Latest / Probation Behavior / 7 | Gail Spencer: The Trust They Used Against Her
Transcript
- 0:23You're listening to probation behavior.
- 0:27Welcome, everybody. Welcome back, especially you,
- 0:31Abigail, because you were in Pennsylvania for quite a while
- 0:35and now she's back. I am.
- 0:38What do you have to say for yourself?
- 0:42Sorry. This is why we gargle salt
- 0:44water. I know I forgot today.
- 0:48What do I have to say for myself?
- 0:51Yeah, being back home is nothing.
- 0:56There's nothing else that compares, You know, your home is
- 0:59where the heart is, so. Any original thoughts?
- 1:08Honestly, no I. Yeah, not today.
- 1:14That's OK. Wow.
- 1:16You come to us for content and this is what we give you.
- 1:20I don't know if for some reason today, as soon as you hit
- 1:23record, I just. Just went blank, you know, we're
- 1:28just in front of a huge audience, so makes sense.
- 1:32We've three dogs in this house. Yes.
- 1:35Also just wanted to say that I took a Polaroid of me and Ally's
- 1:42set up here. Oh.
- 1:43My God I look so cool. Yeah.
- 1:45We are what is my nose profile look amazing.
- 1:51Stunning. Oh my God, wait, I look so cool.
- 1:54OK, we'll post that on the insta.
- 1:56So everybody be looking out for that.
- 1:58Yeah, Ally looks amazing in it. Oh my God, I didn't say that.
- 2:01You said that. You've been gone for a while.
- 2:04Do you want to know everything that's happened to me since you
- 2:06left? Every single thing.
- 2:08OK, I moved out of my house, moved into my new place, had to
- 2:15do so much work to get the house ready for the buyer, like
- 2:17cleaning and all that stuff, selling stuff.
- 2:19Oh, my God. It was a nightmare.
- 2:21And then I just closed on the House.
- 2:24That sounds like I bought it. You know what I mean?
- 2:26As the seller, I closed on it this afternoon.
- 2:28So I no longer own the house. Thank God.
- 2:34Such a weight lifted off my shoulders.
- 2:37Yeah. And now I'm just moving in all
- 2:39that stuff. Like moving it as in like,
- 2:41unpacking and all of that. My second bedroom is literally
- 2:45to the ceiling with boxes. Yeah.
- 2:47What's your least favorite thing about moving?
- 2:50Oh, my least favorite thing probably.
- 2:54OK, so this time I hired like movers and I did this last time.
- 2:58Obviously I hired movers, people who do the whole entire thing
- 3:02that power to you. But no, I don't even work out.
- 3:05So this is like my workout for the year.
- 3:07And so I these movers like packed everything up.
- 3:11So in my head you would think like if they're packing my
- 3:15entire house up, I don't have to touch anything.
- 3:18But like there's so much stuff that like you need access to
- 3:21quickly and you, you don't have time to sort through boxes.
- 3:24So I ended up doing like 4 trips to and from my house to the
- 3:28apartment, from my house to the apartment, back and forth and
- 3:31back and forth. And it was just a pain in the
- 3:33ass because like there was just stuff that I was like, oh, I
- 3:36don't want them to pack it. Like I just want to bring it and
- 3:38have access to it quickly so. Yeah.
- 3:40I would say that is that it's like you, you can have the most
- 3:44white glove service for moving ever and you can still be
- 3:47saddled down with like all the moving issues.
- 3:52I feel like I'm like, is this like a a commercial for a moving
- 3:58company? No, literally they do it better.
- 4:00We yeah, no, it sounds like it. My my movers forgot a whole
- 4:03room. So Oh my God, it was a bathroom
- 4:07and it was luckily it was like almost empty but.
- 4:11They just said Nah, Nah, we're not doing it today.
- 4:13I honestly think they just missed it.
- 4:15Like I, I don't think I've ever had movers like perfectly do
- 4:19everything right. Like I always get a scratch or
- 4:21like something like that I feel like.
- 4:23You know that's why they say do it yourself.
- 4:26But no I'm kidding. Honestly I have never hired
- 4:29movers but the next time I move in my life IA 100% will.
- 4:33Yeah, I feel like. We've done it enough.
- 4:35Yes, there's some things in life that you get to a point that
- 4:38you're like, this is worth paying for 100%.
- 4:41And we get older and like have more more.
- 4:43Money, do we? Do we really?
- 4:47Yeah, some days on some pay stubs.
- 4:51Yeah. What else do I want to talk
- 4:54about? I watched I saw The Sheep
- 4:56Detectives in theaters. Wait, in theaters?
- 5:01In theaters by myself. OK, so this is the breakdown of
- 5:03what happened. Abby texted me on Saturday, and
- 5:07I was like, what are you doing? And I'm like, first of all, I
- 5:09didn't even know she was home. And then and then I said, so
- 5:13this morning in our friend group chat, somebody mentioned that
- 5:17they saw it and they said it's the contender for best movie of
- 5:20the year. I took that seriously, Abby,
- 5:23saying it could have been a joke.
- 5:25Regardless, I immediately bought a ticket.
- 5:27I was thinking about what do I do that night I've been moving.
- 5:29I was just like, so tired. I just wanted to do something
- 5:31for me. And so I was like, I'm going to
- 5:33go see the sheet detectives. And I had high hopes, let me
- 5:38tell you. And it was like, good.
- 5:41It was good. Like, did I tear up a little?
- 5:43Yeah. Oh my God, I always.
- 5:44Tear up though, that's like that's.
- 5:46Well, me too me. Too right?
- 5:47It doesn't take much animation. Was adorable.
- 5:50Great story. Did it blow me away like
- 5:53something I'd never seen before? Like, probably not.
- 5:55Like you kind of knew it was going to happen, you know?
- 5:58Maybe that's just me. When I saw the trailer in the
- 6:01theaters, my first, the first thing I said was this looks
- 6:08like, what do you call it, Glass, the Glass Onion and the
- 6:14Knives Out, I said. This looks like just sheep
- 6:18version of Knives Out. And it was, yeah.
- 6:21It was. And it that kind of all played
- 6:23out. I feel like I love Knives Out.
- 6:25Yeah, so do I, I. Personally love knives out.
- 6:28Better than the sheep version. I don't know.
- 6:31I like I enjoy it was very entertaining, but but like I it
- 6:36cracked me up that that's the movie I went and saw by myself
- 6:39because the movie that we all went to see together, Wuthering
- 6:43Heights, where I literally sobbed.
- 6:47I was can't confirm. Like, OK, you know how like when
- 6:52you're like heaving, you're like sobbing like you can't stop.
- 6:55Like that's what it was. I hadn't cried that much since
- 6:58probably like my first boyfriend breakup.
- 7:00Like I was it was intense. I and I don't know why And then
- 7:05I was like laughing while it was happening and then I kept on
- 7:07thinking like and then I like would cry again and then I see
- 7:12the sheep detectives by myself like that should have been when
- 7:15I'm sobbing, I feel like by myself, except for with friends.
- 7:19I was also crying a lot, but I, I, it was like a prolonged cry,
- 7:23like I was crying for a majority of that movie.
- 7:27So by the end, when things hit the fan, I feel like I was, I
- 7:33was, I was trying to keep it in and I think I did a good job of
- 7:36like at least not like you're just blasting it out,
- 7:41blubbering. You said it.
- 7:45That's exactly how I describe it.
- 7:47Blubbering. I was you know what I actually
- 7:50just the past couple days have been re watching my heart and
- 7:54soul The Hunger Games series I love I've.
- 7:58Only seen the first, yeah. Oh my God, it's like, I mean, I
- 8:04I say this about so many things, but it's just like a comfort
- 8:08yeah thing. We all have those absolutely
- 8:10love everything about those movies and.
- 8:14They're extremely well made. Timeless love Jennifer Lawrence
- 8:17like Timeless. She could do anything and I
- 8:19would love it. Same and Josh Hutcherson.
- 8:22People don't give him enough credit for that role.
- 8:24Yeah. What has he been in since that?
- 8:28Five Nights at Freddy's. Oh God, I've never seen it.
- 8:31Not something I'm going to watch.
- 8:32But I heard that he was in it and obviously I'm a fan so.
- 8:36No, I need to actually go back and watch all of this 'cause I
- 8:39do think I would really like them.
- 8:40You would, which is why I'm a little surprised you haven't.
- 8:43I don't know it was everyone had their series right?
- 8:46Like mine was Twilight so. But I had.
- 8:48I loved them all too. Yeah, I loved them all.
- 8:52I, I was like a very selective reader and I feel like Twilight
- 8:56I probably read like 4 times through.
- 8:58Yeah, OK. Yeah, well, on the list to do,
- 9:03to see, to watch. Solo.
- 9:07Maybe some tears, maybe some blubbering.
- 9:09Maybe some blubbering. Oh, I will say really quickly on
- 9:12the topic of movies, my cousin Jake, who has a YouTube channel
- 9:16and reviews movies, he went and saw a Devil Wears Prada.
- 9:20And if you know my cousin or you know his entire channel, that is
- 9:23very not on brand for him. Did you see it?
- 9:26You're she's Abby's reacting very strongly.
- 9:28Did you like it? I did OK.
- 9:31Jake was not a fan. OK.
- 9:34And he loved Wicked. He thought it was like one of
- 9:36the best movies of the year. And he's deep like 1900 to like
- 9:412000 horror. That's his.
- 9:42That's his. Niche, I think for like a second
- 9:46movie made this long after, it was good.
- 9:50Like, you know what I mean? Because I think there's only so
- 9:52much you can do with those things.
- 9:54But I think for the people who like, love the original, it was
- 9:57just kind of fun to see those characters again because, like,
- 10:00Meryl Streep is iconic. I love her.
- 10:03I just watched. Oh, my God, We're going to keep
- 10:05going with this. I just watched.
- 10:07What is it? It's not it's complicated.
- 10:10Meryl Streep. No, it's it's about her and A
- 10:14and they're in a relationship. Her and an old man.
- 10:18Sorry my brain. Is an old man or like?
- 10:20An old man, just like a very famous actor.
- 10:23Gerard Butler. No, old old man.
- 10:26Gerard Butler is not like old, old everyone's going to like, be
- 10:30like, you're ridiculous when I'm.
- 10:32Having a hard time like. He's like a very famous actor
- 10:35and a boss. My boyfriend.
- 10:38Am I allowed to say his name? I'll ask him.
- 10:42Don't ask. Me.
- 10:44Here we go. I'm going to have to bleep
- 10:45something else out again. Oh, Steve Carell was in it.
- 10:51Hope Springs. And the man who's in it is Tommy
- 10:56Lee Jones. I have never heard of it.
- 10:59It's if you love like psychology and just in general, it's all
- 11:05about them, like re establishing intimacy in the relationship
- 11:07after like decades of being married and they're so
- 11:10comfortable in their ways. And she's like, no, I want a
- 11:12real romantic relationship. Our kids are out of the house.
- 11:15And I don't know. I just thought it was kind of
- 11:16beautiful and Steve Carell was amazing in it.
- 11:19It was funny, it was sad, it was, it was really great.
- 11:23And it's an old one though, like older, not old here and now.
- 11:27I'm going to say when it was, it was in 2012.
- 11:32I mean, that was what, 14 years ago?
- 11:34Yeah, actually. That is.
- 11:36Crazy, I think I just vomited in my mouth.
- 11:39I think we just saw our lives like flash before our eyes.
- 11:42No 2012 literally is like Max 10 years ago Max.
- 11:46Yeah, no, it's. Not like I didn't.
- 11:48Wasn't that when everyone thought the world was going to
- 11:50end? Yes, I cried in my bedroom on
- 11:52New Year's Eve 2012 because I thought like I had so much
- 11:57anxiety, still do, that the world was going to end and I
- 12:00literally like was in my room. I remember like just so sad.
- 12:04Where was your parents like? I think they were like.
- 12:07Watching the ball drop. Yeah, with friends, like, and I
- 12:10think they were like out for dinner or something with
- 12:12friends. And I remember like just, I was
- 12:15like, I don't want this ball to drop because it's not going to
- 12:18end. Because once this ball drops,
- 12:21yeah, more balls be dropped. Exactly.
- 12:26In so many ways. In so many ways.
- 12:28So yeah, core memory. Wow, that's I don't think I ever
- 12:34had apocalyptic fears or anxiety.
- 12:37My only very sorry I have like a whole.
- 12:41Plan to get a bunker. I'm not even.
- 12:43Getting wow. OK, My like super niche anxiety
- 12:47thing is every single time I see somebody doing something
- 12:51impressive, anything, something that I most likely like can't do
- 12:55right, Most likely I have this quick instant impulsive thought
- 13:02and fear that I'm going to switch bodies with them and
- 13:04minds with them and have to do the performance or whatever
- 13:06they're doing. Sorry, OK.
- 13:12So someone think that's a? Dream.
- 13:15Let me I'm going to give you an example, OK?
- 13:18I am watching a Broadway show. I cannot sing OK, I have a
- 13:24moment where I'm listening and it's just the most beautiful
- 13:27thing ever. I'm just like watching and I'm
- 13:28just wow, how can they remember all of these lines and know all
- 13:31these places and do all these moves?
- 13:33It's amazing. My next thought, holy fuck.
- 13:36What if all of a sudden I switch bodies and minds with them?
- 13:38And now that I have to do the entire performance, that's my
- 13:41next thought and I have severe anxiety for about like 2 seconds
- 13:44and then I'm. Good.
- 13:45I feel like the example you gave like like I could already like
- 13:49picture the scenario with so many things like I, I get what
- 13:54you're saying, I just have never, I've never thought about
- 13:57that, but like. Or I've thought, like when my
- 14:00boyfriend was an investment banker, I would think, Oh my
- 14:03God, what if I had to go into like a deal or something like
- 14:06that and I switch bodies with him and he had to go to my job
- 14:08and I had to go to his job and. Giving Freaky Friday did that
- 14:12movie do something like? Wait, wait.
- 14:16That was like one of my family's, my brother's favorite
- 14:19movies. We had a minivan that had like
- 14:20one of those DVD. Drops OH.
- 14:22Yeah, we had the headphones and it was the best thing in the
- 14:24entire. World, bring those back.
- 14:26On road trips, yeah, bring those back.
- 14:27I feel like they do have them, but now it's just like in
- 14:29really. Bougie Well, now everybody just
- 14:30has like devices. Oh.
- 14:32That's so true, you know? Yeah, we watched that on repeat.
- 14:37Oh my God. I wonder if that's where it's
- 14:39times from it. Just sounds awfully similar, I
- 14:41don't know. Also, it's deep into like
- 14:43perfectionism. That's what it really is.
- 14:46Is that the idea that all of a sudden I wouldn't be able to
- 14:49perform and be perfect? See, I think OK, OK.
- 14:55If we're really getting into it. I think final thing I'll say
- 14:58here is I think my like little like bunker thing, it's just
- 15:03it's roots from just all my anxieties and just want to, you
- 15:07know, survivalist mentality and like I've always just like if
- 15:12shit's hitting the fan, you won't see me like I'm out Like I
- 15:16am just like. What you mean shit in the fan
- 15:18like the world dying? Just like any like emergency
- 15:21type of situation, like I find myself just like fully tunnel
- 15:26vision to like where's the exit? Like I am just.
- 15:29Boom. So if I hurt myself, you
- 15:34wouldn't take me to the hospital?
- 15:35No, you would leave. Me.
- 15:37No, no, if like I've had OK experience like last year I was
- 15:43at the airport in Charlotte and I started seeing smoke billowing
- 15:48in the terminal and I was at like the last terminal, the
- 15:52airport So and I there's commotion, people are yelling,
- 15:56employees start running. So I'm thinking like this is it.
- 16:00I had AI was eating a bag of chickpea cheese puffs and I left
- 16:05them and I tried to run through the like the gate to the plane.
- 16:11I didn't follow the employees because I'm like, shit's going
- 16:13down like. Oh my.
- 16:14Yeah, you follow the employees. They they tackled a man he
- 16:18brought in like a smoke bomb or whatever.
- 16:21That's so misleading. Like the smoke bomb that's such
- 16:24like a prank rather than like a but you're at an airport.
- 16:28Like buddy, you can't do that. Oh my gosh, I know I don't like
- 16:32it was all a blur, but I truly was like, this is it's
- 16:36happening. I got to find the nearest exit.
- 16:39I'm leaving the cheese puffs behind and I'm getting out of
- 16:43here and like the the workers were like no, no, and like close
- 16:46the door on me. I'm like, OK, am I going to bust
- 16:49this down? You're like, are you really
- 16:51trying to stop me from surviving?
- 16:52Yeah, damn. Little bit about me.
- 16:56OK, I'm done. We.
- 16:57Got into it with our anxieties a little bit.
- 17:01We just barely scratched the surface.
- 17:05So more to come on that guys. Anyways, 17 minutes in, Are you
- 17:09ready to start? I was like I never.
- 17:12Shut up. No, look, I've been loving this
- 17:16and we always, just as a reminder, we always put the
- 17:18timestamp in the show notes for people who want to not listen to
- 17:23us yap and they just want to hear the story, even though
- 17:26yapping is kind of just a side effect of all the stories that
- 17:29we do. But so keep keep in mind you
- 17:33don't ever have to listen to this, but we'd like it if you
- 17:36did anyways. Actually, on the last episode
- 17:42that we did, we put bloopers at the end of the episode.
- 17:47So if you're at all intrigued and you didn't, it was after the
- 17:51outro. So I wouldn't expect many people
- 17:54to listen. But we thought it was really
- 17:55funny and we kept it in. Anyways, I think without further
- 18:00ado, we jump in. Let's do it.
- 18:03OK, amazing. So I am going to be telling a
- 18:06story today of GAIL Spencer. I had two quotes that I couldn't
- 18:11decide between and so I am going to read both of them to you.
- 18:16OK. The first one is from her
- 18:18sister. GAIL loved her family.
- 18:21You knew you were loved from the moment you talked to her.
- 18:24He left her knowing by looking at the pictures in her home that
- 18:27she was loved. And then the second quote you
- 18:33promised. You promised, you promised.
- 18:36I'll let those linger for a little bit.
- 18:39Very different quotes in very different context.
- 18:42Let's start. We're in Gail's neighborhood.
- 18:46It's late at night, and something as small as a dog left
- 18:51outside is going to reveal the scene.
- 18:55It's late on the night of Saturday, October 6th, 2012,
- 19:002012. Yep, the year of.
- 19:02Whoa, wait, sorry for a second. I was like, did I?
- 19:05Already reveal. I was just going to say, I was
- 19:07going to ask you if you did that on.
- 19:08Purpose. Oh my God.
- 19:09I didn't at all I'm. I got chills OK so the year that
- 19:15the world was ending. GAIL Spencer lives on
- 19:17Stinsonville Road in a house that looks like the kind of
- 19:20place where you know that somebody has built a life.
- 19:23It's all of these stories where somebody is murdered within
- 19:27their own home. It sometimes I just, I'm driving
- 19:32through neighborhoods and I get chills down my spine because I
- 19:35think about all of these homes and these, the victims that go
- 19:38through this in their own homes. And you would never know.
- 19:41You're just driving by and it's just, oh, what a beautiful home.
- 19:44Or, oh, I wonder who lives there?
- 19:46It's just crazy to think, you know, what happens inside them.
- 19:50So Gail's neighbors come home. It's late.
- 19:53It's like 2:00 AM. And they notice something
- 19:55strange immediately. Their dog is still outside.
- 19:59Earlier, GAIL had agreed to do this normal thing that she often
- 20:03did for them, very neighborly. She was going to let their dog
- 20:05back inside their house. And Gail's very trustworthy.
- 20:09She was just that kind of person.
- 20:11She would always be happy to do something for someone else and
- 20:14very reliable, thoughtful. She's always the person that
- 20:17people could count on. But when the neighbors return,
- 20:20the dog is still outside. I think they were at like a
- 20:22football game or something and then maybe stayed after and.
- 20:27They see that their dog is still outside.
- 20:28They're immediately concerned. When you know somebody and you
- 20:32know that they're extremely reliable.
- 20:34It's kind of like when kids go missing or any, anyone goes
- 20:38missing, an adult and somebody comes to the police station,
- 20:41they're like, no, this is not them.
- 20:44This is their routine. This is out of the ordinary.
- 20:47You have to take me seriously. I know that there is something
- 20:50wrong. This this is exactly what it
- 20:53was. They just had a feeling.
- 20:55Neighbors start to worry. They go over to Gail's house and
- 20:57the lights are on. But it's 2:00 in the morning,
- 21:00all the lights are on in the house.
- 21:03They knock on the door. Nobody will answer.
- 21:05So finally they end up calling the police and they forced their
- 21:08way inside. The neighbor follows them going
- 21:11into the home. And once they're inside the
- 21:13house, the neighbor and officers discover one that the thermostat
- 21:19is set to 58 degrees, 58°. It's October.
- 21:24Oh my. God, in Georgia, which like, you
- 21:26know, it's chilly at night for sure.
- 21:29It's like 2 in the morning, freaky.
- 21:31Like imagine just like you're already really wearing, you walk
- 21:33in and you're suddenly freezing cold.
- 21:35Like you have to immediately know that something is is not
- 21:38right and you're about to find something bad.
- 21:40So the officers are looking around the house with the
- 21:44neighbor. The neighbor goes to her bedroom
- 21:46and sees GAIL on her bed. There's a bag over her head.
- 21:49It's a black plastic bag, kind of like from a convenience
- 21:53store, maybe even a trash bag. At first, police do not see that
- 21:57there are obvious injuries. The house is secure.
- 22:02You know, the deadbolt was locked.
- 22:04Her car is gone. And that combination is really
- 22:07confusing for them. Is it suicide?
- 22:10Is it something else? Why is her car missing?
- 22:12Why are the lights on? Why is the thermostat down so
- 22:14low? But they know that a 58 year old
- 22:18woman is dead in her home and something does not make sense.
- 22:23That's where this case begins. OK, let's get into who GAIL
- 22:28Spencer was. We talked about it a little bit.
- 22:31Very reliable, very thoughtful woman.
- 22:33She was a mother, she was a grandmother, a very beloved
- 22:37mother and grandmother, beloved sister, daughter, an aunt, a Co
- 22:42worker, church member. Everybody loved her deeply.
- 22:45It was very clear she was born on July 28th, 1954 in Macon, GA,
- 22:50so where she ended up spending most of her life.
- 22:53She grew up there, she graduated from Central High School.
- 22:56She was a lifelong member of Bellevue Baptist Church and
- 23:00professionally she worked as a legal secretary and office
- 23:03manager for Calder Pinkston and Associates, a law firm in Macon.
- 23:07Now immediately, I'm thinking, if anyone is a fan of Suits, I'm
- 23:10thinking Donna, OK, have you seen Suits?
- 23:14I've seen some of it. I actually do make fun of my
- 23:17boyfriend for having liked it. You make fun of him for liking
- 23:22it. I literally have a mug that says
- 23:23you just got lit up if if you've watched the show.
- 23:26I think it's more the fact that like I one time like turned on
- 23:29the Netflix and like see that he was recently watching it and I'm
- 23:32like you like suits, like it's kind of threw me.
- 23:35That's I I think it's AI think it's a great show.
- 23:38I just finished re watching all nine seasons.
- 23:41Wow. Yeah, I just was pounding
- 23:43through it and I love that show and one of the core people in
- 23:48suits. I know Donna.
- 23:49Yeah, she's the. Redhead.
- 23:51Yeah. She's like, she starts as a
- 23:52secretary later on when she gets promoted and everything, but she
- 23:55is known as she is the one that keeps shit together.
- 23:59She literally holds that law firm together like glue.
- 24:02And without her things, things get really tough.
- 24:06And that's exactly, I think, who GAIL was.
- 24:09That's who it reminded me of. And at the law firm, their
- 24:13reliability on GAIL really mattered.
- 24:17It wasn't just her answering phones or organizing papers.
- 24:21She had worked there for about 10 years, and part of her job
- 24:25involved real estate Closings and wire transfers.
- 24:28So it was like a real estate law firm, which I literally just
- 24:32closed on the House today, which I said earlier or maybe I
- 24:35didn't, but I did close on the House today.
- 24:37And so I literally went to one of these real estate law firms
- 24:40where, you know, doing all the signing and all of that and
- 24:43they, you know, dealt with the paying off my loan and all of
- 24:46that. So literally just went through,
- 24:48you know, a very similar situation in which, you know,
- 24:51GAIL, where she worked, she was trusted personally and very
- 24:55trusted professionally. Because GAIL was so trustworthy
- 25:01and she also trusted other people professionally.
- 25:05It was something that people loved and respected most about
- 25:08her. That became why she was
- 25:10targeted, which is really, really sad.
- 25:13So this gets into again the 1st quote I'm just going to read
- 25:17again from Gail's sister, Joe Ellen Smith.
- 25:22GAIL loved her family. You knew you were loved from the
- 25:24moment you talked to her. He left her knowing by looking
- 25:27at the pictures in her home that she was loved.
- 25:29Just want to repeat that because I think it means a lot more once
- 25:33you hear everything about her. Investigators are looking at a
- 25:36few things that do not line up neatly, which is everything that
- 25:40we talked about. GAIL is dead in her bed.
- 25:42There's a bag over her head. The house is secure.
- 25:44Her car, a silver 2004 Acura Integra, is missing.
- 25:49There are no obvious signs at first that point to a chaotic
- 25:52break in, you know, like you would normally see broken glass
- 25:56or things like, you know, ripped apart and, and stuff on the
- 25:59floor and the house is super cold.
- 26:03The first public reports described police responding to a
- 26:07welfare call at Gail's home. And at first, the scene was
- 26:11confusing enough that her death was treated as suspicious from
- 26:15the beginning. And they did raise the
- 26:17possibility of suicide. But then the autopsy came back
- 26:20and Gail's death was ruled a homicide.
- 26:23Her cause of death was asphyxia, meaning she had been deprived of
- 26:27oxygen and it was being suffocated by that plastic bag.
- 26:30And the medical examiner would explain that she died by
- 26:33strangling and smothering. So now investigators have to ask
- 26:36who would do this to GAIL Spencer?
- 26:38Like, again, imagine somebody you.
- 26:41It's never. I'm going to go back for a
- 26:44second because in watching the Your Worst Nightmare TV episode
- 26:50on this, Joe Ellen Smith, her sister was interviewed
- 26:54throughout this and she's like, this happens to other people.
- 26:58You read about this in the news. This doesn't happen to somebody,
- 27:00you know, somebody you love your sister like.
- 27:03And it's true. You think of the least likely
- 27:06person, a single mom, grandma lives alone, you know, great
- 27:12beloved has a normal stable job, has been there for 10 years.
- 27:15Like this is just the last person you would think.
- 27:18It makes no sense. What motive can somebody have to
- 27:20kill her? Yeah, question.
- 27:23You said she's single, so was she ever married?
- 27:27I know that's a great question. I don't know.
- 27:28I looked into this a little bit. She obviously has a son so that
- 27:34came from someone, but I don't. OK.
- 27:39How? But how?
- 27:44I'm not quite sure. I couldn't find details on that,
- 27:47on her past relationship. But if she does have a son and
- 27:51he's very much not in her life at all, so we're asking, was
- 27:55this a stranger? Was this a robbery?
- 27:58Was this someone who just came for her car?
- 28:00Like, was it somebody who knew her?
- 28:01What in the world could this possibly be?
- 28:04One of the most important clues is not only inside Gail's house.
- 28:08It is also her workplace, as I alluded to earlier in my script.
- 28:15Now rewind to Friday, October 5th, 2012.
- 28:19So this is the day before Gail's body is found.
- 28:22GAIL is supposed to go to work at Calder Pinkston and
- 28:24Associates, which is like the most classic lawyer law firm
- 28:29name I've ever heard. Calder Pinkston and Associates.
- 28:33Like that's the kind of a movie. This is where who GAIL was
- 28:38becomes really important because when a person is unreliable,
- 28:42people might not panic when they do not show up.
- 28:45But we know she's extremely reliable.
- 28:47So they probably, they would assume she overslept or somebody
- 28:52who's not reliable. You would probably assume that,
- 28:55you know, I wouldn't say I'm like super unreliable.
- 28:59I don't know, Abby, would you say I'm super unreliable?
- 29:02I wouldn't say you're super unreliable.
- 29:05So like, like I would never not contact you if I was all of a
- 29:09sudden not going to be somewhere, right?
- 29:11And I feel like you can pretty much assume that for most of our
- 29:13friends, we also have like our locations.
- 29:15So that's another thing too. If I'm supposed to meet you
- 29:17somewhere and I would immediately check your location
- 29:19and you're just not showing up and not answering me, I would
- 29:21immediately check your location and then see what's going on.
- 29:24So they knew that something was wrong when GAIL did not show up,
- 29:28but she does. Or at least it appears that a
- 29:31text from Gail's phone goes to the attorney called her
- 29:35Pinkston, the main guy, the name partner as they would say in
- 29:39suits. And the text says that GAIL is
- 29:41sick and she will not be in that day.
- 29:44So OK, absence explained. But while GAIL is supposedly
- 29:50sick at home, something is happening inside the law firms
- 29:52financial systems. Money is moving, and it's not a
- 29:56small amount of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars
- 29:59are being wired out of the firm's escrow account, and the
- 30:02transfers will ultimately total just under 1.3 million.
- 30:06Oh my gosh. Yeah, So something to quickly
- 30:09explain because I also had to learn this when, again, today I
- 30:13was literally closing. Where does the money go when a
- 30:17buyer, you know, buys a house and the seller has to pay off
- 30:21their loan? You know, you get that money and
- 30:22it goes to the bank, It goes into escrow.
- 30:26What is escrow? Great question.
- 30:27No clue. It seems like limbo.
- 30:30That's how I would describe it. No clue anyways, but it
- 30:33essentially lives in a little spot in the interim until it can
- 30:37go to the right place. And so somebody's capitalizing
- 30:41on that limbo and they are basically taking that money out
- 30:44and transferring it to somewhere that it's not supposed to go.
- 30:48So, yeah, so investigators are not just looking at a murder
- 30:54anymore. They're looking at this huge
- 30:56financial scheme. So that changes everything.
- 31:00We're starting to get the whole picture.
- 31:03And to understand why GAIL was targeted, we also need to
- 31:06understand her role at the firm. So like we said, she was an
- 31:09office manager, she was a Donna Paulson and she had worked there
- 31:13for about 10 years. She oversaw real estate Closings
- 31:17and handling wire transfers. And so Long story short, GAIL
- 31:22had a lot of authority, more so than you might just, like
- 31:25anticipate an office manager. When you hear, I think that
- 31:29phrase, I think it can mean so many different things.
- 31:33She is handling a lot of money. Another reason why she's so
- 31:37trustworthy. You know, she has a big job.
- 31:39She's got a big responsibility. And there's very few people that
- 31:44have the permission and authority to make these kinds of
- 31:48movements of money. So there was another employee at
- 31:51the firm, her name is Tracy Jones.
- 31:53She did not have that authority to handle wire transfers without
- 31:57explicit permission, but she had been trained to complete wire
- 32:01transfers and had done them before when she was authorized.
- 32:06So she knew enough to understand the system.
- 32:08She knew what needed to happen. She knew Gail's role, she knew
- 32:11Gail's access, and she knew GAIL could be an obstacle.
- 32:15So now we know this is not somebody just stumbling into
- 32:19Gail's house in the middle of the night like I want to steal a
- 32:20car, this is, or somebody who just wants to assault somebody.
- 32:24This is. There's a lot more going on.
- 32:28So the plan was built around GAIL not being at work.
- 32:31Now, I had read in multiple places and heard in the episode
- 32:38of Your Worst Nightmare that I watched that there was some
- 32:42tension between Tracy and GAIL. They had hired Tracy to actually
- 32:49relieve some of the duties of GAIL because she was really
- 32:52overworked. And she was super excited.
- 32:55GAIL was really excited to have Tracy because Tracy had previous
- 32:57experience at a law firm. She's like, wait, this girl can
- 33:00just come in and hit the ground running.
- 33:03And that was not what happened. She essentially had to redo
- 33:05Tracy's work a bunch because it just wasn't good.
- 33:08And she kept on giving her feedback.
- 33:10And this girl was just did not care.
- 33:14But Tracy was kind of well liked at the firm.
- 33:17That's what it seemed like. And so GAIL kind of, they just
- 33:21had a little bit of tension. Yeah.
- 33:24What age is Tracy? That's a great question because
- 33:29the way you're describing I, I would assume a little bit
- 33:32younger, but maybe with the experience, no.
- 33:37She was younger for sure. She was 38 years old.
- 33:43OK Yeah, she was definitely younger than GAIL.
- 33:46So getting back to Gail's house on Friday morning, October 5th,
- 33:51she's not dressed for work yet. She's most likely just getting
- 33:53ready for the day and somebody comes and knocks on her door and
- 33:57it's her Co worker Tracy Jones. Tracy asked to use Gail's
- 34:02bathroom and she asked for something to drink.
- 34:04She asked to use Gail's phone and GAIL let's her in because
- 34:08obviously why wouldn't she? It's weird because they're not
- 34:11like close. But the whole story is that
- 34:14Tracy was dropping a friend off in the neighborhood and her car
- 34:17broke down and they had went out to lunch.
- 34:21Tracy had invited GAIL out to lunch previously.
- 34:24And GAIL already thought it was kind of weird because they're
- 34:28like not really close. And they actually had a little
- 34:31bit of tension and then, you know, they had lunch together,
- 34:33whatever. And within this, she was able to
- 34:36obtain her Gail's address and in the way that they displayed it
- 34:40in the your worst nightmare, which again, I don't know if
- 34:41it's factually accurate, but she's basically talking about
- 34:44Christmas cards. And she was saying, I'm finally
- 34:46going to do one this year. Like, what's your address?
- 34:48And I'll send one to you, something like that.
- 34:49So there was an innocuous way that she was able to get her
- 34:52address. Still, I bet like Gail's a
- 34:54little bit like what? But like, again, she's thinking
- 34:57this girl who's younger than me, like she's maybe she's trying to
- 35:00be better. She's trying to get better at
- 35:02her job. She's being nice, you know, And
- 35:04I, I've put in a lot of work to help her.
- 35:06Maybe she's finally appreciating it.
- 35:08And you're also probably not thinking like worst case
- 35:10scenario, like you just think, oh, would you just, yeah.
- 35:14Literally, we've all been fake nice to somebody at work.
- 35:18God knows I have. Gosh, it's literally in the job
- 35:20description at this point. God no.
- 35:22I had so many issues with this real estate agent for the buyers
- 35:27of my house and I saw her in the parking lot today and we were
- 35:31like, Oh my God, hi, how are you?
- 35:33Like, it was the fakest conversation I've ever been a
- 35:35part of. But again, you just do it 'cause
- 35:37like, you don't think anything of it.
- 35:40GAIL is a nice person, so she lets her in, obviously.
- 35:44And while Tracy's in the bathroom, she sends a text
- 35:47message to two men waiting nearby, her then boyfriend,
- 35:51Michael Brett Kelly and Keith Anthony Dozier.
- 35:55The message says that she has made it inside.
- 35:58Then GAIL goes to her bedroom to get dressed for work.
- 36:00Tracy is in the kitchen. She's sipping a drink and
- 36:03holding Gail's cell phone. And then two masked men come
- 36:07into the house, Brett Kelly and Keith Dozier.
- 36:10He goes by Brett. They're wearing masks and
- 36:12gloves. They check the house to make
- 36:14sure nobody else is there. And then Brett Kelly goes into
- 36:16Gail's bedroom. He grabs her.
- 36:18He puts a gun to her face, and he warns her not to talk or to
- 36:21scream. Now, Tracy is able to leave at
- 36:24that point. So she leaves once she knows
- 36:27that everything is secure. They've gotten in and they
- 36:30weren't, you know, suspected. She makes sure nobody's kind of
- 36:32looking around, and she ends up going to work.
- 36:35Oh, my gosh. Because she has to keep a cover,
- 36:37right? You know, And she has these two
- 36:39men that are going to take care of it.
- 36:40You'll see GAIL in during this time.
- 36:45GAIL is bound with duct tape. She's held inside her own home
- 36:49while Tracy leaves. Tracy goes to work, so she knows
- 36:53like she's going to work knowing that GAIL is scared out of her
- 36:57mind being just captured and and taken hostage.
- 37:02I I don't know how you do that. Not at all.
- 37:06Yeah, so Tracy uses Gail's phone to text the attorney and say
- 37:11that GAIL is sick. So that's where that text comes
- 37:14from. I see.
- 37:15OK. And the plan, according to court
- 37:18records, was that the money would go into accounts held by
- 37:21Courtney Kelly. Courtney Kelly is Brett Kelly's
- 37:24half sister. So there's now three people
- 37:27involved in this whole entire scheme, or, sorry, four.
- 37:31We got Courtney Kelly, Brett Kelly, Brett Kelly dating Tracy
- 37:37and then Anthony Dozier, who's just a friend.
- 37:40So their plan was that the whole group would split the proceeds.
- 37:44The first transfer transfers are huge and it's estimated around
- 37:50$885,000 transferred out while GAIL is being held at home.
- 37:56According to the trial testimony, Dozier was supposed
- 37:58to receive 300 K of the money and the rest was supposed to be
- 38:01split among Tracy, Brett and Courtney.
- 38:04But money doesn't really move the way that I think these
- 38:07people seem to think it does. Banks have holds, transfers have
- 38:12timing, accounts have delays. I mean, how many times have I
- 38:15been like transfer from my accounts and I need this money
- 38:18right now and no, I have to pay an extra fee that they only done
- 38:21that recently. I feel like that it used to just
- 38:23be delayed and now you can pay an extra fee to have it really
- 38:25quickly. So this, I think it's just like
- 38:30compounding greed. You start to get money.
- 38:33But they have stopped at $885,000.
- 38:35Yeah, they could have totally stopped there, but they don't
- 38:37want to stop. They see the money rolling in.
- 38:40And so I think it all just creates this building tension,
- 38:43and they start to turn on each other.
- 38:45This is where the details become graphic.
- 38:49GAIL was terrified in his police interview.
- 38:53Keith Dozier would later tell detectives that GAIL was shaking
- 38:56so badly, he thought she might die of a heart attack or stroke.
- 39:01I'm actually going to, in the episode, play some of the
- 39:04interrogation audio trying something new.
- 39:08But I think it's really powerful to hear it and it's it's just,
- 39:12it's different hearing a story and then hearing it from the
- 39:15actual mouth of the killer. We went in.
- 39:22We went in. I went down the hallway to make
- 39:26sure nobody else was there. OK, Brett to go ahead.
- 39:30Brett went there, grabbed her and nothing, put a gun to her
- 39:38face, told her not to say anything, don't scream or
- 39:41nothing. Then Tracy walked out.
- 39:43I've done this before. Brett knew everything.
- 39:49He told he he got duct tape, tied her up.
- 39:57She was so scared, she was shaking so bad, thought she was
- 40:03going to die from a heart attack or a stroke or something.
- 40:09It's just like, what do you want?
- 40:10You know, I don't have much I give you.
- 40:12I want. I was behind her.
- 40:19I just kept rubbing my shoulders like, I'm sorry.
- 40:21I just had to be you just guessing.
- 40:25Please don't let him kill me. And I was like, I'm trying my
- 40:28best. I'm gonna try.
- 40:32He said that he rubbed her shoulders and apologized for
- 40:34what was happening, but he didn't save her.
- 40:38Brett Kelly was the one with the gun.
- 40:41Brett Kelly is going to be the most violent, sadistic of the
- 40:45two. Dozier almost seemed to have
- 40:49empathy for her. You know, he, he was actually
- 40:53apologizing to her. Brett Kelly comes back in with a
- 40:56gun, and Dozier would later say that Brett told him to stay out
- 41:00of the bedroom for several minutes.
- 41:02At some point, GAIL came out of the bedroom shaking even more.
- 41:06And then Dozier said he overheard Brett say on the
- 41:07phone. I might have to kill her.
- 41:10Brett Kelly then told Dozier he had forced GAIL to perform a sex
- 41:13act on him. After that, according to Dozier,
- 41:17Brett asked GAIL if she would stay quiet After they left.
- 41:21He threatened to kill her grandchildren.
- 41:23And I mean, she had personal information all around the
- 41:26house. They could have easily found the
- 41:27address. GAIL pleaded for her life, also
- 41:31pleaded for her grandchildren's lives.
- 41:33Dozier said he told Brett that there was no reason to kill her.
- 41:36She did not know who they were and she did not know why they
- 41:39needed to be there. Dozier was essentially trying to
- 41:43get Brett to chill and Brett told him to stand watch from
- 41:50another room. So he did, and Dozier heard a
- 41:54struggle. He heard GAIL screaming, and
- 41:57according to Dozier, he heard her say, you promised, you
- 42:01promised, you promised. Then Brett ran into the kitchen.
- 42:06He came back with a black plastic bag.
- 42:09And when Brett came out of the bedroom again, GAIL was dead.
- 42:13The medical examiner would later testify that GAIL died of
- 42:15asphyxia. As we talked about, the medical
- 42:18examiner explained that in a death like Gail's, a person may
- 42:21lose consciousness after two or three minutes.
- 42:23That means it wasn't instant. You know, it wasn't super fast.
- 42:27It's thinking about strangling. It's like I've heard serial
- 42:30killers talk about strangling as like it's way harder than you
- 42:35think it is and it's way longer than you think it is, which is
- 42:38just horrifying. I mean, again, Gail's sister in
- 42:41this interview, like, you could just, you could tell that her
- 42:45sister had unfortunately really thought about the fear that GAIL
- 42:51was experiencing right before she died.
- 42:54It was just very evident in the way she talked about it, which
- 42:56is something nobody should ever have to think about with their
- 42:58loved 1. You know, like, losing a loved
- 43:01one is hard enough for natural causes than to think, you know,
- 43:03what they went through in their final moments is just horrible.
- 43:07Yeah. It's like sickening.
- 43:08Yeah, it's like I your mind obviously can go there so
- 43:13easily, but it's yeah, that's horrible.
- 43:17Terrible. Around 4:00 PM, Brett Kelly and
- 43:21Keith Dozier leave Gail's house. GAIL is dead in her bed.
- 43:25Her home is quiet. The thermostat is down, the
- 43:27lights are still on. And outside of Gail's house,
- 43:30life in the neighborhood is just the same.
- 43:33Do we know anything about why the thermostat was turned down?
- 43:37Was it to try and? Slow decomposition, Yeah, they
- 43:41did that before they left to slow decomp.
- 43:43Were they, I wonder, was it the intention to do that so it would
- 43:47throw off like the timeline for? I think that, I think also, I
- 43:51think that they thought they had a lot more time before they were
- 43:55going to get caught and we'll get into it in a little bit, but
- 43:58they really were planning on getting the heck out of dodge.
- 44:02What's the phrase get get out of dodge?
- 44:08No, she speaks in Spanish. No say get the hell out of
- 44:13Dodge. Commenters, listeners, please
- 44:17comment below. Tell me what the phrase is is.
- 44:19That a phrase. Yeah, something get the
- 44:21something out of Dodge. OK, fine.
- 44:23We're at a point where I'm looking it up.
- 44:25OK, I know what you're talking about, but I can't say I've ever
- 44:28used. Get out of dodge.
- 44:30It's an idiom meaning to leave a place quickly.
- 44:34Well, would you look at that. OK, Even after GAIL is dead,
- 44:41obviously the money is still the focus of all of this.
- 44:44The transfers have been made. Everybody is expecting a cut.
- 44:47But Courtney Kelly, the person whose accounts actually received
- 44:51the money, leaves town before the money can be divided.
- 44:55That creates another problem for the group because now the people
- 44:57who were willing to hold GAIL hostage and leave her dead in
- 45:01her home are angry that they have not been paid.
- 45:04So in the days after Gail's murder, Dozier goes to Tracy's
- 45:06house multiple times asking for his cut.
- 45:10Brett even takes Dozier to an ATM to show him the money is not
- 45:13yet available. And then Tracy does something
- 45:15else. On Monday, October 9th, after
- 45:17GAIL has already been found, Tracy makes another series of
- 45:21unauthorized wire transfers. 2 more transfers, one for 245,000
- 45:27and one for 163,000 and that brings the total stolen to just
- 45:31under 1.3 million. So it's not like they panicked
- 45:36after the murder and completely stopped and they regretted their
- 45:39actions. Nothing like that.
- 45:40They keep going there after that.
- 45:42They're like, we're going to keep getting money even though
- 45:45you know they already had money. I don't know if Courtney was
- 45:48expecting to then transfer the money later.
- 45:51I have no clue if she was just truly just trying to run with
- 45:53the money. No clue.
- 45:55But they were freaking out. And not long after Gail's body
- 45:58is found, investigators receive a tip someone Brett Kelly had
- 46:03tried to recruit into. The plan goes to police.
- 46:06That tip leads investigators to Brett, and then Brett leads him
- 46:09to Tracy and Keith. This is where the suspects begin
- 46:13to completely unfold. There's Tracy Jones, Gail's Co
- 46:16worker, the person who had access to the office, who knew
- 46:19the financial system, so knew Gail's role and was able to get
- 46:22inside Gail's home. Then there's Michael Brett
- 46:25Kelly, Tracy's then boyfriend. He's only 18 at the time.
- 46:29I did not realize that. I totally forgot about that.
- 46:31Excuse me, 18 at the time and she was 38.
- 46:35Oh my goodness. Oh.
- 46:37OK wow, honestly did not see that.
- 46:39Coming. I totally did not pick up on
- 46:42that. Not not that I should be
- 46:45reacting in real time to my story, but that's crazy.
- 46:48OK, even worse. Wait a second, let me just ask,
- 46:55what do we know? I'm assuming keeping GAIL at the
- 47:01house was allowing Tracy to then be like take her role for the
- 47:08day? Like is that?
- 47:09Exactly. Exactly.
- 47:11And then she was able to not get caught.
- 47:13Like if GAIL was there, she would note she's the one
- 47:17monitoring all of that stuff. She would notice that the wire
- 47:20transfers were happening. She would notice she'd be
- 47:22getting notifications from banks and all of that stuff.
- 47:25So like she would be the the connector between all of this.
- 47:28So if they remove the connector, then there's nobody that
- 47:31actually understands what's going on and probably isn't even
- 47:34Privy to it until you get people that are angry that Closings
- 47:37aren't happening and that's kind of what happens.
- 47:39And then they start to figure everything out.
- 47:42We also have Courtney Kelly, as we said, Brett's half sister
- 47:45accounts were created by her to receive the stolen funds.
- 47:48And then Keith Dozier, who's accused of being inside Gail's
- 47:51home and helping hold her hostage and standing watch while
- 47:55Brett killed her. Again.
- 47:57According to them, the early arrests happened very quickly.
- 48:01Michael Brett Kelly, Tracy Jones and Courtney Kelly are arrested
- 48:04first, and then Keith Dozier is arrested shortly after.
- 48:09Divers even searched part of and I looked at the pronunciation,
- 48:12it's Ichikani Creek, Ichikani Creek, Ichikani Creek.
- 48:20There you go. I hope people in Georgia, I
- 48:23pronounced that right. Please let me know our Georgia
- 48:25listeners. Divers even searched this Creek
- 48:30in connection with the case. What are they looking for?
- 48:42Because they already found, you know?
- 48:45I can't believe you just clogged me like that.
- 48:48Why did they search the Greek? Honestly sometimes I feel like
- 48:53chapters and stuff that's not true.
- 48:55Rose and random shit and I'm like dude, I OK yeah not to
- 49:01reveal our secrets. I feel like it makes us look
- 49:02super lazy. Yeah.
- 49:05Public reporting does not actually say what the police
- 49:07were looking for. They said that.
- 49:10I wonder if it's maybe supplies. OK, I don't know.
- 49:15It doesn't say. OK like AI was going to say a
- 49:20weapon but it seems like. No, it was bad.
- 49:23Yeah. I don't know.
- 49:26That's really interesting. OK, Well, well, I'm Ichikoni
- 49:31Creek. I was going to say, I'm so glad
- 49:32you spent time learning how to pronounce it but not actually
- 49:35knowing anything about why they were looking there.
- 49:39Oh, my God, I didn't even think about that.
- 49:41That's wow. What a moment.
- 49:43OK. Gail's missing car is later
- 49:46found at Porterfield Baptist Church and taken in for
- 49:49processing. And then everything starts to
- 49:52unfold. We have a workplace betrayal, a
- 49:55hostage plot, a sexual assault, a murder and a theft scheme
- 49:58involving around $1.3 million. And one of the reasons that this
- 50:04case has such a strong paper trail is because jurors later
- 50:08watched part of Keith Dozer's interview with Macon police
- 50:11detectives. And at first, he's denying
- 50:13everything. He's actually on the phone with
- 50:16his wife in the interview room insisting he had nothing to do
- 50:19with it. We have a really interesting
- 50:22detective who, and I'm going to find his name because I don't
- 50:26know the lead detective on this. I'm going to pause.
- 50:29Is it Ichinini Creek, Sergeant? Yeah.
- 50:34How did you get? Maybe they were looking for her
- 50:35car by the Creek or something. Maybe.
- 50:37Oh, maybe. But why would they dive into the
- 50:40oh, because maybe they thought it drove it in.
- 50:43Yeah, to fully get rid of the evidence.
- 50:45We can go with that. OK, OK.
- 50:49One of the key investigators was Scott Chapman and I remember
- 50:52from the Your Worst Nightmare episode that they talked about
- 50:59his investigation style and how he would kind of adopt the
- 51:02language of and and mannerisms of the person that he was
- 51:07interrogating, which is really interesting.
- 51:09So he had like a thick southern, he did have a thick southern
- 51:11accent, but like some of these suspects like had really thick
- 51:16southern accents. You'll hear it when I play some
- 51:18of these audio of the interrogations.
- 51:20But or if like somebody said like dude or bro a lot, he would
- 51:27add that in. It's like mirroring exactly,
- 51:30exactly to make them feel a little more comfortable, I
- 51:33think, and then make them feel like they can tell stuff.
- 51:36And so in this interview, like in this interrogation, he does a
- 51:41really good job of basically his Keith Dozier's wife gives him an
- 51:48alibi. She says, he was with me all
- 51:50night, all day. There was no way that he could
- 51:53have done this. And the investigator comes down
- 51:59on Keith because he knows that this is not true.
- 52:03He basically tells him if you don't come clean right now, your
- 52:07wife is going to jail. I am making sure that I put her
- 52:11in jail for lying because we know you guys are lying, so you
- 52:16might as well come clean and then only you have to go to
- 52:18prison and she doesn't. He comes clean because he loves
- 52:21his wife supposedly. Again, sometimes I don't
- 52:25understand how people can be involved in this stuff and, and
- 52:28you know, anyways, so he does come clean.
- 52:32He tries to which a lot of criminals will do, they decenter
- 52:39themselves from the case. So and, and what happened?
- 52:42So he said I was there, but I didn't do anything.
- 52:45Like Brett was the one who escalated everything.
- 52:47Like I was just there to like get the passwords and get money
- 52:50or something, you know. And he said murder was never
- 52:53part of the plan. And he also said he was scared
- 52:55of Brett and he tried to talk him out of it.
- 52:57And how old is he as Brett's 18? Stop asking questions.
- 53:03I need to. I'm trying to think like if he's
- 53:07scared of him and he's 18, yeah. He was 23 years old.
- 53:12OK. Yeah, so.
- 53:16Married young. Yeah, apparently.
- 53:19And so, I mean, you can question a lot about this because how
- 53:24many times do we see when these criminals decide to separate
- 53:31themselves from the narrative? Yes.
- 53:33I was thinking the same thing, right, Because everything that
- 53:37you were sharing earlier from that day in the house, you know,
- 53:42him saying oh, like I went in the other room, like is that
- 53:46from his accounts that? That's all we have.
- 53:48Yeah, I mean, Brett corroborated the story, but yeah, that's
- 53:55that's what was pieced together based on their account.
- 53:57Of course, we only have them to to tell us what happened.
- 54:02Going over to Tracy Jones, she she really was kind of the lead
- 54:08in all of this, right? She worked with GAIL.
- 54:10She knew GAIL. She knew the office.
- 54:13She knew everything that she had to know to be able to do it.
- 54:16OK, so Tracy sucks. We know that all four people are
- 54:23eventually indicted, Keith, Tracy, Brett and Courtney.
- 54:29They're indicted for malice murder, multiple felony murder
- 54:32counts, aggravated assault with a handgun, burglary, false
- 54:36imprison, imprisonment, and theft by taking.
- 54:39Brett Kelly is also indicted for aggravated sodomy. 3 of the four
- 54:44do not take their chances at trial.
- 54:46I think they know they have pretty low likelihood of them
- 54:50actually getting good results. Oh, yeah.
- 54:52So Tracy, Courtney and Brett all plead guilty, and they have plea
- 54:58deals. So Brett Kelly pleads guilty and
- 55:01receives life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- 55:04Courtney Kelly, also excessive plea bargain, receives a life
- 55:07sentence but with the possibility of parole because
- 55:09she was, you know, the one that was orchestrating the money and
- 55:12all of it. But, you know, she wasn't
- 55:15actively involved in the murder. And then Tracy pleads guilty,
- 55:22receives life in prison without the possibility of Pearl.
- 55:25Now, Keith Dozier, someone who decides to go to trial, the one
- 55:28who was just there and it was never supposed to go that way.
- 55:33And he tried to talk him out of it.
- 55:35He basically was saying that he was coerced.
- 55:37That was his defense. It did not land with the jury.
- 55:41I'm not shocked. Yeah, they did not sympathize
- 55:45with him at all, and he ended up getting the harshest sentence
- 55:50that they could give him, which is full conviction of malice
- 55:54murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, burglary and
- 55:57theft, and sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 20
- 56:01years, which I don't even. That stuff never makes sense to
- 56:04me. It's like life in prison without
- 56:06parole plus 20 years. What?
- 56:08So he got an additional 20 because.
- 56:11They hated him, I guess. Yeah, they were like, thanks for
- 56:12putting us through this bullshit.
- 56:14Yeah, they were like, you should have taken the plea deal and
- 56:15saved us all some time. Yeah, apparently.
- 56:18Bibb County Superior Court Judge Trip Self.
- 56:22What a sentence. I just said that wasn't even a
- 56:24sentence, but yes, that is the mouthful says he had.
- 56:31But yes, that is a mouthful. The hell.
- 56:41That is a mouthful. That is the mouthful.
- 56:52OK, what I'm about to say is actually really terrible, but
- 56:57that is funny. Judge Trip Self says that he had
- 57:01trouble sleeping after being in the room while jurors watched
- 57:04Dozier's video statement. His quote is, I don't think I've
- 57:07ever heard anything more awful. He talks about how Dozier stood
- 57:11watch while GAIL was being killed, which was about 20
- 57:14minutes. And then the judge even said
- 57:16that's a television show without commercials, which is, like,
- 57:20puts it into perspective. You have that long to, like,
- 57:23think about it and to stop it and to do something.
- 57:25Yeah. So that's why I'm like, not
- 57:26buying that. No, I'm not buying it you 20
- 57:29minutes and not even not buying it even if you of course, you're
- 57:32an adult. You made a terrible decision.
- 57:36You know, like whatever coercion to me is an abused woman, an
- 57:43abused man, an abused like person in relationship and they
- 57:48threaten loved ones if they don't do XYZ or a child does
- 57:52something, you know, helps their abuser abuse other people.
- 57:56Like, you've heard so many stories of that, where to me
- 57:58that's coercion, where you really feel like you did not
- 58:02have a choice, but you entered that house, Keith.
- 58:05He did it to get money. He did to.
- 58:08Get money. And at the end of the day, he
- 58:09didn't care what happened to make that happen.
- 58:12Like you can't say that you did because you had 20 minutes to
- 58:15stop it and and you didn't. And even longer like.
- 58:19Even longer for when the entire time he was.
- 58:21There, Yeah. Exactly, he literally commented
- 58:24on how she reminded him of his grandmother in one of the
- 58:29interrogations. It was either him or Brad Kelly,
- 58:31but I'm pretty sure it was him. Yeah.
- 58:33And oh God, it like may be disgusted.
- 58:36Keith. One of his states statements was
- 58:39on October 5th. I was a coward because I didn't
- 58:41stop Mr. Kelly and the way that whole thing I was a coward
- 58:47because I didn't stop Mr. Kelly. Like it just feels the amount of
- 58:51displacement of blame is just like crazy.
- 58:54Like he's trying to come off. I feel like as wow, I, I really
- 58:59was terrible, you know, I totally regret it.
- 59:01And even even if he does, even if there's a part of him that
- 59:04does, you can't, you can't take it back.
- 59:08You killed a 50 year old, 58 year old woman who had
- 59:11grandchildren that she'll never get to see grow up.
- 59:14Later, Dozier appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court reviews
- 59:18his case. But he they affirmed the
- 59:20convictions. So to close this out, it's a lot
- 59:28of bad people making bad decisions and unfortunately a an
- 59:33innocent loved, trusted woman was taken way too soon. 58 years
- 59:39old is so young. That is the case of GAIL Spencer
- 59:44and it's terrible, crazy, wild. As I we always say crazy and
- 59:52wild, but truly it was Oh my God, it like absolutely just
- 59:57like hurts me inside to think about this poor woman who in her
- 1:00:02final moments was just in pure fear.
- 1:00:05Yeah, and like confusion, like. Confusion.
- 1:00:07So what did I do? And the quote of like you
- 1:00:11promised, you promised you promised is just like heart
- 1:00:15wrenching. I, I don't a part of me wonders
- 1:00:20if when criminals get into situations like this and they
- 1:00:25and it escalates to murder, does it really just feel like there's
- 1:00:28no way out? I think it's different every
- 1:00:30time. Like some people like truly, I
- 1:00:32think find that they like, you know, being sadistic and, and,
- 1:00:36you know, enacting the murder. But I also feel like there is a,
- 1:00:43a clear psychological pattern of like escalation.
- 1:00:47Because often times when you get people that are putting
- 1:00:50themselves in a really intense situation that doesn't have
- 1:00:54great outcomes and it's like you're pretty likely to not have
- 1:00:57a great outcome that it pushes people to do terrible things.
- 1:01:02Not saying that they aren't terrible people, but more so
- 1:01:04like I'm interested in the psychology behind, you know, how
- 1:01:07do things escalate to this? When somebody who did not need
- 1:01:11to be killed, was it purely Brett Kelly is a sociopath, A
- 1:01:14psychopath? Or is there something else that
- 1:01:17kind of when we're in a group, when we're doing something
- 1:01:22terrible that just somehow escalates the situation.
- 1:01:26I don't know. It's just hard for me to fathom
- 1:01:28that you're going in to steal money and then all of a sudden
- 1:01:30you end up sexually assaulting and murdering a 50 year old
- 1:01:32woman. It like doesn't make sense in my
- 1:01:34brain. Yeah, I have to think that.
- 1:01:36I mean, I would guess just based off of his interactions with
- 1:01:42her, I feel like there had to be all along some intention that he
- 1:01:49was going to do that. Like I just.
- 1:01:50That's what they argued, that he was always going to kill her.
- 1:01:53Yes, I, that's what I think. Obviously, I would like to
- 1:01:58actually like look at this a little bit more, but we're like
- 1:02:02just hearing this today, I would have guessed that again, I'm
- 1:02:07just like Tracy, like even if you eliminated the one person
- 1:02:14that day who you know would have their hands on it and would see
- 1:02:17what's going on, you didn't think you were ever going to get
- 1:02:21caught. Like these are the things that I
- 1:02:22just. It is insane to me that these
- 1:02:25people think that they're not going to get caught.
- 1:02:27I think just the people who orchestrate things like this,
- 1:02:30they think they're smarter than everybody else and they think
- 1:02:33they're going to get away with it.
- 1:02:34It like there has to be something innate that makes them
- 1:02:38feel like they are above everybody else because how do
- 1:02:42you? Well, clearly, yeah.
- 1:02:44How do you overcome logic? Yeah, logic shows that the
- 1:02:47likelihood that you're going to get caught, it's pretty high,
- 1:02:51especially in today's day and age.
- 1:02:52Like, what is going through your head anyways?
- 1:02:57I my love goes out to her family, her son and her
- 1:03:01grandchildren and her sisters and her whole entire family.
- 1:03:06She seems like a really great woman.
- 1:03:08So thank you everybody for listening to this longer
- 1:03:13episode. But definitely worth it if you
- 1:03:16have heard some tippy taps throughout the episode.
- 1:03:19We have three dogs in our midst right now and they say hi.
- 1:03:28OK, bye guys. Have a great Memorial Day
- 1:03:31weekend. I think this is coming out
- 1:03:32around then, so really hope you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend.
- 1:03:36Bye guys, See you later. That's it for today's episode.
- 1:03:42Thank you for listening. If you're loving the show or
- 1:03:45hating it, make sure to follow us on Spotify and our social
- 1:03:47media. And if you want even more
- 1:03:49content, you can join us over on Patreon at Probation Behavior.
- 1:03:53New episodes are released every Thursday.
- 1:03:56Thank you. GAIL Spencer lives on
- 1:04:04Stinsonville Road, in a house that looks like the kind of
- 1:04:07place where someone has built a life.
- 1:04:09Nope. I hated that.
- 1:04:15OK. OK, he's bad.
- 1:04:22OK.