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S3E3: The Strange Death of Anita Greenlee · Blood Trails

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: A man's wife has just been killed. It appears to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: be a tragic hunting accident. But instead of calling the sheriff,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: he loads his wife's dead body into his car and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: drives straight to the funeral home. From there, he makes
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: three calls to the same person. When detectives learn who
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that person is, that accident starts to look a whole
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: lot more like something else. That's next on Blood Trails,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Tecova's. On the morning of October 23, 1990,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a Chevy Suburban pulled into the parking lot of Olcott's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: funeral home in Red Lodge, Montana. The occupants weren't there
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to get their affairs in order. They were ready to
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: put someone in the ground. Court records describe the incident
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: like this.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: A woman, Anita Greenlee, had been shot while hunting with
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: her husband, Cary Greenlee, his daughter, Tika Greenlee, and Anita's father, W.H.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Padgett.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Anita Greenlee was lying in the backseat of Carrie Greenlee's Suburban,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: parked in front of the funeral home.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Funeral home employees didn't know what to do, so they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: called law enforcement. When Carbon County Undersheriff Gary Jensen arrived
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: on scene, he found Tika and Padgett sitting in chairs
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: inside the parlor. Carrie was talking on a phone behind
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the desk. Anita was still in the Suburban, so Jensen
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: went out to confirm that she was, in fact, dead.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: When he stepped outside, he saw a buck strapped to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the top of the vehicle. When he opened the suburban door,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he saw that the 34-year-old woman inside had been shot
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: in the chest, just below the sternum. There didn't appear
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to be an exit wound. According to court records.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Undersheriff Jensen asked Kerry Greenlee what happened, and he stated
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: that all four of them were hunting about 15 miles
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: west of Red Lodge at the O'Shea Ranch. Kerry Greenlee
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: told him that Tika had found her mother in some
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: brush where she had been shot. According to Carrie Greenlee,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: he then ran to where Anita Greenlee was, and he
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: thought she was dead, but he tried CPR.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Padgett, Anita's father, told Jensen that when he saw his
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: daughter was dead, he walked back to where he'd parked
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the Suburban. By the time he returned, he saw that
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: his son-in-law had carried Anita back to the barbed wire fence,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: set her on the ground, and dragged her underneath the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: lowest line. Then, Padgett and Carrie laid Anita in the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: back seat of the vehicle. No one saw the shot
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that killed Anita. Tika said the last time she saw
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: her mother alive, Anita was walking away with Carrie. As
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Tika made her way up a hill in the opposite direction,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: she heard a shot. A few minutes later, she heard another.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: She thought maybe her mother had shot a deer, so
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: she decided to go back and help her. Tika Greenlee
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: indicated when she came over the hill a few minutes later,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: she saw her mother lying in the brush. Tika Greenlee
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: said she hollered to her mother, but she did not answer.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: She then ran down to a fence close to her mother,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: and she could see that something was wrong with her.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Tika fired three shots in the air to call for help.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Then she saw her father coming over the hill, and
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you already heard what happened next. What we don't know
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: is what happened in the minutes after Tika watched her
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: parents walk away. Alex Nixon, who serves as the attorney
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: for Carbon County, Montana, told me investigators focused their efforts
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: on that crucial time period.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: You have the situation where you've got... husband and wife
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: walking away together. Nobody sees them. There's a couple of
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: shots and then the wife's found dead. So it's, that's
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: kind of a head scratcher.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Kerry maintained that his wife accidentally shot herself, but that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: was perhaps the strangest part of the entire story. Taken together,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: something didn't add up.
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: Just looking at those very initial circumstances, it seems truly
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: odd to begin with. Who throws their dead family member
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: in a Suburban and drives him straight to the funeral home.
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: And then as the investigation.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Continued, you just find more and more of these strange circumstances.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Kerry was praised by his family and friends as a
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: godly leader, an upright husband, and an exceptional speaker. But
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: as investigators dug into his personal life, they heard whispers
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: that his outwardly happy marriage wasn't as happy as it appeared.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: There was.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It turned out reason to wonder if the strange circumstances
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of Anita's death pointed to something more nefarious in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: hills of southern Montana that October morning. As former Carbon
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: County attorney Bob Edelman told me, this is one of
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: those stories that only gets weirder the deeper you go.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: This is one of the strangest cases I've ever come across.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Just reading tons of case law, reading about tons of
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: criminal law, this is one of the craziest cases I've
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: even ever heard of. Honestly.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I'm Jordan Sillars, and this is Blood Trails. The strange
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: death of Anita Greenlee. Investigators had their initial suspicions about
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Carrie's story, but their first objective was to go out
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to the scene and get their heads around what happened.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: So they called Kerry to ask if he'd go out
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to the O'Shea Ranch and walk them through the previous
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: day's hunt.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: I believe it was the next day when law enforcement
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: contacted Greenlee.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: He was very defensive about, like, why do you want
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: me to go there? I'm not going to go up there.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Things like that.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: But Kerry eventually agreed, and he met up with Undersheriff
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Jensen and two deputies with the Carbon County Sheriff's Office.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: The ranch is located about 13 miles northwest of Red Lodge, Montana.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: We don't know how the Greenlees got permission to hunt
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: that private parcel, but it's a beautiful piece of country.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: It's a gorgeous area over there between Red Lodge and Roscoe, Montana.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: And it's grass, and then there's the buck brush, but
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: there's not a lot of trees, and there's no sagebrush,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: stuff like that, that we have a lot of in Montana.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: The Greenlees had gone out to the ranch in honor
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of Tika's birthday. Anita shot a buck shortly after they began,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: but they decided to keep hunting. Their plan, according to Carey,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: was for himself, Anita, and Tika to walk down the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: coolies while Padgett sat at the bottom. A coolie, for
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: those unfamiliar, is a gorge or ravine running up a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: mountain that is usually dry but was once cut by
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: a stream or river. Their hope was to push the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: deer down those ravines towards the older man.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: The daughter and the granddad headed over to the left
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: and they went up over the hill and then wife
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: and Carrie, they left to the right and crossed the
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: fence and then kind of started down this other drainage
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: over to the right.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Carrie said that as they were walking, Anita told him
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: she was tired and needed to use the bathroom. The
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: husband left his wife in a patch of brush along
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: a cow trail and kept walking towards the next coulee
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to the east. Carrie told undersheriff Jensen that he reached
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the next coulee by walking in a northeasterly direction south
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: of the hill separating the two ravines. This route would
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: not have taken him past where Anita had been killed.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: After Kerry walked north up the coulee to the east,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: he saw a deer and took a shot. He missed
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and kept walking in a northwesterly direction. He made it
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: about 300 yards before he heard a second shot. About
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a minute later, he heard Tika's three distress shots and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: made his way back down. The account seemed plausible enough,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: except for one thing. According to court documents.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: As undersheriff Jensen and Kerry Greenlee walked east down to
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the coulee where Greenlee previously indicated where he had walked,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Jensen could not see any footprints in the mud.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: However, when the pair reached the cow trail about 100
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: feet below the death scene, Jensen saw footprints that appeared
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to match Kerry's stride and the tread of boots.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: He was wearing.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: According to Undersheriff Jensen, if Cary Greenlee had in fact
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: walked in the direction that he had just shown him,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: there would have been no reason for Cary Greenlee's footprints
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: to be on the trail leading down into the coulee
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: below the death scene.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: This description is a little hard to follow, but if
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you need to visualize it, you can check out the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: maps we've published over at themeateater.com slash bloodtrails. You can
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: see both the interactive onyx map of the area, as
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: well as the map that Undersheriff Jensen drew after his
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: interaction with Cary. But the important thing to know is
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that Kerry's first account of where he went the previous
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: morning didn't have him walking past the death scene.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Under Sheriff Jensen asked Kerry Greenlee if he was sure
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: that he had cut over the hill before getting to
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: the death scene. Kerry Greenlee immediately asked why. What's wrong?
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Under Sheriff Jensen told Kerry Greenlee that he just wanted
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: to make sure where everyone was or had been. Kerry
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Greenlee then replied, well, something must have gone wrong or
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: you wouldn't be doing all of this. After he again
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: asked Greenlee if he was unsure, he observed Carrie Greenlee
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: step back, look west up the coulee towards the gate,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: and then look down the coulee towards the east and state.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Now I think, yes, I did walk down here in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: this brush where Anita was found, and went down this
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: trail and then around the hill into the other coulee
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: where I had shot and missed the deer.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Detectives are always suspicious of anyone who might be lying
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to them, and officers thought Carrie might be trying to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: hide his proximity to his wife's dead body. Now, people
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: who experience a traumatic event, such as finding your wife
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: shot to death, often have trouble remembering details. But Undersheriff
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Jensen pressed Carey on this point because he knew that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: his truthfulness would be crucial to this investigation.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: The problem is with the body being moved and the
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: scene not, you know, they were basically having to take
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: where everything happened secondhand. You know, the truck shouldn't even
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: have been moved. So they have to rely on what
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: everybody's saying. And of course, the father is kind of
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: the guy telling them. everybody, oh, yeah, we were over here.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: The position of Anita's body, the location of the gun,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: evidence and items dropped and left behind, all of that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: information would have given investigators a clearer picture of what happened.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: But because Kerry had decided to bring his wife to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the funeral home rather than calling the sheriff, They didn't
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: have any of that. All they had was Carrie's theory
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: about what happened. And that theory raised some eyebrows, both
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: then and now.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: One of the things that disturbed women in the office
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: that were working with all of us was just the
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: story about how she died, where she was supposedly using
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: a rifle to prop herself up as she urinated on
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: a hard-packed cow trail. I think almost a unanimous consensus
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: was that that's not how women go to the bathroom.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: You certainly don't use a rifle to point it in
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: your chest to prop yourself up. And you don't go
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: to the bathroom on a cow trail.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: This was one theory for how Anita could have shot
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: herself in the chest with her own rifle. Carey said
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: he found his wife lying on her right side directly
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: on the cow trail with her head facing east. Her
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: pants were down at her knees and her knees were bent.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: He said he saw Anita's Remington Model 788 rifle lying
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: at her feet. and Padgett said something similar about the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: rifle's location. Padgett also told the Billings Gazette in 1993
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that his daughter wasn't always careful with guns, and Carey
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: said the same. Tika, however, told the same outlet the opposite.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: She said her mother was afraid of firearms and so
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: was often more careful than the rest of them. However
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: seriously Anita took gun safety, you can imagine a scenario
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: where she props the rifle up while she relieves herself,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: but it falls towards her. If the rifle's safety wasn't
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: switched on and a stick was caught inside the trigger guard,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the gun might have gone off as she tried to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: grab it. That might seem unlikely, but reports from the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: medical examiner and ballistic technicians didn't disprove it. According to
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: court documents.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Anita Greenlee was shot at close range by a high-velocity
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: penetrating gunshot that injured her liver and probably her heart,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: resulting in a large hemothorax in the right side.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: The ballistics report found gunpowder on Anita's clothing, including on
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: the sleeve of her jacket. When lab technicians recreated the shooting,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: they determined that the shot most likely came with the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: muzzle 12 to 14 inches away from her body. They
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: also confirmed that she was killed with a bullet from
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: her own rifle, which was chambered in 7mm-08, which most
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: hunters refer to as 7mm-08. The bullet entered her body
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: from the front but likely struck her spine and was
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: lodged just below the skin of her back. The medical
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: examiner concluded that Anita would have died 10 to 30
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: seconds after being struck by the bullet and would have
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: immediately lost the use of her lower extremities. Technicians tested
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Anita's rifle extensively and could not get it to misfire.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Carey claimed he'd recently sent that rifle to Remington to
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: have it serviced, but the gunmaker didn't have any record
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: of that request. Still, the shot's close range supported Carey's theory,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and when combined with Tika's testimony, appeared to give the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: hunter an alibi. Tika told investigators that as she was hunting,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: she heard what she believed was her father fire his
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Ruger Model 77 rifle chambered in 270 Winchester. Then, about
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: 10 minutes later, she heard her mother fire her rifle.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: It took Tika about 90 seconds to walk to the fence,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: where she could see her mother lying on the ground.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: She came over a hill and when she could see
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: her mom laying there, he comes up over a hill
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: and he popped up over down to her left. And
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: there was just, you know, it's 600 and some yards away.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Carrie is the he Bob Edelman is referring to. Carrie
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: was actually about 600 feet away, not yards. But Tika
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: was adamant that she spotted her father walking over the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: hill after she fired her three distress shots. If Tika
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: was right and only one to two minutes elapsed between
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: hearing her mother's rifle go off and seeing her father
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: running over the hill, it was virtually impossible for anyone
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to kill Anita but Anita. Kerry would have had to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: shoot his wife at close range, run that distance, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: immediately turn around and walk back. When investigators revisited the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: scene in December of that year and recreated the scenario,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: they determined that the distance was too far. The investigation
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: may well have ended here. And it almost did. Within
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: days of the incident, the Carbon County coroner ruled Anita's
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: death an accident. And by November 16th, 1990, the Carbon
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: County attorney at the time, a guy named Tony Kendall,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: decided that no further action was necessary. But then, just
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a few weeks later, the investigation took on new life.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't due to new evidence. At least, not exactly. Cary,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: it turned out, had secrets. And he couldn't keep them
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to himself for long. Part two, a very enviable marriage.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: On November 6th, 1990, less than two weeks after Anita's death,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Cary Greenlee told the elder board of the Church of
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Christ in Billings that he planned to marry again. Not
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: at some distant point in the future, not to give
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: his kids a stepmother, and not to some unknown hoped-for woman.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: He was going to marry a 21-year-old named Terry Clausen,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and they planned to be wed within the month. Even
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: before Anita's death, Carey had allegedly dropped hints about his feelings.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: October 20th, 1990, you've got Carey at a church youth
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: camp who, according to witnesses, says that he loves a
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: woman other than his wife. And by early November, they're engaged.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: And by December, they're married. So, I mean, you're looking
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: at a pretty accelerated timeline here.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: When investigators with the Carbon County Sheriff's Office got wind
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: of this development, they decided to take another hard look
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: at Carrie and Anita's relationship. And what they found was concerning,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to say the least. Carrie and Anita Greenlee were married
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: on April 7, 1973. Carrie was 20 and Anita was 16.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: When Anita was killed in October of 1990, they were
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: 37 and 34, respectively. They had two kids at the time, Tika,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: who had just turned 17, and Eric, who was 10.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And yes, your math is correct. Tika was born in
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: October of 1973, and her parents were married just six
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: months earlier. That's not a great look if you're planning
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to be a minister, though we don't know what Carrie's
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: plans were at that time. That also means the couple
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: had sexual intercourse when Carrie was at least 18 and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Anita was still a minor. Anita's family hailed from Lubbock, Texas,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: and that's where she and Carrie got married. In 1980,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the year Eric was born, the Greenlees moved to Miles City, Montana,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: where Carrie served as a minister. Then, after another brief
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: stint in Texas in 1988, they moved to Billings, Montana
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: in 1989. Carrie served as a pastor there as well,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: but he supplemented his income by working as a roofer.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Anita was a secretary for a general contractor in Billings,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and between the two incomes, the family could afford to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: live in a modest 1,100-square-foot house with four bedrooms and
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: two bathrooms. We don't know a whole lot else about
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Anita's life and background. We reached out to Carrie, Tika,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and Eric, but never heard back from Carrie or Eric.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Tika responded, but she ultimately decided not to sit down
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: for an interview. She said some interesting things that we'll
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: cover later in this episode, but she didn't offer any
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: more information about her mother. All we have comes from
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Anita's brief obituary published in the Billings Gazette. Her mother
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: and father were married and alive at the time of
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: her death. She had two sisters and a brother, all
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of whom lived in Texas. She attended community college when
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: she lived in Miles City, though we don't know what
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: she studied. She was also active in her church, loved singing,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and was an avid hunter and outdoors woman. Carey maintained
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that he loved Anita until the day she died. When
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: investigators began looking into their marriage, he told the Billings Gazette,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: They couldn't find many people, but there were some. A
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: co-worker of Anita's named Mark spoke with investigators, and he
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: recounted a conversation he had with Anita three or four
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: days before her death. He could tell Anita had been crying,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and when he asked what was wrong, she said, quote,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Don't ever get married. My marriage sucks. Mark said Anita
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: made it clear that she'd been arguing with her husband,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and she was so upset Mark wasn't sure if she
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: was safe to drive. Another of Anita's co-workers, a woman
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: named Catherine, told investigators that Anita had actually been distraught
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: for several weeks before her death. According to court documents.
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: Sometime.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Prior to her death, Anita told her that she had
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: asked Carrie to tell Terry Clausen not to call the
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: house so much. Ms. Treat recalled that subsequent to that request,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Anita caught Carrie talking to Terry again late at night,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: and Anita went to bed crying.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It's worth noting that investigators apparently weren't able to find
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: any of Anita's close friends or family who would corroborate
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the unhappy nature of Anita's marriage. But this wasn't the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: only evidence they collected. Agent Tom O'Brien learned that Carrie
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and Anita had known Terry Clausen since she was about
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: 12 years old. The Greenlees and the Clausens were family friends,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and they were very close. In fact, when Terry was
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: 21 years old in 1990, she lived with the Greenlees
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: in Billings from March to April, and then again from
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: July to August. By this point, according to one of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Terry's college friends, the young woman was already infatuated with
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the much older man.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Shauna was a roommate of Terry Claussen when the two
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: of them attended York College of Nebraska. Shauna indicated that
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Terry Clausen confided in her and told her that she
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: was in love with Cary Greenlee and wanted to marry him. Ms.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Jacobson recalled that Terry Clausen received numerous phone calls from
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Cary Greenlee while she was attending York College of Nebraska.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Terry Clausen would make comments like, if Anita was to
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: ever die or they weren't to work out, I would
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: love to marry Cary.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: These phone calls were especially suggestive. From August 15, 1990
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to November 9, 1990, while Terry was attending a church
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: program in Lubbock, Phone records show that someone at the
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Greenlee residence called Terry 26 times, and Terry called the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Greenlees 29 times. Most of the calls were late at night,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and the total duration was 28 and a half hours.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: The frequency of these calls ramped up in the days
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: leading up to Anita's death, but perhaps the most suspicious
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: calls took place at the funeral home. There, Carrie called
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Terry at 11.52 a.m., 11.53 a.m. and 12.29 p.m. While
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: we weren't able to reach Carey for comment, we found
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: an archived blog post he wrote back in 2010. It's
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: a detailed account of his side of the story, so
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: much of the information you'll be hearing is from that post.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Carey claimed that these calls, both from the funeral home
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and otherwise, don't constitute evidence of an affair. Other people
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: at the Greenlee residence talked to Terry as well, including
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Tika and Anita. One of the calls the day before
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Anita's death was Terry calling to wish Tika a happy birthday. Others,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: he said, were Tika and Terry working through a Bible
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: study over the phone. As for those three calls from
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the funeral home, he said he was calling Terry to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: help him get in touch with his parents. The problem
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: for Carey was that investigators had more than just phone calls.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Agent O'Brien located a motel receipt that indicated that on
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: March 24th to 25th, 1985, Carrie Greenlee and Terry Claussen
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: met in Denver, Colorado, and stayed together in a motel.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Carrie said the pair got separate rooms and had a chaperone,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't the only motel meetup. The next year,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Carrie drove Terry down to that church camp in Lubbock.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: A motel receipt dated August 8th, 1990, was located for
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: the Holiday Inn in Pueblo, Colorado. Carrie Greenlee admitted to
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: staying with Terry Claussen in the motel on that date.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Carrie Greenlee admitted to paying for the motel with Anita's
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Visa card. Carrie Greenlee also admitted that they requested and
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: received a room with a hot tub.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Then in early October, Carrie and Terry stayed at another motel,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: this time in Amarillo. When pressed, Carrie admitted that he
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: spent those two nights at the hotel with Terry. Carrie
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: maintained that in all of that time spent alone with
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a 21-year-old, he remained faithful to his wife. He admitted
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that he and Terry were close, but claimed that they
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: never tried to hide that fact. What's more, investigators never
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: found hard evidence of an affair. Kerry admitted to sending
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Terry flowers on one occasion, but no love letters or
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: physical evidence of a sexual relationship was ever uncovered. Still,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the accelerated timeline of their relationship after Anita's death didn't
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: stop with an engagement.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: He admits to days later, you know, resuming or having
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: a sexual relationship with her.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Kerry told investigators that he and Terry had sex 10
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: days after his wife died and three days after they
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: laid Anita to rest. Even at the funeral, witnesses said
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Kerry was acting more like a man in love than
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in mourning. Here's former Carbon County prosecutor Bob Edelman.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: At the funeral, at the gravesite, the girlfriend... And Carrie remained,
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: they were the last people there. When they came back,
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: they were holding hands and smiling and laughing as they
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: walked back.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: This was told to one of the investigators by a
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: friend of the family, so we weren't able to independently
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: verify this information. Still, even without that damning anecdote, everything else,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the rocky start to their marriage, the admission of love
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: for another woman, the phone calls, the hotel visits, the sex...
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: it all pointed to one of the key elements in
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: any murder.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Motive.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Everybody who at least looks at it sees, like, this
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: is wildly.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Strange in a lot of ways, and there's a lot
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: of reasons to be concerned.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: You know, you take some stuff, but when you stack
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: it on top of the others, you know, when there's smoke,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: there's fire.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And that smoke wasn't just metaphorical. As investigators soon learned,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the Greenlees' house had nearly burned down just a few
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: weeks before Anita's death. That incident opened the door to
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a whole new set of reasons Cary Greenlee might want
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: his wife out of the picture. That and much more
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: is next on Blood Trails. Part 3. The Fires On
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: July 20th, 1990, a small fire broke out at the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Greenlee residence. That one caused minimal damage, but then on
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: September 5th, the Billings Fire Department was called to the
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Greenlee house once again. Kerry told investigators that he woke
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: up around 4 a.m. to the sound of sizzling and
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: explosions coming from the garage. According to court documents.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: The Billings Fire Department determined that the fire started in
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: the garage in a container that appeared to have some
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: motor oil in it, along with other possible flammable liquids.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: The cause of the fire was an electric handheld charcoal lighter,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: which was placed in the container and then attached to
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: a blue extension cord running out of the north side
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: door of the garage to an outlet located on the
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: north side of the house.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: They thought the fire was clearly set on purpose. The
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: question was, who did it? When a Carbon County detective
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: heard Kerry's account of what happened that night, he had
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: serious questions about the minister. Here's Bob Edelman.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: There was an arson investigation. I mean, basically, they thought
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: that he had tried to burn down his house.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Kerry said that his family had gone to bed around
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: 11 p.m., but he stayed up and spoke to Terry
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: on the phone for about an hour. Kerry said he
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: went to bed, but woke up between 1.30 and 2
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: for some, quote, strange reasons. He went into the living
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: room and noticed that the sliding back door was open.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: When he went into the backyard to investigate, he found
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: that the gate to the alley was open and his
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: dog was gone.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: When asked why he didn't call the police department at
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: this time, Greenlee stated he didn't have much faith in
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: the police and decided to investigate himself.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But he didn't find anything, so he went back to bed.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: As the firefighters worked to put out the fire in
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the garage a few hours later, Carey allegedly showed them
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the open gate in the backyard. That's when firefighters noticed
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: four gun cases located on the ground just inside the fence.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: The fire crew show up and notice that some of
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: his property is taken out of the garage and laying
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: in the backyard. You know, according to stories like him,
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: luckily his rifles and such were laying in the backyard
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: while the garage was burning.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: To make this strange incident even stranger, Carey also told
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the firemen that one of his guns was missing. However,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: according to court records, he never told the firefighters about
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: finding the sliding door open or wondering whether the person
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: who broke into his house had also set the blaze.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: That story didn't come out until Carey went into the
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: sheriff's office to give a formal interview. This was all
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: extremely odd, but it was hard to see how the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: pieces fit together.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: I think they investigated it fairly thoroughly, but they didn't
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: think they could prove anything. that he was the one
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: that did it so they didn't bring charges against him.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: At first blush, the incident didn't seem to be connected
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: to Anita's death. But according to Billings police detective Brett Lund,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Anita seemed upset about the fire for reasons beyond the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: arson itself. Detective Lund told the Billings Gazette in 1993
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: that he asked Anita if she feared something more serious
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: might happen if they didn't solve the arson case. At
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: that point, he told the outlet, quote, she just broke
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: down and started crying. And that's the last time I
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: saw her alive. What's more, Carey himself mentioned the fire
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: during an interview with law enforcement in December of 1990.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: And you actually have Greenlee saying that's one of the
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: reasons he needed life insurance because of a fire scare.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Between February 25th and September 9th, Carey applied for four
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: life insurance policies that made him the beneficiary in the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: event of Anita's death. The Alden Life Insurance Company would
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: pay $ 10, 000, AAA would pay $ 1, 500, and JCPenney Life Insurance
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: would pay $ 20, 000. Now, some of these policies covered Carey
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: as well, but the $ 10, 000 policy did not. What's more,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Carey took out a $ 100, 000 policy on Anita with the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Union Life Insurance Company, which went into effect October 1, 1990.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Detectives asked Carey why he'd taken out so much life
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: insurance on Anita when she only made $ 6, 000 a year
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and had never had life insurance before. He explained that
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: even though Anita didn't earn a huge amount of money,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: he realized they were still dependent on her income after
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: she'd been away for three weeks over the summer. He
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: also said, quote, right after she got back, we had
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: a little fire scare in our garage. It scared us
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: to death. Between the two of those, we just decided
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: we needed life insurance on her. You can understand how
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: a house fire set intentionally by an unknown intruder would
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: make the Greenlee family think about preparing for the future.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: The problem is the timeline doesn't match up. The second
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: house fire, the one Carrie was referencing to investigators, took
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: place on September 5th. But according to court documents filed
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: by Carbon County prosecutors, Carrie applied for that $ 100, 000 policy
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: two months earlier, on July 23rd, The fire couldn't have
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: been the reason for Anita's big policy because it hadn't
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: happened when Kerry initially applied. Maybe you chalk that up
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to a faulty memory, but investigators in 1990 found evidence
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: to suggest Kerry wasn't being forthcoming. Carbon County deputies sent
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: copies of the insurance documents along with samples of Anita's
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: signature to the FBI. While analysts couldn't say with 100% certainty,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: they did find evidence that on the $ 100, 000 policy, the
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: two signatures didn't match.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Thus, it was determined from reviewing the known signature of
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Anita Greenlee that the signature on the union's central life
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: insurance policy application for insurance signed Anita Greenlee was forged.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: When detectives asked Carey about this assessment, he denied signing
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: his late wife's life insurance application. He said, quote, I
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: did not forge her signature and I did not do
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: anything like that at all. At this point, the Carbon
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: County investigators and prosecutors thought they had a compelling case.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know how many homicides have been motivated by
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: love or money, but both were in play here. Carey
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: had acted suspiciously after Anita's death. He appeared to have
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: lied on several occasions, and he was even willing to
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: forge his wife's signature. However, officials wanted to make absolutely sure,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: so they took what they'd found to the Montana Department
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: of Criminal Investigation, or DCI.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: And it's kind of like Montana's FBI. And they brought
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: an investigator and then they went over everything. And there
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: was just no way that he could have got up
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: there and shot and killed his wife and then come
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: over this hill that was, you know, a quarter mile away.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Just a couple of minutes after the daughter, you know,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: the daughter was heading towards her and then saw her dad.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: In other words, while investigators could prove motive, they weren't
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: as confident they could prove opportunity. The order and timing
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of those shots on the mountain made it seemingly impossible
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: for Carey to kill his wife from close range. The
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Carbon County prosecutor at the time was a guy named
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Tony Kendall. Alex, who again is the current Carbon County attorney,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: recalled speaking to his predecessor about this case.
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: He just didn't see it as a provable case, I guess,
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: and said that one of the other DCI agents simply
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: didn't agree with some of his... his coworkers' analysis. I
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: think it's just a mountain of circumstantial evidence. You just
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: don't have a lot of really hard evidence.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: DCI agents and prosecutors spent hundreds of hours poring over
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: the available evidence. But in the end, they collectively decided
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: to close the investigation, return Kerry's rifles, and spend their
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: limited resources going after other alleged bad guys. We reached
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: out to Tony Kendall, but he declined to speak to us.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Several other of the investigators from the early 90s also
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: declined or have passed away. So we don't have an
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: inside look into what went into this decision. But I
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: did reach out to Ryan Weldon, an experienced state and
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: federal prosecutor in Montana who was not involved in this case.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: He told me that because the case rests on where
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Kerry was standing when the shots went off, proving his
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: guilt was always going to be an uphill battle.
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: The defense is going to say that there was this
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: entire crime scene that was in the control of the state.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: They went up there. They could have secured it. They
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: could have identified where all of the footprints were located
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: and definitively proven where each individual was located. They didn't
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: do that. And so that alone creates reasonable doubt.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors, Ryan theorized, didn't want to risk Kerry winning at
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: trial and then being acquitted. There is no statute of
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: limitations on murder, so they knew they had time for
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: new evidence to come to light that might strengthen their case.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Investigators weren't finished with their number one suspect, but Carey
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: didn't know that at the time. He was free to
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: start his new life with Terry and continue his ministry.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing about ministers. They talk, in public,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: a lot. They say things that offer a window into
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: their personality, their passions, and sometimes... their past. And Carrie
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Greenlee was no exception. Part 4. Carrie's Corner.
• 34:28
  Speaker 7: You have somebody that's really loved you well. Maybe it's
• 34:32
  Speaker 7: your stocks. For me, it's very definitely Carrie. But she,
• 34:38
  Speaker 7: in so many ways, saved me. I don't work to
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: earn her love because she's already given it to me.
• 34:47
  Speaker 7: But I do long to please her because she has
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: loved me so well and so deeply. And she saved me.
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: She saved me from a miserable life.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: That's Kerry speaking to what sounds like a Bible study group.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: He and Terry had moved to Oregon in the early 90s,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and Kerry opened a successful roofing business and worked as
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: a pastor. The recording was published as a podcast titled
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Kerry's Corner, And this episode came out on October 23rd, 2022,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the 32nd anniversary of Anita's death. Kerry explains that the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: miserable life Terry saved him from was the prospect of
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: raising his kids by himself. And the couple certainly had
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: their share of kids. In fact, that's how Kerry explained
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: their lightning quick engagement. He wrote in that 2010 blog
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: post that they married so quickly so they could adopt, quote,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: two precious little girls that our families loved. He doesn't
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: explain when these adoption plans took shape or if he
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: and Anita were working towards that before her death. But
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: while that particular adoption didn't work out for the new couple,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: others did. Kerry writes that they had 11 children by 2009,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: and the Billings Gazette reports that most of them were adopted.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: We don't know how Tika and Eric Greenlee responded to
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: these new additions to the family. However, we do know that,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: at least for a time, Tika wasn't satisfied with how
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: her father justified his accelerated engagement. She told the Billings
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Gazette in 1993 that, quote, they got married so fast,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: it makes me wonder. She told the outlet that prior
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to her mother's death, Terry was her best friend. Only
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: four years separated the two young women, and you can
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: imagine how close they became during the months Terry lived
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: with them. Tika was blindsided when, just days after her
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: mother's funeral, Carrie told her of his plans to marry
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: her best friend. That news broke her relationship with both
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Terry and her father. Less than a year later, in
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: June of 1991, Tika filed for a temporary restraining order
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: against her father. She had moved out of the house
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: by that point, and she claimed in her affidavit, quote,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Since my mother died in October 90, he has mentally
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: abused me. He threatens to arrest me if I take
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: my belongings. I am afraid that it will get violent
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: if he finds me. I am really scared of him
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: and always have been. The judge did not grant that order,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: but that wasn't the only legal action Tika took against
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: her father.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Certainly there was a time in her life where she
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: thought it appropriate to sue him.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Remember that $ 100, 000 life insurance policy Carrie took out for Anita?
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: The Union Life Insurance Company got wind of the accusations
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: surrounding Carrie, but instead of doing their own investigation, they
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: asked a federal court in Texas to decide who should
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: get the money. In March of 1993, Tika filed a claim,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: arguing that her father participated in her mother's death and
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: was therefore disqualified from receiving payment. It's safe to say
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: that there was some tension between the father and daughter,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: but it didn't last. Tika and Carrie settled their legal
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: fight before it got to trial, and the judge ordered
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: that Carrie should get about half of the money while
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the other half was split between Tika and Eric. Tika
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: also changed her tune when it came to her father's
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: treatment of her. She said in 1993 that she wasn't
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: actually afraid of her father. She told the Gazette, She
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: said she still doesn't talk to Terry, but that her
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: relationship with her father was much better. Of the ongoing
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: investigation into her father, she said, I didn't see the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: gun go off, but I don't think my dad did it.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I don't want them to drop it because I want
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to know what happened that day one way or the other.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Even if they convict my dad, I want to know
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: what happened. She's maintained her belief in her father's innocence
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: even to this day. When we reached out to her
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: about participating in this episode, she asked why we were
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: interested in her mother's death. She said, quote, blood trails
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: is about crimes. My mother's death was an accident. Tika's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: stance was shared by her grandfather, W.H. Padgett, and Alex
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: said their support of Kerry would have made prosecuting him
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: especially difficult.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: You also have the strange circumstance where the father of
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: the victim is very supportive of the suspect.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: And, you know, so you have Tika. And, you know,
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: they're both supportive of him.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: This is perhaps the strongest argument in favor of Kerry's innocence.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Neither of the people who were there that day think
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: he did it. There are reasons to question their conviction.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and we'll get to those soon. But no one ever
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: claimed to have seen Kerry pull the trigger. At the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: same time, Kerry didn't make it easy for investigators to
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: leave him alone.
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: You know, I'm pretty stupid.
• 39:43
  Speaker 7: I have realized 20 years after the fact that I
• 39:47
  Speaker 7: did something that was very wrong and very sinful.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: And what could scare me is.
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: Thinking about the possibility that I've done 4,000 other things
• 40:00
  Speaker 7: that I didn't even realize were sin.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Kerry doesn't elaborate on what this sin might be. I
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: doubt it has anything to do with Anita's death. But
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: I do think it illustrates an obliviousness that, if he's innocent,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: makes him look really, really guilty. His decision to marry
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Terry so quickly is what sparked the renewed homicide investigation,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and he laments the gossip that followed his second matrimony.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: But even in the comments he made years later, he
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: publicly demonstrates a shocking level of disinterest in the mother
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of his first two children. In 2012, Terry published a
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: collection of articles Kerry had written for his church bulletin.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: These were written while he was preaching at the Pilot
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Butte Christian Church in Bend, Oregon from 1999 to 2001.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Of the dozens of entries, only one mentions Anita. He writes, quote,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: He continues, quote, A little human blood and a lot
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: of hunting crud inside. It was a job I dreaded
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: but could never ask another to do. He doesn't mention
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: how he felt after losing his wife. He doesn't say
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: anything about her personality or interests, nothing even about where
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: his children were or how they felt. Instead, he explains
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: that a friend walked into the room, kissed him on
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: the cheek, and offered to clean the Suburban for him.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Carey writes, quote, What a gift he brought, a bit
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: of peace in the midst of turmoil. A pure kiss
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: of love in the middle of a perverse society. God's
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: light in the middle of darkness. Kerry may have appreciated
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the gesture, but I have to assume Carbon County prosecutors
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: read that entry with regret. If Anita's death had been
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: treated as suspicious immediately, that suburban would have been searched
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: with a fine-toothed comb. As it turned out, Kerry's friend
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: did exactly the opposite, cleaning away any potential evidence in
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: service to his friend. But while the Suburban's contents had
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: been washed away, the memory of Cary Greenlee was alive
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and well in Carbon County. Investigators couldn't forget what they'd seen,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: and it was only a matter of time before Cary
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: found himself once again in the crosshairs of the law.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: That's next on Blood Trails. Part 5. Charged.
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: I'd become.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: fairly recently the county attorney, but I walked in and
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: in the courthouse in Red Lodge and across the aisle
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: or across the hallway from the county attorney's office to
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: the sheriff's office. And I just walked in one day
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: and I happened to mention, I said, Hey, is there any,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: any old cases you guys got that bug you or
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: something to that effect? And there were two deputies sitting
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: there and he goes, yeah, the guy that shot and
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: killed his wife and got away with it.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Bob Edelman was appointed to be the Carbon County attorney
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: in 2006. He hadn't heard about this case, so as
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: you can imagine, he asked for clarification.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: What do you mean somebody shot and killed their wife
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: and got away with it? And so then they kind
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: of started filling me in. They're going, oh yeah, this
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: guy shot his wife and heck, they drug her under
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: the fence and threw her in the back of the
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: Suburban and drove to Redline. I go like, I guess
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: truth can be stranger than fiction, but it was like, what?
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: After Bob read the case file, he asked Tony Kendall
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: why he didn't press charges. Tony explained everything you've already heard,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: that even though there was plenty of circumstantial evidence, they
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: didn't think there was enough time after the second shot
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: for Kerry to get away. Bob wasn't convinced.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: After I read it, I go like, I was kind
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: of a different prosecutor. I'm going like, I'm going to
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: bring the case, I don't care what. With the facts
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: of the case was, honestly, I read it and I just,
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: in my mind, there was no reasonable doubt.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Bob was a prosecutor, not an investigator, so he decided
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: to bring in a retired detective named Kobe Thede. Kobe
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: and Bob talked to the original investigators. They went out
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: to the scene of Anita's death, analyzed all the available evidence,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: and interviewed Carrie, Tika, and everyone else who was involved
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: and still alive. When their work was concluded, Kobe proposed
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: a theory that made all the pieces fit together.
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: Kobe came to me and basically goes, He shot her
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: with the first one and then, you know, set the
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: scene up, went down the, down the coulee and then
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: shot the second shot. And it's just like, you know, boom,
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden it just, to me, it just
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: became so much clearer.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Kobe was a lifelong hunter, so it struck him as
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: unlikely that Tika and Padgett could tell the difference between
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the sound of a 7mm 08 and a 270 Winchester.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: especially as the shot report bounced around the coolies from
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: some unknown distance. If the first shot was actually the 7mm08,
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: not the 270, Carey could have killed his wife with
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: her own rifle, walked up the hill, and taken another
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: shot with his 270. All he had to do after
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: that was wait for Tika to find her mother, walk
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: back down, and act as surprised as anyone else. Alex
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: pointed out that there was also reason to believe it
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: was Carrie, not Anita, who was carrying that 7MM08.
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: What you find is that she's killed by the 7MM08
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: that the last witnesses saw Carrie carrying. And I believe
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: she actually has 270 shells in her pocket. So we
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: know that she's killed with the rifle last seen by
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: anybody else being carried by Carrie Greenwood.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Both Tika and her grandfather told investigators that the couple
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: had switched rifles prior to Anita shooting her deer that morning.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: When they saw Carrie and Anita walking away together, Anita
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: still had the. 270 and Carrie had the 7MM08. Carrie
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: claimed they switched rifles again after they got to the gate,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: but neither Tika nor Padgett saw that happen. This new
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: theory of the case depends on the likelihood that someone
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: can distinguish these cartridges by the sound they make when fired.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: We'll never know the answer definitively because we can't get
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: into the minds of Tika and her grandfather. But since
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: this is Meat Eater and I've covered firearms for a
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: long time, I figured we'd test this ourselves.
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: Listen carefully. Yeah, we're good.
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: Did you catch it?
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: The first shot was from a 7MM08 and the second
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: was from a 270 Winchester. We obviously don't have the
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: rifles they were using that day, but we did shoot
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: each cartridge from a bolt action long gun. The microphone
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: in all of these was located about 200 feet from
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the rifles with a building in between. We don't know
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: exactly how far Tikka was from each shot, but it
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: was likely quite a bit further. The sound also would
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: have echoed around at least 100 feet of elevation. Here
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: are two more shots. If you're listening carefully and standing
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: on flat ground, you can definitely hear a difference. The
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: 270 Win is a much bigger cartridge, so the sound
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: it produces is deeper and slightly louder. We backed up
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: to 800 feet, which put another building and some trees
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: between us and the shot. Even then, I and my
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: panel of listeners agreed that we could hear a difference,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and I think that difference comes through in the recordings.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: On that last one, the first shot was the 270,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and the second was the 7mm. Of course, this is
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: a best-case scenario. My panel was composed of experienced rifle hunters.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: We were standing quietly and paying close attention. If we
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: were walking up a coulee and thinking about something else,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure I could have been so confident. After
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: some pressing from Kobe, Tika wasn't so sure either. In
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: her re-interview in 2008, she walked back her original contention. Instead,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: she told Kobe she assumed the 7mm08 fired first based
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: on the apparent direction the shots came from. She believed
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: her father was further away because he usually walked more quickly,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: but she admitted that she never actually saw them after
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: they walked away together. And she wasn't the only one
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: to change her testimony when Kobe talked to them. Kerry
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: admitted in a 2008 interview that he forged Anita's signature
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: on one of the documents for the $ 100, 000 policy. He
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: claimed he was told to do so by the insurance
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: agent because the form itself was, in his words, not important.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: but it proved that Carey had lied to investigators in
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the early 90s. He also switched from claiming he shot
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: at a doe at 80 yards to a buck at
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: 200 yards. It's a small detail, but also the kind
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: of thing most hunters would remember. Much of the physical
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: evidence was gone or never collected, but Bob's case didn't
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: just rely on witness testimony. For example, the autopsy reports
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: showed scratches going down Anita's legs.
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: So what does that tell you? It tells me that
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: the Somebody, she's laying there, they unbutton her jeans, you know,
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: the jeans are tight, and as they're pulling the jeans
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: down to her knees, they scratch the side of her legs.
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: That was evidence.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: Bob had a theory to explain the rifle shots. He
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: had a mountain of evidence proving motive, and his prime
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: suspect admitted to lying to investigators. He decided he had
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: more than enough to move forward.
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: There's clearly, clearly enough for probable cause to file the charges,
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: and then you turn it over to a jury. That's
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: what we do.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: On June 5th, 2009, Carrie Greenlee was arrested in Bend,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Oregon and extradited to Montana. Assistant Attorney General Brant Light
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: had assisted the Carbon County Attorney's Office to compile an
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: extensive 38-page affidavit outlining all the evidence and charging Carrie
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: with one count of deliberate homicide. Now the case turned
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: to the courts. After 19 years, the public would finally
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: get a chance to see all the evidence and a
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: jury of Carey's peers would issue a ruling. At least,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: that's what was supposed to happen. What actually happened, well,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: no one, not even Carey, could have predicted. Part 6.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Without Prejudice The first sign that the prosecution of Kerry
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Greenlee might not go as planned came in December of 2008.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: In that month, Bob Edelman, who you've been hearing from
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: throughout this episode, was indicted by the federal government on
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: cocaine charges. He and his girlfriend had purchased cocaine from
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: a suspected drug dealer, and they'd allowed their house to
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: be used to store and use small amounts during parties
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: in the early 2000s. Bob resigned from his position in
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Carbon County, pleaded guilty to the charges, and served 30
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: months in federal prison. Alex had been Bob's deputy county prosecutor,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and he was familiar with the Greenlee case. He worked
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: with Brant Light, who I mentioned earlier, as well as
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: another state attorney named Dan Gaczynski. You might remember Dan
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: from episode 7 of season 2, when we talked to
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: him about the prosecution of Dustin Gersom's killer, Darren Abbey.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Alex told me that their first hurdle would be to
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: prove that Kerry could get a fair trial, even after
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: nearly two decades.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: Ultimately, we thought we had good case law to allow
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: us to prosecute.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Kerry attended his hearings backed by family and friends from
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: his community in Oregon.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: A very devoted group of people that followed him, they
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: showed up, they all wore shirts in support, they packed
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: the courtroom. So, you know, certainly he had people that, uh,
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: that did have some respect for him and they did
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: follow him.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Kerry's defense began by submitting a motion to dismiss the case.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Defense teams often submit such motions in criminal cases, but
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: as long as the statute of limitations hasn't expired, they're
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: almost never granted. The judge in this case was a
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: guy named John Warner, who was recently retired but had
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: served on the Montana Supreme Court. Alex still remembers Dan
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Gaczynski calling him when he heard about the judge's ruling
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: on the motion to dismiss.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: Dan called me up and said, you're not going to
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: believe this, but Justice Warner just dismissed the case.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: If you're like me, this decision is surprising, and that's
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: putting it mildly. How could a judge decide to dismiss
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: this case without even giving a jury a chance to
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: weigh the evidence?
• 53:08
  Speaker 6: So if you look just at the statute of limitations...
• 53:11
  Speaker 6: This case proceeds without any issues at all. The reason
• 53:15
  Speaker 6: it ultimately was dismissed is because separate and apart from
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: the statute of limitations, there is something called the due
• 53:25
  Speaker 6: process clause.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: That's Ryan Weldon again, the Montana prosecutor you heard from
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: earlier in this episode. He said a decision like this
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: is extremely unusual, but also not unheard of.
• 53:37
  Speaker 6: It was essentially a claim that From Carrie saying, this
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: violates my due process rights because all of this evidence
• 53:47
  Speaker 6: has either been lost or destroyed.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Carrie's side argued, and the judge agreed, that it was
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: impossible for their client to get a fair trial because
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: one of the key witnesses had passed away. Anita's father, W.H. Padgett,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: died of heart disease in July of 2009, just one
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: month after Carrie was arrested. He believed his son-in-law was innocent,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: and his testimony would have been vital to carry side
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: of the case.
• 54:11
  Speaker 6: Those were critically important, given that the location mattered, the
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: sound of the firearm, all of those details were important
• 54:19
  Speaker 6: for the defense.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: What's more, a trove of evidence had been lost or
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: never collected. The guns were long gone and so couldn't
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: be reexamined for defects. The ammunition was gone as well,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: and the guy who hand-loaded it was no longer alive.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Investigators had failed to take any photographs of the bottom
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: of Carrie's boots, and only a single image remained of
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: the footprint in the mud. Perhaps most egregiously, the state
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: had lost the orange hunting vest Anita had been wearing,
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: and they couldn't find an entire box of notes related
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: to the state crime lab's forensic testing of evidence. Alex, Brant,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and Dan had argued that none of this would have
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: meaningfully impaired Carrie's ability to defend himself. Tika was there
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: that day as well, and she could have testified about
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: the order of the shots. Some evidence had been lost,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: but much had been retained, and Carey could still mount
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: a defense with what was available. The judge remained unconvinced.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: He pointed out that Padgett was more knowledgeable about firearms
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: than Tika and had been hunting longer. His testimony would
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: have carried more weight, and without it, Carey wouldn't have
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: been able to have a fair trial.
• 55:24
  Speaker 6: In this particular instance, the judge said, that the burden
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: had been met by the defense and dismissed the case.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: Really, that was the end of the case at that
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: point in time. Unfortunately, it's one that never got to
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: a jury. And I think it would have been a
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: really pretty interesting trial. It would have been a long trial,
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: just a world of circumstantial evidence. It's unfortunate it didn't
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: get to happen.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Kerry Greenlee had escaped facing a jury for his wife's
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: death not once, but twice. No one I spoke with
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: thinks it's likely that Carrie will ever see the inside
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: of a courtroom again, at least not for this crime.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: But the judge did leave that door open.
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: One thing that is incredibly important about that order is
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: it does not dismiss the case with prejudice.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Ryan explained that if the judge had dismissed the case
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: with prejudice, it could never be brought again. A judge
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: might do that if he believed the prosecutors had a
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: personal vendetta against Carrie or were somehow acting in bad faith.
• 56:25
  Speaker 6: But the court left open, there could be a refiling
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: of the case at some point in time because it
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: was not dismissed with prejudice. And of course, the court
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: outlined that if there was additional evidence that may have
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: been discovered, such as a confession, then that would justify
• 56:44
  Speaker 6: the refiling of the case.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: I asked Bob what he thought when he heard the
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: case had been dismissed. And it's easy to hear how
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: this case has stuck with him even all these years later.
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: Honestly, I mean, it's one of the biggest regrets in
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: my life, you know, but that's just the way things
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: turned out. But, I mean, I would have loved to
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: have been the one to continue that case. You never
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: know what's going to happen, but I would like to
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: think that I would have actually put him in prison
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: for the rest of his life. I would have hoped.
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: But that didn't happen, and that was my fault. That
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: was nobody's fault but mine.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: Part seven, in the eyes of the law. As far
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: as we can tell, Cary Greenlee is still living in
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Oregon with his ever-growing family. In fact, in an echo
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: of the circumstance that launched his legal trouble, he once
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: called Alex with a request.
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: After everything was dismissed, I got a call from Cary
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: where he'd wanted me to do something to clear his
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: record because he wanted to.
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: Adopt a child. That was the only reaction after the
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: case was all said and done.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Kerry Greenlee might be a well-meaning husband and father who
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: If he'd stayed with Tika or Padgett instead of going
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: off by himself with Anita, none of this would have happened.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Both surviving witnesses testified to his innocence, and yet he
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: was hounded by gossip and false accusations. And maybe he
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: had feelings for Terry while Anita was still alive, but
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: he never acted on them. Once she died, the new
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: couple decided that there wasn't any point in waiting. They
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: wanted to grow their family, and that's what they did
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: and continued to do. Or maybe Carrie Greenlee is a murderer.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: What started as an affair with Terry, fueled by late-night
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: phone calls and multi-day hotel stays, had blossomed into something
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: more serious. The couple decided they didn't want to wait,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: so Carrie took matters into his own hands. Maybe he
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: killed Anita with the first shot, like Bob, Alex, and
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: the others believed. Or maybe he killed her with the second,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: And in the trauma and stress of the moment, Tika
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't remember exactly how much time passed. However he did it,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: he took out life insurance on Anita to fund his
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: new marriage, and he's been lying ever since. Whichever Cary
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: Greenlee you think is the real Cary Greenlee, one thing
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: is clear. In the eyes of the law, he remains
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: totally innocent.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: Greenlee was never convicted. The charges were never proved.
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: And although certainly there's some interesting facts, he's not been
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: found guilty of anything criminally.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this episode of Blood Trails. If
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: you'd like to see images from this case, including of Carrie, Anita,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: and Tika, along with a map of the area, head
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: over to TheMeatEater.com slash Blood Trails and click on the
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: case file for this episode. You can also watch any
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: Blood Trails episode on YouTube. Big thanks to everyone who
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: spoke to me on the record. Alex Nixon, Bob Edelman,
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: and Ryan Weldon. I also appreciate everyone who spoke to
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: me off the record. You know who you are, and
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: your perspective was helpful as we tried to cover this
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: complex case. Also, shout out to Jared Kavanaugh, Caleb Kriekbaum,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: and Christian Parr for their help with the rifle shots experiment.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: If you have any questions or tips about this episode,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: send me an email at bloodtrailsatthemeateater.com. I'd especially like to
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: hear from you if you knew Anita or know anyone
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: who might. We reached out to her siblings and friends,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: but no one responded. It would be great to know
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: a little more about her and bring that to our audience.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: You can also send me an email if you know
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: about another case you think we should cover. We rely
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: on you to learn about other stories from out in
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: the wild. So go ahead and send a note to bloodtrailsatthemeateater.com.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: See you next time. Stay safe out there.