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