Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: And I loved and I could see my mom laying
on the floor.
Speaker 4: I pushed the door open and I went to check
her to see.
Speaker 2: No, she was dead.
Speaker 3: And I turned and I saw my father.
Speaker 2: There was blood everywhere.
Speaker 1: This is season thirteen, episode three hundred and fifty five
of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the
worst monsters are real. Riverview, Florida, is a quiet suburb
outside of Tampa that's built around routine workdays, church services,
and family businesses that have been passed down for decades.
But in November of twenty fifteen, that routine was broken.
Inside an interview room at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office,
homicide detectives spoke with a middle aged woman named Michelle Best.
Speaker 5: Oh, Derek, can I.
Speaker 6: Get up a regular time every morning? We were sitting
there having coffee. We're just a few minutes away from
getting up to go start getting ready for work, and
I got I had just picked up myself one to
look at the time. It was ringing in and when
I answered it, he was crying and said you need
to get over to moments now, and I saw what happened.
Speaker 7: He says, you need to go here now, and we
live right across the street. So put some extra clothes
on and I walked over.
Speaker 1: Michelle told detectives that on the morning of November twelfth,
she received a frantic phone call from her oldest brother, Robert.
He told her to hurry to her parents' house, a
house that sat just across the street from her own.
Their parents were sixty nine year old Shirley Best and
seventy year old Virgil Best.
Speaker 2: They've been married forty forty five years.
Speaker 8: Other than normal marital differences, any marital issues, nope. Did
they grow up here in the Tampa Bay area.
Speaker 6: My father grew up very poor in Vanity County, Okay,
I get the parish area, and then my mom grew
up hearing and Gibson to Actually, her father was a
fish farmer for thirty some one years, so she's been
in fish.
Speaker 2: Farming her whole life.
Speaker 1: Shirley and Virgil owned and operated Quality Finn's Fish Farm,
a family business that ran across the five acres of
land between their home.
Speaker 9: They have fish ponds out here and they raise and
sail Paige.
Speaker 1: So this that I'm looking at in front of me,
those are all That's all his propagation, all of that.
Speaker 2: It runs deep way back there into the with and length. Okay.
Speaker 1: Virgil handled most of the day to day labor on
the fish farm, and he also employed his twenty one
year old grandson to keep it running.
Speaker 10: Him and Annie, my grandma. I call him Papa and Annie.
They own the fish farm and Papa is normally out
there working on it, and Annie is counting up fish
and helping him with it. But Papa doesn't most of
the work, so I work with him.
Speaker 1: Surely. And Virgil were also devout Christians who were heavily
involved in their local church. They attended services every Wednesday
and Sunday, and Shirley saying in the church choir.
Speaker 7: They're big in the church. They go to Gibson Baptist.
Speaker 5: She's in the choir.
Speaker 7: They're always involved in the church. They have been for
the last few year, a couple of years.
Speaker 8: Okay, did you see them coming and going last night
to church?
Speaker 1: Because we were in the house alongside their faith. Shirley
and Virgil were also firm supporters of the Second Amendment.
They were comfortable with firearms, and guns were common in
their home.
Speaker 5: Tell me about their guns.
Speaker 10: Papa always has guns near him. He has a gun
on his nightstand, and I'm pretty sure he has a
gun not on his hip, but in the couch.
Speaker 5: Where does she keep her gun?
Speaker 9: She?
Speaker 10: I think she just bought a gun on a brand
new one and she keeps it in her purse. Where
does she keep it? In the house the Senate as
you walk in, as soon as you walk into your
left there's like bibles sitting there and it's right next
to the Bible. Those are people that to close sit
with guns in their laps. Why what happened? Something happened
in the past. No, they're just really country. They are
very old time believe in the Second Amendment people.
Speaker 1: Well, they had deep ties to their church and strong
beliefs about guns. Nothing mattered more to Virgil and Shirley
than their three children, Robert Todd and Michelle. Todd and
Michelle lived close by, so close that all of their
properties were connected.
Speaker 9: My sister, myself, and my parents' backyard come together, okay,
go around the corner is my sister and then me. Okay,
So a lot of our backyards okay.
Speaker 11: Yeah, So when when you leave the house do you
have do you see their house every morning?
Speaker 7: Every morning, every morning?
Speaker 2: So I want you to think about this morning. Was
there anything on this morning?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 9: Why I left my house like I always do, same time.
I always look at their house, just always look at
the house. I noticed the living room light on.
Speaker 3: The living room light was on.
Speaker 9: I thought I was on because they always they always
turned the lights off when they go to bed, and
this was on. And my first thought was, okay, well
maybe they just couldn't sleep me. Both got up early
for some reason. You know, I didn't learn too much
of it at that time. I still didn't until I
you know, my sister called me this morning.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: Virgil and Shirley were also close to their children's spouses,
especially Michelle's husband Derek.
Speaker 11: And any issues going on, oh God, no, love that man.
I would do anything for him and vice versa. We
just we just worked on my.
Speaker 2: Jeep about three weeks ago and he helped me.
Speaker 11: We we do jeep events together. We we have no problems.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 8: And what about their relationship as a husband and wife,
any issues?
Speaker 2: And you know they loved she loved if she adored him.
Speaker 1: The only one of Shirley and Virgil's children who didn't
live right next to them was their oldest son, forty
nine year old Robert Best. Even so, he did live nearby,
just about ten minutes away.
Speaker 12: My parents are very private. There's not too many people
that go over there. They're very security conscious. They're constitutionalists.
Speaker 13: You know.
Speaker 12: Seems their prevers any marital issues between them, I don't believe.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 2: They seemed very happy to me.
Speaker 1: As Shirley and Virgil looked ahead to life in their seventies,
they started talking with their children about selling the fish
farm and finally retiring.
Speaker 6: Their finances were fine. I mean, the farm has been slow.
They've been talking the next couple of years of retiring,
selling the farm.
Speaker 5: Both of your parents kind of very busy.
Speaker 7: They were for they worked very hard.
Speaker 14: Yeah, they worked very hard their whole life, very.
Speaker 7: Hard workers their entire life. They bested their button. Nothing
but good people.
Speaker 5: Do they have any enemies that you're aware of?
Speaker 7: No, my parents were very involved in church. Everyone loved them.
Speaker 1: According to their children, grandchildren, in laws, and friends. Virgil
and Shirley were kind, well liked people with no known enemies.
Don't we hear that a lot.
Speaker 2: To your knowledge, anybody had issues.
Speaker 7: What, No, sir, not to my knowledge at all.
Speaker 2: I mean the neighbors.
Speaker 5: No sweetest dan people in the world.
Speaker 2: Okay, sweetest people in the world.
Speaker 7: They do anything for anybody.
Speaker 9: I could see her all day long and go on
about hungry they are and was loved by everybody, absolutely everybody,
especially family, friends and neighbors church goers.
Speaker 1: On the morning of November twelfth, twenty fifteen, Michelle Best
was called to her parents house by her older brother Robert.
Not long after that call, deputies arrived at the property,
and Michelle and her husband were left to deliver devastating
news to Virgil and Shirley's grandson.
Speaker 10: Then I see Mom and Derek start walking over here,
and you know, they can barely speak. I mean, they're fibergasted,
and they say, I say, what's going on And Derek says, nothing, buddy,
just you're not going to school today. And then right
after he says that, and Mom says Pop and Annie
had been shot, and I say, oh my god. And
then Mom said I got to get back over there.
So we all just got up and went over there.
Speaker 1: That morning, the bodies of Virgil and Shirley were reportedly
discovered by their oldest son, Robert, who was quickly questioned
by a detective at the scene.
Speaker 8: What I'd like you to do is just kind of
tell me, walk me through this morning and what we
got going on here.
Speaker 12: My parents had asked us yesterday if we could stop
by this morning on our way into court. I have
a court hearing today and they wanted to pray with
us life.
Speaker 10: And I came over. I got here, I saw that
they were up the light, toron and everything.
Speaker 12: I went around back because we always used the back door,
and when I went to knock on the door, I
noticed that it was just open a little bit, and
I could see through the curtains a little bit, and
I saw my mom laying on the floor.
Speaker 3: I opened the door and went to check on her,
and I saw there was blood.
Speaker 10: I wanted to take their polls, but there was so
much blood, and.
Speaker 2: I Katusha was dead, and I turned around.
Speaker 10: I saw my father lay on the floor too.
Speaker 14: I left.
Speaker 10: How I called you, guys.
Speaker 1: Robert explained that after finding his parents dead on their
living room floor, he quickly went outside, spoke briefly with
his wife, called his sister, and then dialed nine.
Speaker 2: One one one. What did your emerciency? We've had a
break at my parents' house and both my parents were dead.
Speaker 9: Do you know how they hood?
Speaker 15: She was leading to the house?
Speaker 11: Uh, the name of the house?
Speaker 6: How she wish men kind of to get in?
Speaker 12: No, I don't know.
Speaker 11: I just came over.
Speaker 2: We were supposed to have called through with my parents.
When I came over and the back door is open.
Speaker 15: Do you want to joy to call the events or no?
Speaker 4: I checked them?
Speaker 15: O where are they in the house?
Speaker 16: The living room.
Speaker 1: During the nine to one one call and his interview
with detectives, Robert described the scene as bloody. It was
Virgil and Shirley Best had been gunned down in their
living room, and detectives quickly determined they were dealing with
a double homicide. When the work on this case started,
the detectives did what they always do. They looked at
the people closest to the victims. In this case, they
didn't have to look very far. The question wasn't whether
the killer was close to Virgil and surely Best, It
was which one of their children had committed this horrific crime.
By the morning of November twelfth, twenty fifteen, two members
of the Best family were dead, and homicide detectives were
left trying to understand how a quiet home in Riverview,
Florida became a violent and bloody crime scene. The victims
had reportedly been shot and found inside their living room
by their oldest son, Robert.
Speaker 17: Seventy year old Virgil Best and sixty nine year old
Shirley were found at six fifteen am in their home
by a family member who called nine one one. Crime
scene tax arrived in droves to the five acre that
contains a fish farm out back the Best's own quality fins,
a tropical fish business. Deputies will only use the police
speak of upper body trauma to say how they died.
Speaker 13: We're going to keep it very general right now, because
we're still very early in the investigation.
Speaker 17: Deputies are trying to figure out who last saw the
couple alive and when. For all the questions, they say,
they don't believe the general public is in danger, generally
assigned they have at least a theory of what happened.
Speaker 1: After arriving at the scene, detectives quickly determined that Virgil
and Shirley Best had been shot to death. Virgil had
been shot once in the head. Shirley had been shot
twice in the head and neck. There was absolutely no
doubt this was a double homicide. Naturally, the first person
investigators wanted to speak with was the man who said
he discovered the bodies, forty nine year old Robert Best
tell you how kind I.
Speaker 2: Got here this morning.
Speaker 12: I have a court case in Polk County, and my
parents had asked if we could stop over on our
way this morning, and they wanted to pray with us,
and I agree, so I told them i'd be there
between six six thirty.
Speaker 2: And I got over there.
Speaker 12: This morning and I saw that they were over or
I thought that they were because I was the light tron.
Speaker 3: And when I knocked, I noticed.
Speaker 12: The door was who was partially you know, cracked open,
and I looked and I could see my mom laying.
Speaker 2: On the floor.
Speaker 1: During this interview, Robert described finding the bodies and even
touching them to confirm that both of his parents were dead.
Speaker 4: I pushed the door open and I went to check
her to see no, she was dead.
Speaker 18: There was blood everywhere, and I turned and I saw
my father and I checked him. I just I walked
back out and told my wife I to come in
and hand me the phone.
Speaker 10: And uh we.
Speaker 2: Waited to the police officer. Together.
Speaker 12: I called my sister and told her to call my
brother get over there.
Speaker 1: Detectives also interviewed the rest of the immediate family, including
the couple's middle child, Todd Best.
Speaker 9: This is nuts, This is crazy.
Speaker 2: What happened here?
Speaker 9: This to happen to my parents. Something's not right here,
something's not right at all. Natural cause that you can
understand heart attack, but this, I just know they did
some of that fucker the goodness.
Speaker 1: Detectives also spoke with Virgil and Shirley's grandson, whose account
helped narrow the timeline of the murders.
Speaker 10: We were just talking about. Annie sent a message to
her hairdresser. I guess her hairdresser had some surgery. I
don't know, but said I'm glad you're doing okay at
seven forty five last night, so she was on Facebook.
Speaker 5: How you know that?
Speaker 10: The hair addresser said that, yes, at seven pm.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Sureley's last note in contact was a Facebook message she
sent around eight pm, and her son Robert called nine
to one one just before six am the following morning.
That gave detectives a window of roughly ten hours in
which the murders could have occurred. From there, investigators started
narrowing that window even further. The living room light had
been left on, something family members said Virgil and Shirley
never did before going to bed.
Speaker 10: They wouldn't answer the door, especially turn on a light
to answer a door. They they happened before they got
in bed. Yes, they have the light on. They're probably
washing TV in the room and they always get the
light on when they wash the TV.
Speaker 1: Detectives believe the murders most likely occurred between eight pm
and midnight. With that window in mind, they started asking
a simple question, where was everyone during that time?
Speaker 9: And then yesterday I didn't go over there there on
the farm. I didn't see mom about her shoes in
the house, putting up decorations.
Speaker 2: About what time was up.
Speaker 9: It was still daylight, so it was probably about four
four thirty.
Speaker 1: Todd Best told detectives he had last seen his father
earlier that day and stayed home for the rest of
the night until leaving for work the following morning. He
had no alibi, and no one could confirm that he
hadn't left his house during the window when the murders occurred.
Virgil and Shirley's daughter, Michelle, told investigators pretty much the
same thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, did you go anywhere on last night?
Speaker 6: No, we had dinner at home, dert grilled out and
we ate there in dinner and gout, showers, got cleaned
up and said on the couch and we were in
the whole evening.
Speaker 2: Okay, did you see your mom and dad yesterday? Now
you talked to him. No, As it goes till from
last night, what time did you go to bed? What
do you say?
Speaker 6: We probably retired to the bedroom a little early because
we were tired.
Speaker 7: I guess it was probably around eight thirty forty five.
Speaker 1: Michelle explain that she, her husband, and their son went
to bed fairly early that night. Her husband confirmed the
same account.
Speaker 11: She came home, my grilled chicken. We made chicken offredo
and that was it. Spent the evening on the couch
because you were home hole eavning, Yes, your homeleating.
Speaker 1: Everyone in Michelle's household said they were home for the night,
but realistically any one of them could have slipped out
without the others noticing. Just like with Todd Best, there
were no air tight alibis for anyone, and this uncertainty
naturally drew some attention to the grandson.
Speaker 10: You're pretty close to them, and I work with them.
The farm's my main source of income.
Speaker 5: Hey, do you have a key to get in?
Speaker 10: Give me personally know, but Mom and Derek keep a
key near the Michael wave in our house.
Speaker 1: While everyone in the family remained a potential suspect, one
person stood out more than the rest, the oldest sibling,
Robert Best.
Speaker 7: He found them on the floor and of whole blood.
Speaker 6: And I asked him, I said, was the door was
a door, you know, busted open? And he said no,
it was just kind of cracked open, just a little
bit of the back door.
Speaker 7: He said, I don't know what happened.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 7: And then I guess.
Speaker 6: He told the debut that he had went in just
to check them.
Speaker 5: Did he say it was by himself?
Speaker 7: No, his wife was with him, because you walk in,
I guess.
Speaker 10: Oh, no, I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't think so. He didn't say anything about Marisol.
Speaker 1: From the start. Some family members felt there was something
off about Robert, particularly the way he described finding the
bodies and touching them, But it wasn't just that he
was the one who discovered them. Robert also had a
law criminal history.
Speaker 7: Ever since I was a teenager, he's always been in trouble.
Speaker 6: He spent about eleven or twelve years for conning conn artists.
Speaker 7: Basically years ago.
Speaker 6: He was into you know, he was He stole a
lot of stuff. He even arrested for stilling from a
baseball card shop. I remember then he got into like
credit card fraud.
Speaker 1: Robert had spent much of his adult life committing fraud
and conning people out of money. By the time of
his parents' death, he had been convicted of thirty eight felonies.
Speaker 9: My brother, he's involved in a lot of things, and
he's a white collar crime guy. He you know, he's
been in prison. He walked into a Cadillac Dade and
I was telling the detective about that. He portrayed that
he was.
Speaker 2: His dad was a doctor.
Speaker 9: And he's got money, and he had a friend to
him portraying my dad as being that doctor. And he
ended up writing a check for thirty five grand driving
out with a brand new Cadillac.
Speaker 1: Robert had spent years in prison for his various schemes,
but his biggest con didn't happen on the outside. It
happened while he was already behind bars.
Speaker 6: His big thing was while he was in jail for something,
he had apparently conned a blind woman that lived out
of state to send him, you know, all this money
because I had a million dollars or something, I don't know.
Speaker 5: And when he got out of jail a time, he come.
Speaker 6: To the house full fully suited and bought trucks and
had a girlfriend already, and he bought my parents a car, and.
Speaker 7: He was spending all this money.
Speaker 6: This was this was probably twenty nineteen, twenty years ago,
because I have a twenty one year old and he
was like two when all of this happened.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, incarcerated, Robert managed to con a blind woman
he had never met out of more than one million dollars.
After his release, he went on a spending spray, including
buying expensive gifts for his parents. Within months, federal authorities
came a knocking, seizing the assets, and Robert was sent
back to prison.
Speaker 11: He went out buying all this stuff, war kids, all
kinds of toys and stuff. When god, mom and Dad
on Lincoln Brandon, Lincoln damn car, and like literally within
a month or.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks on what it was events.
Speaker 11: Came in and took it and was hauled off back
to prison.
Speaker 7: They got in with wirefraud.
Speaker 6: So he spent like eleven or twelve years, ten or
eleven years in federal prison. But like I said, you
know that he had spent his whole from eighteen years
old all the way up till then in and out
and out, in and out of jail.
Speaker 1: Of course, when detectives asked Robert about his million dollar scam,
he played it down as he could. No pun intended.
Speaker 12: My charges were money laundering or countsel of I think wirefraud.
And it was a It was a woman that I
was with and she was in love with me, and
she had a bunch of money, and she sent me
money all the time and to start a business.
Speaker 3: And then I met somebody.
Speaker 12: She became psychotic, I mean really really psychotic.
Speaker 2: I met somebody.
Speaker 3: She found out about it.
Speaker 5: And did you give her money back? I mean since
she didn't want to be with her?
Speaker 12: What Still, the thing is I bought like I bought
a house, you know, So it was it was things
like that, you.
Speaker 1: Know, for this fraud. Robert was sentenced to several years
in prison. And when he got out, he seemed committed
to living a law abiding life, at least for a while.
Speaker 6: And you know, he got out a while back and
got married and him a Marisolficer, I had two babies
and had cleaned up his life. I mean, you know,
they've always moved from one to the other. They've never
stayed in one place more than a year. You know,
he says he has a job. We love him because
he's my brother, and you know, they always come to
the holidays and we always have birthday dinners and everything together.
But my parents have always been guarded with him because
of his past.
Speaker 1: Even though Robert had seemingly turned his life around, his
parents were understandably hesitant to trust him again, as was
the rest of his family.
Speaker 11: Between you, me and the recorder, trust as far as
I could throw it, and I don't mean to throw
anybody on the US, but I just don't know it,
you know, And what I do know of him, I
wouldn't trust. I know he's ex con or felon whatever.
I know that they had a dateline episode on this guy,
that's how good he is. I'm sorry, I'm former marine,
so if I get blunt, but I prefer blunt. If
it smells like shit and looks like shit, it's probably shit.
It's coming around with a brand well, I say brand new.
Speaker 2: He had a afford in an edition picked up truck.
Is that the black one over the black Yes, Okay,
this is a man and doesn't have a job that
I know of. Per se.
Speaker 11: He apparently had just bought a Harley. I mean he
was and he was kind of I don't know when
to say it was a joke, but we all in
the family set it's just a matter of time. It's
just a matter of time for he is busted, because
he will and it'll happen.
Speaker 10: But what does he do?
Speaker 9: He don't have a job, but he's always going out
at expensive restaurants and buying this, and he's always up
to date with the new computer gadgets and new cell
phones and iPads and tablets, and we're.
Speaker 3: All, how you ford that?
Speaker 19: How can you?
Speaker 3: What do you do? And I know, I know my
mom made a comment.
Speaker 9: Your brother's backing and again doing back in what he's
doing something he's not supposed to be doing. I can
know it, I can feel it.
Speaker 1: After several years of avoiding trouble with the law. It
appeared that Robert was up to his old tricks. Somehow
he was supporting himself, his wife, and his two kids
without a legitimate job.
Speaker 2: Do you know a thing that he does? No, I
have no clue.
Speaker 7: He says that he's what he told the family, that he.
Speaker 11: Sells medical equipment like MRI machines overseas to China.
Speaker 8: Does he know anything? I mean as he educated in
medical devices or that you know.
Speaker 11: Now he knows about as much as medical as I
know about being a brain surgeon.
Speaker 9: Talks, but I don't pay any attention because ninety nine
percent things come out of his mouth is not true.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a lie.
Speaker 3: It makes you think it's true, but it's not.
Speaker 19: He's talking very and we and we always told him
if he could be such a good salesman and make
tons of money, you know, right away the legal way,
and but he won't do it.
Speaker 1: Within the family, there was a quiet assumption that Robert's
freedom was temporary, that sooner or later he would end
up back behind bars. Because of that, contact was limited
outside of holidays and rare family most of them kept
their distance. Robert was the black sheep of the family
and on the morning of November twelfth, twenty fifteen, that
black Sheep claimed to have found his parents dead on
their living room floor.
Speaker 9: The first initial thought was, why is he there that early.
Speaker 2: In the morning.
Speaker 9: He never goes there dad, early in the morning.
Speaker 2: Who was my brother? Yeah? My older brother.
Speaker 9: Okay, he's never there every time I've ever seen his
sides in the afternoon or late afternoon.
Speaker 2: Or something like that.
Speaker 9: So why would he have been there that early in
the morning.
Speaker 1: Strangely, investigators never pressed Robert on why he went to
his parents house that morning. Instead, they turned to his
wife and asked her to explain what the two of
them were doing there.
Speaker 2: What was the conversation about today with mom and dad?
Speaker 15: It was just a kind of coffee and prayer.
Speaker 5: My husband was supposed to be going to.
Speaker 15: Trial today for his case, and they wanted to just
say with m and pray with us.
Speaker 5: What was that case about.
Speaker 7: A legit sex with a minor?
Speaker 5: Do you know the miner?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they used to babysit.
Speaker 1: For us, as if the situation wasn't already horrible enough.
Robert was scheduled to be in court that same morning,
facing charges that he had sexually assaulted an underage babysitter.
Robert and his wife told investigators that they had gone
to Virgil and Shirley's house for what they described as
a brief prayer visit if you want to buy that shit.
Of course, no one else could confirm that Virgil or
Shirley were expecting them.
Speaker 14: Did anyone hear this directly from Annie and Papa?
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 10: I just heard that Annie call and say, meet me
for prayer before you go to before you go to court,
because he came over at like six am to pray
with them before he went to court, and then you
found them.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you're just repeating what you've heard, yes, okay.
Speaker 1: There was one more thing that troubled the family. In
the aftermath of the murder's emotions ran high for everyone, well,
everyone except Robert. While the whole family wept, Robert appeared
cold and mostly unaffected. I wonder why that was.
Speaker 10: How did the marso behave while you were there with them?
Marisol was crying. I was hugging Marisol, but was TERI eyed,
but he wasn't sobbing, But I was hugging Marisol, and
Mom and Derec were just sobbing. They could not believe
what was going on, and I was sobbing with Marisol.
Speaker 1: After detectives spoke with the entire family, Todd Best put
their concerns into words. They didn't believe Robert was capable
of killing his own parents, but they did believe he
was capable of bringing someone dangerous into their lives, one
who could.
Speaker 9: So the basically one DNA is you know, is there
somebody he pissed off?
Speaker 20: Or he borrowed money from the campaign? And I know
where you can live, and you know you're not gonna
give me the money. What was he doing there? That's
six o'clock this morning. You know, I have no idea.
Speaker 9: I didn't know he had a court.
Speaker 1: By the time detectives finished working their way through the family,
one thing was clear. Nothing about this case was clean.
The timeline didn't line up, the alibis weren't solid, and
the man who found the bodies carried a lifetime of
baggage into the interview room with him. Even so, investigators
had enough to act and Robert Best was arrested. But
what came next changed everything. Not long after Robert was
taken into custody, detectives obtained a confession and It was
a confession that no one could have possibly seen coming.
On the morning of November twelfth, twenty fifteen, Virgil and
Shirley Best were found dead inside their Riverview home. Both
had been shot, and detectives were left with a narrow timeline,
no clear alibis, and a family where nearly everyone had opportunity.
Their initial focus settled on the person who found the bodies,
the victim's oldest son, forty nine year old Robert Best.
His criminal passed, his emotional detachment and the circumstances surrounding
that morning raised immediate red flags. Investigators believed he was responsible,
and they moved to arrest him, but as detectives worked
to lock in their case, they still needed to account
for everyone connected to that morning, and that included Robert's wife.
Speaker 8: Were speaking with a mits Mariitel. I have your spelling
Your firse name naari.
Speaker 2: As so Well? Is that correct? Yes? Okay?
Speaker 8: And the last name of Best be Est in your
date of birth of February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: When detectives interviewed Marisol, they first focused on the morning
Robert found his parents dead. Marisol told him that when
they arrived, Robert went inside alone while she stayed outside.
Speaker 2: We got there in the morning.
Speaker 15: We're supposed to have coffee and have a little prior together.
We got there and my husband has long legs, so
he was ahead of me. He went into the back,
knocked on the door and noticed the door was slightly open.
When I didn't hear any response, that kind of stayed back.
Speaker 21: He went in.
Speaker 15: I didn't hear anything from him for the next couple
of minutes, and he came out crying and told me.
Speaker 8: To stay where it was.
Speaker 2: How long have you guys been married?
Speaker 15: Seven years going on seven years and we've got married in.
Speaker 2: A way okay?
Speaker 8: And prior to that, how long did you guys on
each other before you got married?
Speaker 14: Two?
Speaker 5: Three years?
Speaker 2: Two or three years?
Speaker 16: All right?
Speaker 2: Where'd you guys? Haved you meet again? Face? Okay? That's horrible.
Speaker 5: What's your age difference?
Speaker 1: When Robert and Marisol started dating, she was twenty three
and he was forty two. The age gap was significant,
and seven years into the marriage the relationship was clearly strained.
Divorce had already been discussed.
Speaker 15: We've been, I know, on our rocky path lately, but
we've been trying to work it out.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 8: Have you been living in the same house together?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. Was there a divorce in the making? He
was thinking about it over what was why.
Speaker 7: Not being the best housewife?
Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah, it's kind of hard to fill his mom's shoes.
Speaker 6: So seriously due to the fact that you're not a
good housewife and you're going.
Speaker 15: To be okay with Yeah, that was okay with it.
I mean we were still going to be in touch.
We're still best friends. That's my best friend.
Speaker 1: The next thing detectives wanted to know was where Robert
and Marisa were on the night the murders happened.
Speaker 2: So when did you get home yesterday?
Speaker 15: Actually, I dropped off my kids yesterday afternoon. I got
home after eight thirty nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: In the evenings.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Great.
Speaker 7: My parents live over in Orland in winter Garden.
Speaker 8: So, as far as you are aware, was at home
yesterday from well the entire time her wonder garden.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he was on the phone.
Speaker 7: I think he was playing Diablo.
Speaker 1: Marisol told detectives that she dropped her children off at
her parents house that night, leaving Robert home alone. She
said she spoke with him by phone and believed he
never went anywhere. According to Marisol, he was at home
all night playing video games. When detectives spoke to Robert,
his account matched hers. He told him he never left
the house.
Speaker 2: How long had you been at your house by the
time you went to bed?
Speaker 3: All day?
Speaker 2: All day?
Speaker 3: We only left the house once. We took to my
son's birthday today.
Speaker 2: We took him to the village and to.
Speaker 3: Have lunch, and we came back and I stayed there.
Speaker 12: We all took nabs and when she got up, she
took the kids at her parents' house.
Speaker 2: Okay, do you remember about what time it was?
Speaker 3: I want to stay around five?
Speaker 2: Okay. Can you think of anybody that would want to
do harm for your family?
Speaker 12: I cannot imagine anybody.
Speaker 2: Everybody loves them.
Speaker 1: During this interview, Robert talked about the strained relationship he
had with his parents. He admitted that his criminal passed
and the embarrassment of federal agents once showing up at
their door meant they never fully trusted him. Again, how
is your.
Speaker 2: Relationship with him? It's good.
Speaker 12: I mean, I was a black she was the down.
You know, I got in trouble early light and stuff
like that. But I've been trying to make it up
and do right. I got kids and I have responsibilities
and everything, you know, and you know, they've been very supportive.
Speaker 1: And he claimed despite his criminal past, his parents continued
to support him. That raised questions. If Virgil and Shirley
were so supportive, why weren't they planning to attend his
upcoming criminal trial.
Speaker 12: Because my mom wrotly want to go, you know, reading
text message about should things and everything, my mom.
Speaker 3: Just she almost had a nervous rightdown.
Speaker 12: So she asked my wife, if we were on our way,
would sob over and just left him pray with us.
Speaker 1: And Robert continued to insist that his parents wanted him
to come by that morning to pray for him. But
outside of Robert and Marrisol, no one else knew anything
about this supposed plan for detectives. This raised a troubling possibility.
Were they hearing the truth or were they being worked
by a man who had spent much of his life
conning people into believing whatever suited him at that moment?
Speaker 5: What else is in your history? You know, going clear?
Speaker 3: Just stupid kid stuff, you know what is that? I mean?
Speaker 12: When I was like late teens and early twenties or whatever.
I had burglary, you know, breaking in places and stuff
like that, which.
Speaker 5: Is why into homes or into cars.
Speaker 3: There's a business and a car, I must say convertible
and drove around.
Speaker 5: Oh you told the car. Oh so it was grand theft.
It was broke. You broke in and then you took
the borrows. You still had that piece of you an sturdy.
Speaker 3: Believe me, that's been a excised, no doubt.
Speaker 5: But you've tried to kind of be on the straight
and narrow since then.
Speaker 3: I tried, I haven't. I wanted, you know, my wife
laughs at me or whatever, because I want jaywalk.
Speaker 1: In an attempt to confirm more disprove Robert's account of
the supposed early morning prayer meeting with his parents, detectives
asked to review his text messages. Robert was an enthusiastic
about this request, and he flat out refused. Does that
surprise you?
Speaker 5: Would you allow me to look at your home?
Speaker 2: To look at my home? For what?
Speaker 5: Just to look at it? You can alwa's tell me now.
Speaker 12: No, I'm not trying to be a jerking I want
to help you in any way possible.
Speaker 3: There's nothing in my bone's.
Speaker 2: Going to help you, though.
Speaker 4: Kay.
Speaker 1: For a man who claimed to be living a law
abiding life to the point of saying he even avoided jaywalking,
Robert appeared unusually guarded. He certainly came across as a
man with something to hide. With that in mind, detectives
made a controversial move. Robert was arrested for failing to
appear in court, even though he had been with police
all morning. Naturally, an elusive judge was blamed for that
very shady decision.
Speaker 2: So we can't control with the judge.
Speaker 3: Oh, I couldn't. I wasn't allowed to go.
Speaker 2: No, I agree, but the judge. You know, once the
judge that put the warrant system away, we can clear it.
You'll have to go and the judge can pick it
off well. And I told him, I agree.
Speaker 12: You guys are the quickest way to get that done.
And we told no, it's not my fault if you
called out there and you could get it.
Speaker 2: To doctor the judge right.
Speaker 1: This arrest put an immediate end to Robert's cooperation. Once
he was told he was being taken into custody, his
demeanor changed and he refused to answer any more questions.
Speaker 12: I'm not cooperating anymore with you guys, not after doing
this to me, okay on today.
Speaker 2: Okay, well Pole County did this, not us.
Speaker 12: Well, it's still you guys were supposed to make sure
that it didn't happen, and I was assured that it
was going to because I told him I wanted to go.
Speaker 8: I know that they know, I know that Pole County
knew that you've been with us.
Speaker 12: It is now, I'm not giving permission to serge nothing.
I don't want no on my stuff and nothing.
Speaker 3: Okay, no, this is bullshit.
Speaker 12: Man, of all times, you're going to fucking do this shit.
Speaker 1: Robert was arrested buying detectives time to determine whether he
was responsible for his parents' murder, and they didn't have
to wait very long. Less than twenty four hours later,
they had their answer.
Speaker 2: I ask you if there was more than chance.
Speaker 8: Who told me that you had gone to the house
last night and he had some prayer time?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, talk to me about that.
Speaker 14: I had called earlier on my way back just to
see if I could stop by I have a little
prayer session.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 14: We talked for a good twenty three minutes. I have
one crown, honestly.
Speaker 1: In a surprising twist, Robert's wife, Marisol, requested another interview
with detectives. During that conversation, she admitted to going to
Virgil and Shirley's house on the night they were killed
to pray with them, and she claimed to have blacked
out while she was there.
Speaker 8: So something must have happened or day er you to
black out.
Speaker 14: They were not happy with him, and they haven't been
since his mess up with the federal case years ago.
They'd never forgiven him for it, and at one time
he needed them to be with him, they weren't.
Speaker 1: None of his family was supportive. Of course, detectives weren't
satisfied about Marisol's claim that she blacked out because clearly
it's bullshit, and they pressed her for more details about
what happened to Robert's parents.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 14: I just hearing all that negativity and knowing that all
you need right now was family to meet with him
and support them, because we're going to trial the next day,
and he had nobody except me.
Speaker 2: What did they say exactly? Do you remember?
Speaker 14: They were just disappointed in him. They said, he has
no excuse. You know, he's been dealing with as long
enough he should know better, and to have family just
deny you loyalty is heartbreaking, especially a family like the others, always.
Speaker 1: So caring and love I mean. Marisol claimed that instead
of the encouraging prayer session she expected, Virgil and Shirley
only criticized Robert. According to her, the conversation was harsh
and escalated into insults. Then something inside of her snapped.
Speaker 2: What happened inside the house? Did you guys start being
on the screaming each other? That's the thing.
Speaker 14: They were frustrated and pissed off, and I don't know,
something snapped.
Speaker 2: I'm not like that at all.
Speaker 3: You know what we said that just made you snap.
Speaker 14: They were just disappointed always he couldn't ever do right,
and that he's always gonna end up leading the same
road and that's why he's in trouble again with this.
And it's like I said, you guys were always so
happy because I made him and.
Speaker 2: He's doing better. It's just almost so fake.
Speaker 14: It as far as as far as being religious, and
you know, well, it's God's will whatever happens, and you
know he doesn't deserve to be going to jel in
the first place.
Speaker 1: Marisol told detectives that as the conversation devolved into criticism
of Robert, she excused herself and stepped outside. She went
to her truck, retrieved a gun, and then returned to
the living room.
Speaker 10: When you came back in, what happened?
Speaker 14: Then? I went to the bathroom and that's about it.
They kept talking to me as I was walking to
the bathroom.
Speaker 3: It was more negativity.
Speaker 2: Where did you put the gun out? Or was it
in your pants? Was it in your hand? Was it
on your shirt? Like I said, I just was so angry.
Speaker 14: I remember coming out of the bathroom and I was
as I was walking and said, okay, let's.
Speaker 16: Do the prayer.
Speaker 7: That's about it.
Speaker 4: I was so.
Speaker 1: Frustrated with a handgun tucked in her pants. Marisol told
Virgil and Shirley she was ready to pray. They complied,
bowed their heads and started praying for their son.
Speaker 14: I remember them getting up off the couch and wanting
to hold my hand, and I didn't want to hold
her hand, but they insisted.
Speaker 2: That they have their heads bowed, their eyes closed, praying.
Speaker 6: Saying this.
Speaker 8: Did they see it coming as far as the gun,
I don't.
Speaker 2: Think so, can you do?
Speaker 14: They expected from me.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Virgil and Shirley had their heads bowed in prayer. Marisol
drew the gun from her waistband. Then she aimed at
Virgil's face and fired.
Speaker 14: And it's because he was the most negative, I mean,
his mom. I expected it because she was always so judgmental,
and when he started talking about he was he was
always a disappointment to him and all that. I was
just upset.
Speaker 2: You don't get upset. I had two dollars. I'm not
allowed to be upset.
Speaker 1: After shooting Virgil, Marisol turned the gun on his wife,
Sureley and fired two more shots.
Speaker 2: Where did you shoot Papa?
Speaker 14: I just I remember that, that's it. I just remember
pulling the gun and I know it was towards Papa.
Speaker 5: That's it.
Speaker 2: I just aimed.
Speaker 7: I don't know where I aimed.
Speaker 14: I just pointed.
Speaker 9: That's it.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 8: Where did you shoot Nani Bannie?
Speaker 2: That?
Speaker 5: I again, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Virgil Best was shot once in the head. Surely was
shot twice, once in the head and once through the neck.
It's likely they both died instantly.
Speaker 10: After you pulled the trigger and shot them.
Speaker 2: Did you just stick around there for any period of time,
or did you immediately immediately leave or something else.
Speaker 14: I think, I wonder, I'm just trying to open drawers,
you know, just to kind of, I don't know, to
make it seem like something went wrong.
Speaker 1: After killing her in laws, Marisol attempted to stage the
scene as a robbery gone wrong. She left drawers open,
knocked over a clock, and left the back door open.
This level of deliberate action conflicted with her claim that
she had just blacked out. Even so, detectives now had
a confession, and in many ways Marisol's account held together,
but one question remained unresolved. They couldn't yet rule out
Robert's involvement in the killings because.
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure that he wasn't there.
Speaker 14: He was at home the entire time, track his phone calls,
he was talking to his attorney.
Speaker 2: Most of the time.
Speaker 14: You would not be okay, because uh oh, if I
had told him, or if he even knew about it,
or even tempted to think about something like that. He
loved his parents, regardless of what they thought of him
and how they treated him. He may get upset with
them and you know, don't want to move, But nothing
like this ever, Okay, He wasn't there.
Speaker 2: I promise you that I'll believe that.
Speaker 1: Marisol insisted that Robert had no involvement in the murders
and wasn't present when his parents were killed. She told
detectives he had no idea they were dead until the
following morning when the two of them discovered the bodies together.
Speaker 18: How did it come about this morning when you guys
go there and find them out?
Speaker 2: How did that happen?
Speaker 14: He balked up and the door was open.
Speaker 2: Did you stay in the car or or did you
go up to the door with them? This morning? He
beat me out of the car for usual.
Speaker 14: So I was flagging behind a little bit?
Speaker 2: Or are you lagging because he knew what he was
gonna find? No, I was just lagging behind.
Speaker 14: I was extremely exhausted, and I was just lagging behind.
Speaker 1: Detectives told Marisol they believed her, and the record suggests
they meant it. Prosecutors appeared to reach the same conclusion.
Robert Best was never charged with any crime related to
his parents murder. Marisol, however, was arrested immediately after giving
her confession.
Speaker 21: On Wednesday, thirty year old Mari sold Best met with
her in laws, Virgil and Shirley Best at their Riverview Hull.
Deputies say when she left they were dead.
Speaker 13: She was upset about some of the comments, negative comments
that they were making about her son and got angry
and unfortunately took out her anger on her in laws.
Speaker 21: The argument was over her husband, their son, Robert Best's
upcoming court date in Polp County. It involves sex acts
with a minor. She apparently got so mad she grabbed
a gun and opened fire.
Speaker 1: Marisol was charged with two counts of premeditated murder and
pleaded not guilty. Robert's legal troubles followed a different path.
In the separate case involving allegations of sex with a minor,
he accepted a plea deal. He was sentenced to about
a year in jail, followed by four years of probation.
Prosecutors declined to explain why that deal was offered. About
a week before Robert's release, detectives met with him one
final time, this time to discuss his wife's upcoming murder trial.
One of the first questions they asked was how Marisol
had behaved on the night of the killings before Robert
knew his parents were dead.
Speaker 2: Once she arrived back home. What was her demeanor. What
was she like?
Speaker 17: I don't know.
Speaker 12: It's just in hindsight, you know, But I mean at
the time, I'm thinking she's really nervous about the next day, about.
Speaker 2: Going to trial. She seemed very distressed.
Speaker 8: Did Marisol at any point tell you or allude to
you at all what she had done?
Speaker 2: That's one of the things that hurt is that.
Speaker 3: If she did this, that she knew what I was
going to find.
Speaker 2: I'll let me walk into that, you know. But no
morning whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Robert maintained that Marisol never told him what she had done.
Whether that's true is something we'll probably never know for certain,
if you want my opinion, who knows? Really, what do
you think?
Speaker 2: What is your plan staying here? I'm going to stay here,
and uh.
Speaker 12: We're supposed to We're supposed to get a place with
my in law so all the you know, I can
do with the kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 8: Okay, what you're playing with her?
Speaker 10: So you know, got.
Speaker 2: Kids, and you playing on divorcing her at some point
or the purpose is to recording, is that?
Speaker 10: Yes?
Speaker 14: Yes.
Speaker 1: About two years after the murders, in twenty eighteen, Marisol's
case went to trial. Her defense team focused on creating
reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury and by
pointing the finger at Robert Best.
Speaker 22: Is this a case of blind devotion or cold blooded murder?
Marisol Best attorney floated one theory to the jury.
Speaker 5: The evidence will show that Marisol.
Speaker 3: Best would do anything, anything to protect her husband, Robert Best.
Speaker 22: Even take the fall on a double murder charge.
Speaker 14: You're going to hear that Miss Best.
Speaker 22: Husband Robert has been convicted of thirty eight felony charges.
Speaker 5: He has had a lot of.
Speaker 22: Problems, problems they say soured his relationship with his parents.
Shirley and Virgil Best, were very unhappy with their son Robert.
Speaker 1: In the end, though, the jury rejected the defense's argument
and sided with the prosecution.
Speaker 16: But it's clear now that the jury did not buy
the defense's theory. We just found out minutes ago that
in fact, the jury did come back with a verdict
guilty on both counts of murder. She will now be
sentenced at the end of this month.
Speaker 1: Following her conviction, Marisol was sentenced to two consecutive life
terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
Speaker 2: Few doubt that she did it. I mean, obviously, I
think that she did it. You know, she's going to
admit that she did it. I think that she did
do it. Why she would do.
Speaker 12: It, That's the thing I want to know, That's what
I want to ask her, you know, I want to
know why. There's nothing that my parents could say to
me that would make me even want to slap it much.
Speaker 2: Let's do something like that.
Speaker 12: And I can't imagine her either doing that.
Speaker 1: As far as motives go, this one can be a
bit difficult to wrap your head around. A brutal double murder,
not for money, not for revenge, not for self preservation,
but because someone said something nasty to your spouse. On
its face, that explanation is absurd. People say hurtful things
all the time. Families argue, I mean, have you ever
been to Thanksgiving? None of that usually ends in gunfire.
But motive isn't about what makes sense to us. It's
about what mattered to the person who pulled the trigger.
Speaker 12: My parents are very critical, you know, they're very opinionated.
A lot of older people are, and you know they
would get on to me about this situation that I
was in everything. If I hadn't been going to a
real church instead of this church. You know that wouldn't
have happened. And you know, and I just let it
go into one ear and out the other. You know,
it's just them. I love them, and it's dad, mom
and dad. You know that she would get very upset
about it. She'd take it very personally that they should
be supportive.
Speaker 1: And Robert described his parents as critical people, judgmental, blunt,
and often harsh. To him, it was mostly background noise,
something he'd lived with his entire life. He'd learned to
let it roll off his back. But Marisol was a
different story. She didn't, she couldn't her back held on
to things. Apparently, when Robert could dismiss, Marisol absorbed what
he heard is nagging, she experienced as condemnation. In her mind,
the criticism wasn't just aimed at Robert. It was aimed
at her and her ego, a rejection, a betrayal, a
reminder that no matter how long she'd been part of
the family, she would always be seen as the black
sheep's wife. Sometimes the only explanation for a horrific crime
is that someone couldn't tolerate the way they felt and
chose violence to silence it. Virgil and Surely best never
got the chance to explain themselves. They didn't get a
final argument, they didn't get a moment of understanding, and sadly,
the reason they died doesn't offer clarity or closure. It
leaves the rest of the family and quite frankly, all
of us sitting with an uncomfortable truth. Reality is messy, incomplete,
and deeply unsatisfying, and people are petty, egotistical, self centered,
and some people are just shit. Matt does it for
another one. Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, you
can head on over to Swordandscale dot com to find
out more, download our app or iOS and Android, and
we'll see you right back here next week for some
more murder. Till then, stay said