199
emotion began and ended with her, And the only thing

961
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:21,480
she ever seemed to feel for Gary was resentment. Resentment

962
00:55:21,599 --> 00:55:27,280
that he'd seen through her hedonistic version of marriage. She

963
00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:29,400
didn't just want to have her cake and eat it too,

964
00:55:29,599 --> 00:55:33,519
She wanted to eat hers, take his and still complain

965
00:55:33,599 --> 00:55:36,239
that there wasn't enough frosting family.

966
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,800
Speaker 9: Members of you know passed away. She did more upset.

967
00:55:38,960 --> 00:55:43,039
But when I, you know, when I discovered.

968
00:55:42,679 --> 00:55:47,480
Speaker 22: His body, his remains and even with paramedic so she

969
00:55:47,519 --> 00:55:48,840
has those are human remains.

970
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:56,760
Speaker 9: She had zero emotion, no, no, probably nothing, but yeah,

971
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:01,599
when Rebel the horse put a couple months after you

972
00:56:01,679 --> 00:56:03,719
find hill, she followed.

973
00:56:05,639 --> 00:56:08,199
Speaker 1: The more the brothers spoke about their mother, the more

974
00:56:08,679 --> 00:56:14,760
they realized they just may have been raised by a sociopath.

975
00:56:47,559 --> 00:56:51,400
On July fifth, twenty eighteen, on the Farris family's ten

976
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:56,199
acre farm off Purcell Lane in Cherokee County, Georgia, Gary Ferris,

977
00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:00,800
a fifty eight year old Atlanta attorney, is missing. His

978
00:57:01,159 --> 00:57:05,880
truck is there, and his seapop and personal items are inside.

979
00:57:06,960 --> 00:57:10,280
Also inside her blood droplets leading from the kitchen to

980
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:14,559
Gary's basement room. His wallet ends up in the hands

981
00:57:14,599 --> 00:57:18,440
of Melody, who says she's founded in Gary's car, the

982
00:57:18,519 --> 00:57:23,559
same car Scott had already checked twice. The timeline matters.

983
00:57:24,199 --> 00:57:27,199
Gary's last confirmed day is July third, when he's been

984
00:57:27,239 --> 00:57:31,559
working around a burn pile behind the house. Melody claims

985
00:57:31,599 --> 00:57:34,320
she last saw him that night and never checked on

986
00:57:34,440 --> 00:57:37,719
him the next day. That next day is July fourth,

987
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:42,559
and Scott isn't on the property, but Melody is, and

988
00:57:42,639 --> 00:57:46,039
by the morning of July fifth, the family searches until

989
00:57:46,079 --> 00:57:49,599
Scott is called to the burn pile and recognizes human remains.

990
00:57:50,719 --> 00:57:54,079
He calls nine one one. At first it looks like

991
00:57:54,119 --> 00:57:59,480
a terrible accident. Then the autopsy destroys that Gary was

992
00:57:59,519 --> 00:58:04,599
shot with a bullet lodged in his remains. Investigators say

993
00:58:04,599 --> 00:58:08,679
a burn pile would have been woefully insufficient to destroy

994
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:11,239
a body of that size unless someone kept tending it.

995
00:58:12,320 --> 00:58:15,199
Gary's cell phone pings from the house to the burn

996
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,760
pile and back to the house, But investigators know that

997
00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:24,239
Gary has already been shot and set a blaze, So

998
00:58:24,599 --> 00:58:29,280
the case collapses to the people with access and time,

999
00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:33,400
and the spotlight lands where it's been sitting all along

1000
00:58:33,559 --> 00:58:38,639
the house, the burn pile, and Melody. Only a few

1001
00:58:38,679 --> 00:58:42,519
missing pieces were left in this puzzle. One of these

1002
00:58:43,119 --> 00:58:45,880
was the missing pistol that Scott had seen in the

1003
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:50,000
basement before Gary's death. Another one was the question of

1004
00:58:50,039 --> 00:58:52,760
how Gary's body was moved from the house to the

1005
00:58:52,800 --> 00:58:53,320
burn pile.

1006
00:58:53,920 --> 00:59:00,199
Speaker 18: I didn't we found other things in the basement. Things

1007
00:59:00,239 --> 00:59:06,239
in the basement that are significant. We know how long

1008
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:10,719
it took to We know lengths of time things took.

1009
00:59:11,239 --> 00:59:11,800
Speaker 22: We know that.

1010
00:59:13,519 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 18: Moving somebody that's three hundred pounds and six four that's

1011
00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:17,239
bigger than I am.

1012
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:19,360
Speaker 4: And that is a significant feat.

1013
00:59:22,480 --> 00:59:28,840
Speaker 18: We are putting layer on pund layer pun layer on

1014
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:32,280
layer on this picture. And right now, the only thing

1015
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:34,760
you're saying, Compare with me for a second. The only

1016
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:35,840
thing you were saying.

1017
00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:39,880
Speaker 4: Is that you don't know anything about anything about anything

1018
00:59:40,519 --> 00:59:42,639
that does not And you know what.

1019
00:59:44,159 --> 00:59:46,920
Speaker 18: That I will tell you that does not make sense

1020
00:59:47,679 --> 00:59:50,960
to me from a very just simply based on the

1021
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:52,400
information that I know.

1022
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:56,960
Speaker 4: That does just simply not make logical sense in any way.

1023
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:01,000
Speaker 1: Shape or form, regardless of how the body was moved

1024
01:00:01,119 --> 01:00:06,679
or where the pistol was. This case was prosecutable. Melody

1025
01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:10,280
was arrested on June eighteenth, twenty nineteen, nearly one year

1026
01:00:10,719 --> 01:00:14,239
after Gary's death. During this time, she continued to have

1027
01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:19,079
her affair with Rusty, remember ted the first guy she

1028
01:00:19,119 --> 01:00:21,840
had an affair with, the guy who had been her

1029
01:00:21,960 --> 01:00:28,360
sister in law's lover for twenty years. Well, Rusty followed

1030
01:00:28,400 --> 01:00:32,239
a similar pattern. Melody liked to keep it in the family.

1031
01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:39,079
I guess Rusty was the stepson of Melody's cousin, Martha Jane.

1032
01:00:40,559 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 9: Gross.

1033
01:00:41,719 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 6: Yeah, this rusty guy, he just came in the picture

1034
01:00:44,679 --> 01:00:45,679
when Martha Jane.

1035
01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:46,119
Speaker 19: He knew.

1036
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:50,360
Speaker 6: I had some suspicions about it before my sister's.

1037
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:55,400
Speaker 20: Playing, because Emily called me a few months before and said,

1038
01:00:56,000 --> 01:01:00,480
Melody shown up in Nashville, this rusty guy driving Daddy's

1039
01:01:00,639 --> 01:01:03,320
Mercedes or Daddy's whatever car I don't.

1040
01:01:03,119 --> 01:01:06,480
Speaker 6: Remember what car ahead of the time, and just you know,

1041
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:08,320
acting really funny.

1042
01:01:08,360 --> 01:01:12,559
Speaker 27: And then she invited him to my sister's wedding in Franklin, Tennessee,

1043
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:18,400
and was dancing with him and acting extremely too friendly.

1044
01:01:19,679 --> 01:01:23,400
Speaker 1: Rusty took a while to come forward with crucial information,

1045
01:01:23,639 --> 01:01:29,320
but fortunately he had a conscience. What Melody told him

1046
01:01:29,559 --> 01:01:33,039
left no doubt and would be used in the trial.

1047
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:37,239
Speaker 2: Also, I wanted to let you know what I told you, Laryer, that.

1048
01:01:39,039 --> 01:01:41,239
Speaker 18: I'm putting my name online too, because that's how confident

1049
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,159
I am and you and about what you're going to

1050
01:01:43,199 --> 01:01:43,519
tell us.

1051
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,559
Speaker 4: Okay, that would be an interest us, not the time.

1052
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:49,360
Speaker 2: Or anything about what I think. There was only one conversation,

1053
01:01:49,559 --> 01:01:52,719
that is what you're looking forward, okay, okay, okay.

1054
01:01:53,039 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 4: It was the last conversation, okay, And it would be

1055
01:01:56,760 --> 01:01:59,239
safe to say it wasn't much talking after that.

1056
01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:02,960
Speaker 2: No, that was the end of the conversation.

1057
01:02:03,599 --> 01:02:05,320
Speaker 4: And said, the last time you fucking with her?

1058
01:02:05,519 --> 01:02:06,880
Speaker 6: No, no, talk to her.

1059
01:02:07,039 --> 01:02:08,599
Speaker 28: I talked to her every still, I talk to her

1060
01:02:08,639 --> 01:02:12,039
every day. But again, every day was just every day.

1061
01:02:12,159 --> 01:02:14,480
Speaker 2: So when that, let's talk about that conversation.

1062
01:02:14,599 --> 01:02:19,480
Speaker 28: That that probably the last minute of the last conversation.

1063
01:02:22,519 --> 01:02:28,079
She said, Gary is in the burn pile. No, she said,

1064
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:32,159
he is in the burn pile. And I said what

1065
01:02:33,039 --> 01:02:36,639
And she said, he's in the burn pile. And I said,

1066
01:02:37,519 --> 01:02:42,320
do not say another word, and do not tell me anything.

1067
01:02:42,800 --> 01:02:49,360
Speaker 2: I do not need to know, okay. And that is everything.

1068
01:02:50,719 --> 01:02:52,239
If I'm going to give an ounce I'm going to

1069
01:02:52,280 --> 01:02:55,519
give a pain. That was all of it. That was

1070
01:02:55,639 --> 01:02:59,119
everything that she said that had anything to do with

1071
01:02:59,800 --> 01:03:01,519
what happened. That's pretty I mean.

1072
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:04,519
Speaker 4: And I don't you got again, Yeah, I don't know

1073
01:03:04,639 --> 01:03:07,280
when happened. And here's the thing. At the time that

1074
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:09,039
that segment was made, you got to remember he wasn't

1075
01:03:09,039 --> 01:03:10,400
even reported his missing.

1076
01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:13,599
Speaker 1: By the time the trial took place in October of

1077
01:03:13,719 --> 01:03:17,400
twenty twenty four, Melody's defense tried to shove the spotlight

1078
01:03:17,559 --> 01:03:22,280
back onto Scott. The sun on the property the hothead

1079
01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:28,039
with supposed PTSD, the one they argued had access and opportunity.

1080
01:03:29,119 --> 01:03:32,320
More importantly, they pulled a statement of Chris saying he

1081
01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:37,599
preferred thirty eight caliber ammunition, which they located on his premises.

1082
01:03:38,719 --> 01:03:42,320
But that narrative contradicted the very finding that changed everything.

1083
01:03:43,360 --> 01:03:47,679
Scott had never owned a thirty eight caliber pistol or revolver.

1084
01:03:48,679 --> 01:03:52,079
He had only seen one in the basement. In a twist,

1085
01:03:52,719 --> 01:03:55,280
a woman came forward to say her gun matching the

1086
01:03:55,360 --> 01:03:58,800
murder weapon, had come up missing in the weeks prior

1087
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:04,679
to Gary's murder. It was Melody's cousin, the stepmother of

1088
01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:10,079
Melody's lover, Rusty, and turned out Melody had spent a

1089
01:04:10,199 --> 01:04:12,840
few weeks at her house helping to take care of her.

1090
01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:16,000
One last question lingered in the minds of the jury.

1091
01:04:17,079 --> 01:04:22,119
How did tiny Melody move big Daddy's body. The answer

1092
01:04:23,199 --> 01:04:27,639
was a tractor, a tractor with a big bucket attached.

1093
01:04:28,760 --> 01:04:31,760
Melody knew how to drive the tractor, and Scott knew

1094
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:36,000
this because he had taught her The tractor was moved

1095
01:04:36,119 --> 01:04:39,039
on Tuesday night, and the RTV was moved in the

1096
01:04:39,119 --> 01:04:40,280
middle of the night.

1097
01:04:40,719 --> 01:04:44,400
Speaker 22: Because the reason why I remember that tractor being theressed

1098
01:04:44,400 --> 01:04:48,360
because there was a cat that soon before him was

1099
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:51,880
sitting right there on the on that implement on the

1100
01:04:51,920 --> 01:04:52,760
back of the tractor.

1101
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:56,360
Speaker 9: And that's when I walked out and saw the cat

1102
01:04:56,480 --> 01:04:57,559
or whatever his house.

1103
01:04:57,400 --> 01:05:00,840
Speaker 22: Around, you know, So I knew the tractor was all

1104
01:05:00,920 --> 01:05:03,599
the third after that, at.

1105
01:05:03,480 --> 01:05:06,480
Speaker 9: Don't until the fifth when you fishedly walked down there

1106
01:05:06,480 --> 01:05:11,159
and saw it. Yam where I mean to even to look.

1107
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:15,599
Speaker 22: So the only way I knew that it was down

1108
01:05:15,679 --> 01:05:17,920
here because I went leaking for my dad and saw

1109
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:19,639
it was parked there, and that's when I walked down

1110
01:05:19,639 --> 01:05:21,119
there and put my hand on the decade.

1111
01:05:21,159 --> 01:05:21,920
Speaker 9: It was so worn.

1112
01:05:23,079 --> 01:05:26,559
Speaker 1: When detectives cornered Melody on this, all she had were

1113
01:05:26,719 --> 01:05:29,320
flimsy excuses in a panicked voice.

1114
01:05:29,960 --> 01:05:34,239
Speaker 18: And on that property when you were there, something that

1115
01:05:34,360 --> 01:05:36,079
did not happen in the blink of an eye, something

1116
01:05:36,119 --> 01:05:38,559
that took time, something that took people, something that took

1117
01:05:38,599 --> 01:05:39,000
them moving.

1118
01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:45,440
Speaker 4: The tractor was moved from Tuesday night and Gary could

1119
01:05:45,519 --> 01:05:48,920
not have done it. The r TV was moved in

1120
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:50,639
the middle of the night, and Gary could not have

1121
01:05:50,760 --> 01:05:58,239
done it. Things were done, Things happened. You said you

1122
01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:00,199
parked it in one spot and worked up in Now was.

1123
01:06:00,239 --> 01:06:00,679
Speaker 10: During the day.

1124
01:06:01,639 --> 01:06:05,000
Speaker 4: That was, and that was the next But the the

1125
01:06:05,119 --> 01:06:09,119
tractor wasn't. And here's the thing. Even at the end

1126
01:06:09,159 --> 01:06:11,760
of the day, we're out too. I just assumed that

1127
01:06:11,880 --> 01:06:12,800
Scott can come up.

1128
01:06:14,760 --> 01:06:17,760
Speaker 18: And I'm telling you that we can't find evidence to

1129
01:06:17,960 --> 01:06:20,159
prove that that is not how it went down, and

1130
01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:20,519
that is.

1131
01:06:20,559 --> 01:06:22,639
Speaker 4: Not what happened. I don't I don't know.

1132
01:06:22,920 --> 01:06:25,239
Speaker 10: I mean I was with a man in jail and.

1133
01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:31,320
Speaker 16: Garon okay, but the night of the third the only

1134
01:06:31,519 --> 01:06:40,920
person there until eleven thirty, Yes, and then after that you.

1135
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:41,679
Speaker 4: Were still there.

1136
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:48,239
Speaker 18: His body was burned in that fire pit was unquestionable.

1137
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:52,000
You saw it with garon two eyes eleven thirty.

1138
01:06:52,079 --> 01:06:52,960
Speaker 2: That fire is still.

1139
01:06:52,840 --> 01:06:59,159
Speaker 4: Going, yeah, I mean that time frame. You don't have

1140
01:07:03,239 --> 01:07:05,159
came through the woods and was sitting there tending to

1141
01:07:05,239 --> 01:07:10,360
this fire for the time that Scott was on that property.

1142
01:07:10,400 --> 01:07:11,440
Speaker 3: At that point, at.

1143
01:07:12,679 --> 01:07:15,159
Speaker 1: Scott found his father in the burn pile and called

1144
01:07:15,239 --> 01:07:18,760
nine one one. Melody watched that and later tried to

1145
01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:22,320
make him out to be a murderer. It's one thing

1146
01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:25,440
to lie to the police, and it's quite another thing

1147
01:07:25,719 --> 01:07:29,559
entirely to hand your own child to the wolves and

1148
01:07:29,719 --> 01:07:30,840
call it self defense.

1149
01:07:32,159 --> 01:07:32,760
Speaker 2: What a bitch.

1150
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:37,000
Speaker 22: I was like, gloves are off, I mean you threw

1151
01:07:37,079 --> 01:07:39,039
your You try to throw your own child over to

1152
01:07:39,079 --> 01:07:42,599
the bus. IM straight up blocks in the police and

1153
01:07:42,719 --> 01:07:46,480
I fronted her about it. So she's like, I never

1154
01:07:46,559 --> 01:07:48,360
said that might is in.

1155
01:07:48,440 --> 01:07:49,280
Speaker 9: The place report.

1156
01:07:50,639 --> 01:07:53,480
Speaker 1: By the time Melody Ferris's trial wrapped up in late

1157
01:07:53,559 --> 01:07:58,280
twenty twenty four, the prosecution had presented a eighteen day case,

1158
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:01,679
calling dozens of witnesses and more than a thousand pieces

1159
01:08:01,719 --> 01:08:06,480
of physical, digital, and forensic evidence. On November fourth, twenty

1160
01:08:06,559 --> 01:08:10,239
twenty four, a Cherokee County jury found her guilty on

1161
01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:15,360
all five charges malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with

1162
01:08:15,440 --> 01:08:19,560
a deadly weapon, concealing the death of another, and making

1163
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:24,560
false statements. The verdict came after several days of deliberation.

1164
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:28,840
Following closing arguments at her sentencing hearing. The next day,

1165
01:08:29,640 --> 01:08:33,560
the Superior Court judge sentenced Ferris to life in prison

1166
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:36,960
with the possibility of parole after thirty years. For the

1167
01:08:37,039 --> 01:08:40,640
murder conviction and an additional five year term for related

1168
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:45,520
charges to run concurrently. The judge also barred from contact

1169
01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:47,800
with certain family members as part of the court order.

1170
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:52,479
The prosecutor read a letter from Gary's daughter Emily as

1171
01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:56,640
part of the victim impact statement. She said that since

1172
01:08:56,720 --> 01:09:01,119
Gary was taken, their family was living inside a unbearable void.

1173
01:09:02,199 --> 01:09:08,000
Not sometimes every day they'd lost the laughter, the warmth,

1174
01:09:08,760 --> 01:09:12,479
the steady presence that held them all together, and now

1175
01:09:12,560 --> 01:09:16,680
even the happy moments felt contaminated because he wasn't there

1176
01:09:16,760 --> 01:09:20,680
to share them. But the worst part wasn't only that

1177
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:24,640
he was gone, but it was who did it.

1178
01:09:25,880 --> 01:09:27,600
Speaker 2: The betrayal of.

1179
01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:31,479
Speaker 1: Realizing the suffering came from the person who should have

1180
01:09:31,560 --> 01:09:36,359
cared for them the most, their own mother. And as

1181
01:09:36,479 --> 01:09:41,079
the prosecutor read her words, Chris sat in the background,

1182
01:09:41,119 --> 01:09:47,680
breaking down openly, sobbing, wiping tears from his face. Scott

1183
01:09:47,760 --> 01:09:51,800
conveyed an expression of hurt so deep it was impossible

1184
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:56,960
to ignore, while Melody just sat there, resolved to finish

1185
01:09:57,039 --> 01:10:01,319
what she started one way or another. In the moments

1186
01:10:01,399 --> 01:10:04,479
that preceded her statement, she spoke to the judge in

1187
01:10:04,560 --> 01:10:09,000
a calm and steady voice, but the second she began reading,

1188
01:10:09,159 --> 01:10:15,079
she suddenly and dramatically, uncontrollably became tearful.

1189
01:10:15,760 --> 01:10:18,319
Speaker 10: And she wasn't.

1190
01:10:18,199 --> 01:10:22,600
Speaker 17: Eighteen six years, five months go to day again. The

1191
01:10:22,760 --> 01:10:27,000
worst nightmare that I could have ever imagined. Not only

1192
01:10:27,159 --> 01:10:31,359
my world, but my family's world was absolutely destroyed at

1193
01:10:31,399 --> 01:10:32,479
the hands of one person.

1194
01:10:34,479 --> 01:10:37,600
Speaker 8: I've had six bless years of being told not to talk,

1195
01:10:38,439 --> 01:10:40,920
don't say that, take legal advice.

1196
01:10:42,079 --> 01:10:44,119
Speaker 5: I could walk out of this courtroom today.

1197
01:10:48,439 --> 01:10:49,279
Speaker 4: And drop over dead.

1198
01:10:51,079 --> 01:10:54,880
Speaker 8: I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren,

1199
01:10:55,399 --> 01:10:58,600
and Gary's family, and to be honest, at this point

1200
01:10:58,640 --> 01:11:02,640
in time, the entire world who his beauty is. I

1201
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:06,399
have waited for years to make this statement to everyone.

1202
01:11:07,960 --> 01:11:10,039
Speaker 4: I want the world to know who did this.

1203
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:14,359
Speaker 8: I have always heard that the courtroom is the last

1204
01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:17,720
place you're going to get the truth, and has that

1205
01:11:17,960 --> 01:11:19,239
ever been proven.

1206
01:11:21,039 --> 01:11:22,560
Speaker 4: To be the truth in this case?

1207
01:11:26,159 --> 01:11:26,920
Speaker 17: Not only.

1208
01:11:30,079 --> 01:11:30,720
Speaker 7: Who did.

1209
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:34,319
Speaker 4: I know Scott killed his father?

1210
01:11:35,880 --> 01:11:39,640
Speaker 1: Melody's sentencing statement wasn't the defense. It was a mirror

1211
01:11:40,079 --> 01:11:44,960
reflecting exactly who she was all along. Melody wanted her

1212
01:11:45,039 --> 01:11:50,680
dream life, the farm, the family, the image, oh and

1213
01:11:51,119 --> 01:11:54,880
you know, all the lovers. But it was all powered

1214
01:11:55,880 --> 01:12:01,000
by Gary. How inconvenient for her, and the moment that

1215
01:12:01,119 --> 01:12:05,239
he stopped fitting the role she needed, she treated him

1216
01:12:05,319 --> 01:12:11,640
like an obstacle, just like all narcissists do when confronted

1217
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:16,119
with the consequences. She never once showed empathy, accountability, or

1218
01:12:16,199 --> 01:12:22,399
concern for what her children had already lost. She minimized, argued, lied,

1219
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:26,800
and blamed when the case threatened her. She didn't protect

1220
01:12:26,840 --> 01:12:31,119
her family. She used them first as cover, then as

1221
01:12:31,760 --> 01:12:36,479
human shields. A normal person hearing her daughter's grief and

1222
01:12:37,119 --> 01:12:41,279
seeing her son sobbing like this would stop the charade.

1223
01:12:42,439 --> 01:12:46,840
They'd realize all the hurt they'd caused, all the people

1224
01:12:47,560 --> 01:12:53,479
around them that loved them, that they supposedly loved. It

1225
01:12:53,520 --> 01:12:58,680
would be an awakening, ah moment that would define their lives,

1226
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:05,000
suddenly realizing what they had done and accepting the responsibility

1227
01:13:05,119 --> 01:13:13,359
and asking for forgiveness. Melody didn't do that put it

1228
01:13:13,439 --> 01:13:19,680
that way. Even in the end, with nothing left to win,

1229
01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:24,000
She chose the move that hurt her family the most

1230
01:13:25,359 --> 01:13:33,800
because protecting herself mattered way more than taking responsibility for

1231
01:13:33,920 --> 01:14:13,720
her own actions. Well, hope you enjoyed that. I'd tell

1232
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:15,760
you to go on over to our website or download

1233
01:14:15,840 --> 01:14:18,399
our app to get more, but then some asshole will

1234
01:14:18,399 --> 01:14:21,319
say I'm begging, So just do whatever the fuck you want.

1235
01:14:21,359 --> 01:14:23,800
I really really don't care. Stay safe,