Latest / Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast / [South Carolina] Murder in The Little Pee Dee River

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[South Carolina] Murder in The Little Pee Dee River · Bless This Mess: A Southern True Crime Podcast

0:20
Speaker 1: Hey, everywhile, welcome to bless This Messa, the True Crump Podcast.
0:23
Speaker 1: O'mka here with Stu sa Hays do hey? All right,
0:25
Speaker 1: we are back. So grab yourself a mason jar stew
0:28
Speaker 1: got one, and settle into your rocking chair and lock
0:31
Speaker 1: those back doors, because tonight we're heading to the Carolina
0:35
Speaker 1: coast to Myrtle Beach, Conway and the dark waters of
0:38
Speaker 1: the Little p D River.
0:40
Speaker 2: Stew, Oh, not the Little PD.
0:42
Speaker 1: This is a story of a father of five who
0:44
Speaker 1: vanished a tangled love triangle with a deputy corner and
0:48
Speaker 1: a body wrapped in a tarp and weighed down with
0:50
Speaker 1: cinderblocks in the Blackwater River.
0:53
Speaker 2: That don't sound good.
0:54
Speaker 1: This episode, we're talking about Meghan Jackson, a mother from
0:58
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach area, her ex Gregory Rice, the father of
1:01
Speaker 1: her four of her kids, and a man named Christopher
1:05
Speaker 1: don Tell who just happened to be a deputy corner.
1:08
Speaker 1: When love, resentment and professional power collide, the results can
1:12
Speaker 1: be deadly. Ooh, so let's pour ourselves to drink and
1:16
Speaker 1: deep dive into this one now. Before we get into it, though,
1:20
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2:59
Speaker 2: Our h our monthly grocery budget.
3:01
Speaker 1: Yes, because eating out is very expensive. We don't eat
3:04
Speaker 1: out that often because it is expensive, and it just
3:08
Speaker 1: after a while you do much of fast food, I
3:09
Speaker 1: feel like that you just don't feel good, you know,
3:11
Speaker 1: you don't sell good, like like, who's making this food?
3:14
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3:29
Speaker 1: your Mason Jars, let's get into it.
3:31
Speaker 2: Let's do it.
3:32
Speaker 1: Yes, heading over to South Carolina, let's start with the
3:36
Speaker 1: family at the center of this story. Gregory vincent Rice
3:40
Speaker 1: was a forty six year old father of five living
3:42
Speaker 1: in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina. Four of
3:46
Speaker 1: those children he shared with his ex girlfriend, Meghan Jackson.
3:49
Speaker 1: Friends and relatives described Greg as a loving, involved dad,
3:53
Speaker 1: someone who, even when his relationship with Megan was rocky,
3:57
Speaker 1: kept showing up for his kids.
3:59
Speaker 2: Especially went in the next one. He never married this woman.
4:01
Speaker 1: No, he did not marry her. They were just longtime
4:05
Speaker 1: partners and managed four children. It's like I mean, I
4:09
Speaker 1: guess Goldie.
4:10
Speaker 2: Hawn never married Kurt Russell.
4:11
Speaker 1: Kurt Russell, so maybe it was that kind of situation that.
4:14
Speaker 2: They were just blissfully happy a lot of piece of paper.
4:16
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think there was anything blissful about it.
4:18
Speaker 2: Now, as we will find out here in a moment.
4:21
Speaker 1: Yes, like right now, when you start, when I.
4:24
Speaker 2: Start telling you about that, that they had a rocky relationship, Carol,
4:28
Speaker 2: Greg and Megan had been together, they'd broken up, gotten
4:31
Speaker 2: back together, broken up, gotten back together.
4:34
Speaker 1: Okay, we get it, we get it.
4:36
Speaker 2: On and on. They finally settled into that not really
4:39
Speaker 2: together but forever connected zone that a lot of co
4:44
Speaker 2: parents know too well.
4:46
Speaker 1: They gotta get gotta get along for the kids, or
4:49
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to at least see each other for
4:50
Speaker 1: the children, because there's high school graduations, there's birthdays, there's weddings,
4:55
Speaker 1: there's funerals, maybe somebody's funeral.
4:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, gotta go. And if it's too contentious, then you
5:02
Speaker 2: got to go to the State Troopers office to your
5:04
Speaker 2: swapoversah with the child for your visitations or their visitations
5:09
Speaker 2: or whatever you're doing. They lived near near each other
5:12
Speaker 2: in Arrowhead community, just outside Martle Beach, and all the
5:16
Speaker 2: history between them never really evaporated.
5:19
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lingering situation. If you've been together that
5:23
Speaker 1: long with four children, there's probably some lingering. It's less
5:27
Speaker 1: so whenever. Maybe you had one child and then you
5:29
Speaker 1: split because you were like this this isn't working. But
5:31
Speaker 1: if you had four children, there's some sort of love
5:34
Speaker 1: that kept bringing you back together, you know, last or lost.
5:38
Speaker 1: There was something pulling them towards each other, that voodoo. Yes, yes,
5:42
Speaker 1: by twenty twenty. They were no longer partners in romance,
5:45
Speaker 1: but they were still partners in parenting. That meant custody
5:48
Speaker 1: exchanges texts about pickups and drop offs, arguments, compromises, all
5:53
Speaker 1: the messy logistics of raising kids together after the love
5:56
Speaker 1: story has ended, and in that emotional situation, and it
6:00
Speaker 1: stepped a third person, a deputy corner named Christopher dontel.
6:05
Speaker 2: Do tell you do till I will tell. Christopher had
6:09
Speaker 2: been working in Harry Horry County, foreshadowing much as a
6:16
Speaker 2: deputy coroner for years.
6:17
Speaker 1: I would have just renamed the county from Hory.
6:22
Speaker 2: It's not spelled w h O no, but still. I mean.
6:26
Speaker 2: His job was to investigate deaths, look at bodies, understand wounds,
6:31
Speaker 2: and help determine cause and manner of death. He knew
6:34
Speaker 2: crime scenes, he knew how investigators think, and at some
6:38
Speaker 2: point he and Megan started an affair. So now you
6:41
Speaker 2: have the three adults in the picture. You got Greg
6:44
Speaker 2: devoted dad, Megan the X with four kids with him,
6:47
Speaker 2: and don tell, the coroner who knew his way around
6:52
Speaker 2: death murder.
6:55
Speaker 1: Was okay with dead bodies. On October second, Greg Ryan
7:00
Speaker 1: was last seen alive a few days later, on October fifth,
7:04
Speaker 1: he was officially reported missing out of Myrtle Beach. His
7:07
Speaker 1: disappearance didn't fit his pattern. This was not a man
7:10
Speaker 1: who just walked off from his children and vanished.
7:14
Speaker 2: Now, so law enforcement quickly responded. Detectives from Horry County
7:19
Speaker 2: and Marion County started building a timeline, phone records, cell
7:24
Speaker 2: site data, surveillance, video, and witness statements. One thing that
7:28
Speaker 2: really stood out later when the case went to trial
7:31
Speaker 2: was how fast the alleged crime took place. The state
7:34
Speaker 2: would eventually argue that from the moment Greg went into
7:37
Speaker 2: his garage to the moment he was dead and his
7:40
Speaker 2: body was being moved, the whole thing happened in about
7:45
Speaker 2: six minutes. Kara, about the time it takes to make
7:48
Speaker 2: a frozen bury too. In the mirth waves, I mean
7:52
Speaker 2: this is like.
7:52
Speaker 1: Quick, Okay, well that's quite the image you got there.
7:58
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, how fast is six minutes?
8:00
Speaker 1: It's just a lot less time than you took.
8:03
Speaker 2: To make four children. Yeah.
8:05
Speaker 1: Wow, you can't even fold laundry in that amount of times.
8:09
Speaker 1: Definitely not not, definitely not in this house, can't. Stu
8:14
Speaker 1: came back in. We had to pause and because he
8:17
Speaker 1: had to go mess with one of the children because
8:19
Speaker 1: we have four children.
8:20
Speaker 2: Well, I had to mess with three, four of them,
8:22
Speaker 2: four of them.
8:23
Speaker 1: He had messed all four of them.
8:24
Speaker 2: And he's like, well, no, I didn't mess with y.
8:26
Speaker 3: He's like, maybe Greg just decided to leave one day because.
8:31
Speaker 1: He couldn't even do anything with these four children.
8:34
Speaker 2: Podcast.
8:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, okaya, back on tracks, dude, this is not shoot sitting,
8:39
Speaker 1: sit in, bullshitting all right, all right, all right, So
8:42
Speaker 1: but in six minutes, according to the state, Megan Jackson
8:45
Speaker 1: lured Greg into his garage, shot him multiple times, and
8:49
Speaker 1: set into motion a plan to erase him from this planet.
8:53
Speaker 2: That's just cold and calculating, right there. Yes, And those
8:57
Speaker 2: early days, though nobody had that full picture of what
9:00
Speaker 2: was going on, family members were calling, texting, asking where
9:04
Speaker 2: Greg was. Megan herself told people that he was missing,
9:09
Speaker 2: he didn't come home, he wasn't answering, And behind those
9:13
Speaker 2: worried phone calls, investigators began to notice that Megan's story
9:17
Speaker 2: had some cracks in it, Kara.
9:20
Speaker 1: As they followed those cracks, they found something stunning. Megan
9:23
Speaker 1: wasn't just Greg's ex. She was romantically involved with Christopher Dantel,
9:28
Speaker 1: the deputy corner. That connection took the case from worrisome
9:32
Speaker 1: disappearance to this fight might be a murder with inside knowledge.
9:37
Speaker 1: On November eighth, twenty twenty, more than a month after
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Speaker 1: Greg was reported missing, why can't I talk?
9:43
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
9:44
Speaker 1: A fisherwoman, I like that. It's a fisherwoman.
9:47
Speaker 2: Stay fisherwoman.
9:48
Speaker 1: Yes. A fisherwoman on the Little Pde River near Pitt's
9:52
Speaker 1: Landing made a horrifying discovery. She saw something in the water,
9:57
Speaker 1: wrapped and weighed down.
10:00
Speaker 2: Peedee River is one of those Southern blackwater rivers. It's dark,
10:04
Speaker 2: slow winding, with cypress and hardwoods along the banks. People
10:08
Speaker 2: fish there, They float the river and they let the
10:10
Speaker 2: world slip away for a while as they do it.
10:13
Speaker 1: Like the Guadaloupe. Oh yeah, you never have you ever
10:15
Speaker 1: been to the Guadaloupe? No way we should go.
10:18
Speaker 2: I floated the A meet over there. Can't beat a
10:20
Speaker 2: meat Okay, get some, get you a cooler full of bears,
10:25
Speaker 2: and you just float the river. It's the kind of
10:27
Speaker 2: river that can keep a secret. But this time care
10:30
Speaker 2: of the secret surfaced.
10:32
Speaker 1: The object was recovered and unwrapped inside the tarp investigators
10:36
Speaker 1: found a human body weighed down with cinderblocks. Forensic work
10:41
Speaker 1: confirmed what Greg's family already feared. It was Gregory vincent Rice.
10:46
Speaker 1: He had been shot multiple times, at least five shots
10:49
Speaker 1: near his home before ending up in that river.
10:53
Speaker 2: Now, the water is not the scene of the murder.
10:55
Speaker 2: It was the attempted eraser of the murder. The killer
10:58
Speaker 2: or killers had tried to make Greg disappear physically. They
11:02
Speaker 2: tried to sink him to the bottom in the brown
11:04
Speaker 2: current and move on with their lives, but the river
11:07
Speaker 2: gave him back up, and that recovery changed the case altogether.
11:11
Speaker 2: Now police had a body with bullet wounds and physical
11:15
Speaker 2: evidence to work with.
11:17
Speaker 1: With Greg's body recovered, investigators dug even deeper into Meghan's life.
11:23
Speaker 1: They learned more about her relationship with Christopher Dntell. He
11:26
Speaker 1: wasn't just some casual boyfriend. He was married to another woman,
11:31
Speaker 1: and he worked in the very system that investigates suspicious deaths.
11:35
Speaker 2: So Christopher's just wigh in and out.
11:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and on top of that, he's cheating on his
11:40
Speaker 1: own wife. So and he's thrown himself in the mix
11:43
Speaker 1: of Meghan.
11:44
Speaker 2: And Greg somebody else relationship, Yes, the state would later
11:48
Speaker 2: say that Megan wanted to move forward with her life
11:51
Speaker 2: without Greg and the picture, at least not as an
11:54
Speaker 2: ex who still had legal and emotional leverage through their
11:58
Speaker 2: four children. They argue that she and Bountell had been
12:01
Speaker 2: having an affair for about a year and that Greg's
12:04
Speaker 2: existence was a problem for that relationship financially, emotionally, and practically.
12:11
Speaker 2: He was just a cog in the wheel that they
12:13
Speaker 2: need to get.
12:14
Speaker 3: Out of it.
12:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, some people just don't want that. Thank god they
12:18
Speaker 1: didn't hurt the children, because some people don't want that tie,
12:20
Speaker 1: you know, even if it's an X.
12:22
Speaker 2: That's Susan Smith thought she was gonna move on to
12:26
Speaker 2: that other fellow that didn't want children.
12:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, is that what happened with that series?
12:31
Speaker 2: When she drowned her children in the lake? Yes, she
12:34
Speaker 2: thought that she was going to get with an X
12:36
Speaker 2: of hers who is so?
12:38
Speaker 1: Oh that was Andrea Yates was the one who similar situation,
12:43
Speaker 1: but she was told by she was so I think
12:46
Speaker 1: she was suffering from postpart postpartum yes, all right. Text messages,
12:52
Speaker 1: call logs, and cell site data showed that Megan and
12:54
Speaker 1: Dantel were in close contact around the time Greg disappeared
12:58
Speaker 1: their phone's peing tower near the Arrowhead community, near Pitt's
13:02
Speaker 1: Landing and along the route between Greg's home and the river.
13:06
Speaker 1: The timeline suggested coordination between the two.
13:09
Speaker 2: Then there was the way Megan behaved after Greg vanished.
13:13
Speaker 2: She reported a missing but according to prosecutors, her tone
13:17
Speaker 2: and details drink did not match the genuine panic of
13:21
Speaker 2: somebody who doesn't know where the father of our children
13:24
Speaker 2: has gone. It matched someone who already knew that he
13:28
Speaker 2: was never coming back.
13:29
Speaker 1: Carea Now, as the evidence built, both Meghan Jackson and
13:34
Speaker 1: Christopher were arrested and charged. They faced counts of murder
13:39
Speaker 1: and criminal conspiracy, as well as related kidnapping and child
13:43
Speaker 1: neglect charges connected to the way Greg's children were affected
13:47
Speaker 1: and allegedly used.
13:48
Speaker 2: In the aftermath, bond became a roller coaster at different points,
13:53
Speaker 2: Megan was released under home detention, confined to her house monitored,
13:57
Speaker 2: and then brought back into custody after violating that detention.
14:02
Speaker 2: Christopher also saw his bond and freedom change as new
14:05
Speaker 2: evidence surfaced.
14:08
Speaker 1: All the while, Greg's family lived with the uncertainty, uncertainties,
14:13
Speaker 1: hard words. His children had lost their father. Now they're
14:18
Speaker 1: watching hearings, reading headlines, and seeing the adults in their
14:21
Speaker 1: lives described in court documents and news stories as suspects
14:25
Speaker 1: and conspirators. I mean, this is hard for these kids
14:29
Speaker 1: that have to watch their mom be You know.
14:33
Speaker 2: You've already got a fractured family. Yes, now you're just
14:36
Speaker 2: gonna watch everything you still have just blow up in
14:38
Speaker 2: real time. Greg's oldest child stepped into a parental role
14:43
Speaker 2: far too early, trying to help the younger siblings and
14:47
Speaker 2: hold everything together. When you look at the case, there
14:50
Speaker 2: are legal defendants and then there are the true victims.
14:53
Speaker 2: Those kids are going to, basically kara carry the psychology
14:57
Speaker 2: of the story for the rest of their lives. Now.
15:00
Speaker 1: In December twenty twenty four, nearly four years after Greg's disappearance,
15:05
Speaker 1: Christopher Dntell made a decision that changed the trajectory of
15:09
Speaker 1: the case. He took a plea deal. They always one
15:12
Speaker 1: of them always rolls on the yste don't be trusting nobody, Okay, aaker.
15:16
Speaker 2: Secret now between two people unless one of them is dead,
15:19
Speaker 2: that's right.
15:20
Speaker 1: I think there's a song called that he admitted to
15:23
Speaker 1: criminal conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact.
15:28
Speaker 2: That meant deal meant that the direct murder charge against
15:31
Speaker 2: him was dropped. Instead, he faced up to twenty years
15:36
Speaker 2: for helping orchestrate and cover up the killing. More importantly,
15:39
Speaker 2: he agreed to testify against Megan. He went from cod
15:43
Speaker 2: evnant to the star witness in the case.
15:46
Speaker 1: On the stand during Meghan's trial in June twenty twenty five,
15:50
Speaker 1: Dantell described the knight Greg died. He told the jury
15:53
Speaker 1: that he watched Megan shoot Greg, that she lured him
15:56
Speaker 1: into the garage and fired the shots while Greg still
15:58
Speaker 1: had a phone in his hand. Then he said he
16:01
Speaker 1: had to get rid of the body. End quotes.
16:06
Speaker 2: Those were his words. I had to get rid of
16:08
Speaker 2: the body. He described wrapping Gregg's remains in a tar,
16:12
Speaker 2: tying cinder blocks around him, and hauling the terrible burden
16:16
Speaker 2: out to the Little Pete River. From there, he said,
16:19
Speaker 2: they dumped the weighted body in the water, believing that
16:22
Speaker 2: it would sink and stay hidden forever.
16:25
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like old Christopher Dantell should know
16:29
Speaker 1: more about bodies and water being the gorse stuff that, Yes,
16:34
Speaker 1: things tend to rise, things tend to wash up on
16:37
Speaker 1: the shores.
16:38
Speaker 2: Yes, that the river may or may not give up
16:40
Speaker 2: its secrets. Yes, a lot of times they do.
16:43
Speaker 1: Dantell also, well, that is true because they say some
16:46
Speaker 1: of these rivers, if you really dredge them, you'd probably
16:48
Speaker 1: find a bunch of bodies.
16:50
Speaker 2: Yes.
16:51
Speaker 1: Dantell also claimed that Megan threatened him. In one version,
16:54
Speaker 1: he said she told him that if he didn't help her,
16:57
Speaker 1: she would kill him or run his life. Mag It's crazy, bitch.
17:01
Speaker 2: I can believe that.
17:02
Speaker 1: The defense would later challenge those statements, suggesting he had
17:06
Speaker 1: every reason to blame her and minimize his own role,
17:09
Speaker 1: which is true.
17:10
Speaker 2: Yes, But well, I don't know if he's got immunity
17:13
Speaker 2: in the thing or not immunity.
17:15
Speaker 1: But he's already accepted a plea deal. He made a
17:18
Speaker 1: save face with his family and friends and stuff.
17:21
Speaker 2: That he wasn't the trigger man and the deal. It's
17:24
Speaker 2: a powerful testimony when a former deputy coroner who understands
17:27
Speaker 2: death better than most sits in front of a jury
17:30
Speaker 2: and calmly explains how he helps send a body to
17:32
Speaker 2: the bottom of the river. That alone is the kind
17:35
Speaker 2: of details stick drink that sticks with jurors long after
17:40
Speaker 2: they leave the court room.
17:42
Speaker 1: Megan's murder trial began in June twenty twenty five in Conway,
17:46
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Jury selection focused heavily on whether potential jurors
17:50
Speaker 1: could handle graphic evidence, complicated relationships, and testimony from a
17:55
Speaker 1: co conspirator who'd made a deal.
17:58
Speaker 2: And the opening statements prosecutor laid out their theory that
18:01
Speaker 2: Megan orchestrated Greg's death, pulled the trigger, and then worked
18:05
Speaker 2: with Dantel to cover it up. The emphasized how quickly
18:09
Speaker 2: it happened, using the cell site data and other evidence.
18:13
Speaker 2: They argued that the physical physical killing inside the garage
18:16
Speaker 2: took about six minutes, including the time to walk in
18:20
Speaker 2: and walk out.
18:21
Speaker 1: They described the shots, one to Greg's head, others to
18:24
Speaker 1: his body. They told the jury about the blood evidence
18:27
Speaker 1: in the garage, the missing items from the home, and
18:30
Speaker 1: the way the tarp and cinder blocks had been used
18:32
Speaker 1: to turn Greg into a weighted package.
18:34
Speaker 2: For the river. The prosecution also leaned into the motive.
18:39
Speaker 2: They said that this was a tale as old as time,
18:42
Speaker 2: an affair, an ex who wouldn't go away in a
18:45
Speaker 2: desire for control. Removing Greg, they argued, gave Megan more
18:49
Speaker 2: freedom in her relationship with Dantell and more leverage in
18:53
Speaker 2: the lives of their Greg and her children.
18:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you can imagine whenever you share custody with
18:59
Speaker 1: someone and they're not like a totally terrible person, and
19:02
Speaker 1: they have shared custody, you can't move, you can't do anything. No,
19:05
Speaker 1: you really can't have the freedom that you want with
19:08
Speaker 1: your life. You have to compromise with that person. You
19:11
Speaker 1: have to live in the same area as long as
19:13
Speaker 1: that's what the court ordered. So she just sees Greg
19:17
Speaker 1: as an obstacle in all of this, and how.
19:19
Speaker 2: Do I get rid of him so that I can
19:21
Speaker 2: be happy.
19:22
Speaker 1: Witnesses walk the jury through the investigation. Detectives testified about
19:27
Speaker 1: the discovery of the body at Pitt's Landing, about the
19:30
Speaker 1: recovery of the tarp, and about the rope and concrete
19:32
Speaker 1: used a way down Greg. Forensic experts explained the wounds,
19:36
Speaker 1: the bullet trajectories, and why they believe the shots were
19:39
Speaker 1: fired at close range. So this was a up close
19:43
Speaker 1: and personal She hated Greg, and.
19:46
Speaker 2: He trusted her to get that close to him. Yes.
19:49
Speaker 2: Then came the emotional testimony. Members of Greg's family, including
19:53
Speaker 2: his children, described what it meant to lose him and
19:56
Speaker 2: how their lives had changed. The prosecutor red statement it's
20:00
Speaker 2: about lives completely shattered, and push for the maximum sentence,
20:04
Speaker 2: saying Greg's kids would never get their father back, so
20:07
Speaker 2: Megan shouldn't get her freedom back either.
20:12
Speaker 1: Megan's defense team tried to turn the focus back on Dauntel.
20:16
Speaker 1: They argued that while Meghan's affair was immoral affairs themselves,
20:20
Speaker 1: they're not crimes. They suggested that the state had improved
20:24
Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt that she was the actual shooter,
20:26
Speaker 1: and that Dantell had more knowledge and opportunity than he
20:30
Speaker 1: was admitting, because you got to convince somebody that he's
20:32
Speaker 1: not just he didn't actually do it, and be like,
20:34
Speaker 1: let me just blame her so I can get a
20:36
Speaker 1: little bit better deal.
20:37
Speaker 2: I can get out it, I can get parole at
20:38
Speaker 2: some point. Yes, I'll have an end date to my
20:41
Speaker 2: prison term, maybe some parole earlier than that.
20:44
Speaker 1: She should have flipped first. You know, you got to
20:46
Speaker 1: toever flip if you get yourself in these situations. Okay,
20:49
Speaker 1: you flip first, All right, Yes, you take.
20:52
Speaker 2: The police, especially if you're if you can, if there's
20:54
Speaker 2: any gray area, yes that they won't be able to
20:56
Speaker 2: put it on you. Not that we're telling you how
20:59
Speaker 2: to get away.
20:59
Speaker 1: No, they're not telling you. We're just saying the decisions
21:02
Speaker 1: you should make if you get yourself in this situation.
21:05
Speaker 2: The defense attacked Dantell's credibility on cross exam cross examination.
21:11
Speaker 2: They walked him through his plea deal, highlighting that his
21:14
Speaker 2: own martyr charge had vanished once he agreed to testify.
21:18
Speaker 2: They implied that he might have reasons to distort the
21:21
Speaker 2: story to make Megan seem like the mastermind and make
21:25
Speaker 2: himself seem like the reluctant helper.
21:29
Speaker 1: And also, remember, ladies, that he might love you in
21:32
Speaker 1: the moment, but he done. He's sitting there on that
21:35
Speaker 1: stand looking at Megan and being like that bitch did it.
21:39
Speaker 2: He don't want his only pleasure to be a fiefee.
21:42
Speaker 2: Oh for the rest of his life.
21:44
Speaker 1: Jesus my God. Anyways. They also suggested that some of
21:49
Speaker 1: the timeline evidence was open to interpretation. Could certain phae
21:53
Speaker 1: pings have reflected slightly different movements. Could the six minute
21:56
Speaker 1: window be off? They urged yours to consider the possibility
22:00
Speaker 1: of reasonable doubt that perhaps the state's neat narrative hit
22:03
Speaker 1: a more complicated truth, because all you got to do
22:06
Speaker 1: is get that little bit of doubt.
22:08
Speaker 2: It's a reasonable in one person's head. But when you
22:11
Speaker 2: combine Dontell's testimony with the physical evidence Gregg's body in
22:15
Speaker 2: the river, the tarp, the cinder blocks, the bullets, and
22:18
Speaker 2: the relationship trail, the jury ultimately saw a pattern. It
22:23
Speaker 2: wasn't just one man's word, it was multiple threads weaving
22:27
Speaker 2: together that made them believe Megan was guilty.
22:33
Speaker 3: Oh Kat.
22:35
Speaker 1: After days of testimony and arguments, the case went to
22:37
Speaker 1: the jury. They deliberated for only a short time, reports
22:41
Speaker 1: say roughly two hours before returning with like stu said
22:45
Speaker 1: that she was guilty of murder.
22:47
Speaker 2: The judge then sentenced Meghan to life in prison without
22:51
Speaker 2: the possibility of parole. She won't be leaving that cell
22:54
Speaker 2: barring some extraordinary legal maneuvers, a twist of some sort.
22:59
Speaker 2: Her criminal conspiracy charge was dropped just before the verdict,
23:03
Speaker 2: but the murder conviction alone was enough to keep her
23:05
Speaker 2: locked away, but were.
23:06
Speaker 1: Lifecare ye later, a judge denied her request for a
23:10
Speaker 1: new trial, reaffirming the verdict and the sentence. Christopher Dantell,
23:15
Speaker 1: having already pleaded to conspiracy and accessory charges, faced his
23:19
Speaker 1: own sentencing. Reportedly getting decades behind bars based on his
23:23
Speaker 1: role and testimony.
23:26
Speaker 2: Now, for Greg's family, the verdict brought a measure of justice,
23:29
Speaker 2: but not true closure. They still wake up every day
23:32
Speaker 2: without him. His children, now older, carry the memory of
23:35
Speaker 2: a father lost to murder and the knowledge that their
23:38
Speaker 2: mother was convicted of that same crime.
23:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they lost a mom and a dad, Yes,
23:44
Speaker 1: during all of this. And it's four I mean, it's
23:46
Speaker 1: four kids.
23:47
Speaker 2: So he just blew up the entire family.
23:49
Speaker 1: Just for Christopher Dawntelk, the local coroner. Come on, let's
23:56
Speaker 1: do better, all right, all right, So, now that we've
23:58
Speaker 1: been through our case too, I want to do some
24:00
Speaker 1: little porch gossop. Okay, I'm gonna talk about the salacious
24:04
Speaker 1: details of Chris and Meghan's relationship. So at the time
24:12
Speaker 1: of so this is the start of the affair. At
24:14
Speaker 1: the time of the affair, Christopher Dantell was, he was married.
24:18
Speaker 1: He meets Megan started working closely with him in the
24:22
Speaker 1: death care industry. Apparently she took over his old job
24:26
Speaker 1: of transporting bodies for the coroner's office because I guess
24:30
Speaker 1: he became a deputy corner. So now she's like she
24:33
Speaker 1: just driving. Yes, now, According to Chris's own testimony, the
24:38
Speaker 1: affair began in early twenty nineteen. Meghan had become a
24:42
Speaker 1: regular at the local bricks wood fired pizza in Myrtle Beach,
24:45
Speaker 1: so it's probably still there, guys. Megan told Chris they
24:49
Speaker 1: needed to speak privately. She threw her car and reverse
24:53
Speaker 1: with him in the passenger seat and drove him back
24:55
Speaker 1: to a service road, and then, according to Chris, he
25:00
Speaker 1: parked and bluntly asked him have you ever cheated on
25:03
Speaker 1: your wife before? When he said no, she replied, well,
25:07
Speaker 1: you are about to.
25:09
Speaker 2: Aggress the Eagle beats party every time.
25:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, because she was not, or at least maybe was
25:15
Speaker 1: some makeup. She might have been something, but in so as.
25:18
Speaker 2: The old saying go, eagle beats party every time.
25:21
Speaker 1: So to make matters even more messy, Megan Jackson actually
25:25
Speaker 1: moved into Chris and Erica Dantell because Erica was his
25:28
Speaker 1: wife's is his wife neighborhood in twenty nineteen, just two
25:33
Speaker 1: or three streets down from them, So she's like right
25:36
Speaker 1: by making this pretty easy for them to have this affair.
25:40
Speaker 1: During COVID nineteen, Megan integrated herself into the Dantell family
25:46
Speaker 1: Erica Dantel testified that she and Megan became close friends
25:49
Speaker 1: and their children played together frequently. Like this bitch is conniving,
25:52
Speaker 1: She's not a good person. Erica had absolutely no idea
25:56
Speaker 1: that her new close friend was sleeping with her husband,
25:59
Speaker 1: later describing how she never saw it coming now. During
26:02
Speaker 1: this time, Megan also constantly complained to Erica about Gregory Rice,
26:07
Speaker 1: claiming he was abusive and used drugs. Erica Dantel she
26:12
Speaker 1: found out about the affair in an incredibly like vicious way.
26:16
Speaker 1: This was hard for her. Before greg was murdered, Erica
26:21
Speaker 1: was waiting for her husband to come out of a
26:23
Speaker 1: building when she suddenly received an anonymous text message from
26:26
Speaker 1: an unknown number. The text read, I think you should
26:29
Speaker 1: know that your husband is having an affair and got
26:32
Speaker 1: somebody pregnant. Why this is such drama? Oh, and I
26:36
Speaker 1: think you should know it's Megan Jackson.
26:39
Speaker 2: Damn drop the dime on her right there.
26:43
Speaker 1: So Erica confronted Chris and demanded he call Megan immediately
26:47
Speaker 1: to prove it was a lie. Now. When he called
26:49
Speaker 1: her on speakerphone, Megan acted flustered, saying, I don't know.
26:53
Speaker 1: I'm getting the kids in the car, I have to
26:54
Speaker 1: call you guys back. I can't deal with it right now.
26:56
Speaker 3: That's like, oh, I'm I'm Liza, let me help as
27:01
Speaker 3: someone's talking in the background with nothing. Later, the Dantel
27:07
Speaker 3: household received a physical package containing printed photographs, text message,
27:11
Speaker 3: and an ultrasound picture exposing the affair entirely Now. First,
27:16
Speaker 3: Chris and Meghan denied the affair to Erica and tried
27:19
Speaker 3: to blame the anonymous text in the package on Greg,
27:22
Speaker 3: claiming he was the one trying to sabotage them. However,
27:27
Speaker 3: during that twenty twenty five trial, a digital crimes expert
27:30
Speaker 3: testified about the forensic extraction of Megan Jackson's phone. The
27:35
Speaker 3: expert proved that Megan Jackson was the one who sent
27:37
Speaker 3: the anonymous text to Erica in the first place.
27:40
Speaker 2: He's trying to blow up that marriage too. She's like,
27:42
Speaker 2: I I'm powered of the sneaking around. I'm going to
27:45
Speaker 2: get in there, and.
27:46
Speaker 1: She used a burner site called text for Free for
27:51
Speaker 1: using the number. Now, digital evans showed that the photos
27:56
Speaker 1: and ultrasounds sent to Erica to expose the affair came
27:59
Speaker 1: directly from megan phone just minutes before they were sent
28:01
Speaker 1: anonymous anonymously. Prosecutors argued this proved Megan was a master
28:06
Speaker 1: manipulator who was actively trying to destroy the Dawntel marriage
28:09
Speaker 1: so she could have Chris to herself. Again, he's not
28:12
Speaker 1: Chris isn't a bad looking guy, but he's not. I mean,
28:15
Speaker 1: this is a lot okay.
28:17
Speaker 2: Blowing up somebody's marriage, murder on your own X.
28:22
Speaker 1: At the time of Gregg's murder in October twenty twenty,
28:24
Speaker 1: Meghan Jackson was in fact pregnant with Chris's child's do
28:29
Speaker 1: Now Chris took a plead deal right before his own trial,
28:32
Speaker 1: Like we talked about, pleading guilty to being an accessory
28:35
Speaker 1: for helping Megan dispose of Greg's body in the river
28:38
Speaker 1: wrapped in a tarp. Nowt is sentencing. Chris tearfully apologized,
28:42
Speaker 1: stating his involvement with Meghan was a drug high founded
28:45
Speaker 1: on deception and selfishness. Despite the betrayal, Erica stayed married
28:51
Speaker 1: to him. So he knocked this Megan girl up, helped
28:54
Speaker 1: her dispose of a body, lied about it, was cheating
28:58
Speaker 1: on her, all this stuff. She's actually stayed with him
29:02
Speaker 1: and she was there supporting him through the trial. On
29:06
Speaker 1: their wedding anniversary, their tenth wedding anniversary. She actually testified
29:11
Speaker 1: on his like as a character witness on his behalf,
29:14
Speaker 1: and then on the sentencing on July fourteenth, she stood
29:17
Speaker 1: by him and addressing the court pleading for them to
29:20
Speaker 1: be lenient upon him.
29:22
Speaker 2: So that's something you do for me?
29:25
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. She actually told the judge for mercy stating
29:29
Speaker 1: that Megan Jackson was the Antichrist for our family.
29:32
Speaker 2: She is.
29:33
Speaker 1: It's just a terrible person. So yeah, that's that's their relationship, Timeline. Yeah,
29:41
Speaker 1: wanted to throw that in there for you guys. You
29:42
Speaker 1: could get the drama of it all as well.
29:46
Speaker 2: The other relationship that blew up on the face.
29:48
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, there wasn't just one. Well no, I don't
29:53
Speaker 1: not feeling so bad for Erica though you're hanging with
29:55
Speaker 1: him and he's in jail. Even like he's in jail.
29:58
Speaker 2: Maybe she's going down to the fire Wood pizza place
30:01
Speaker 2: and it's maid and dudes.
30:04
Speaker 1: Anyways, So all right, well that's our case out of
30:07
Speaker 1: South Carolina. STU, do you have a y'all need Jesus?
30:10
Speaker 1: Before us, some people were worried we were going to
30:12
Speaker 1: take y'all need Jesus away and.
30:13
Speaker 2: Say I told you it was popular. You were talking
30:15
Speaker 2: about it like I'd like to get rid of it.
30:17
Speaker 1: Oh. I didn't say that. I never said that I
30:19
Speaker 1: will find it. No, I didn't say that anyway.
30:21
Speaker 2: But somebody rewind that for her.
30:24
Speaker 1: I didn't say that. I'll probably say because you're never prepared.
30:29
Speaker 2: Oh, with a caveat, you're ready to get rid of
30:31
Speaker 2: with a caveat anyway. Machete fight Kara. Two men involved
30:37
Speaker 2: in a violent brawl outside a supermarket. According to police,
30:42
Speaker 2: Florida or not Florida, Florida. You think this is Florida, Yes, machetes.
30:47
Speaker 2: Come on ABC News for by Jessica Botello. August seventh,
30:55
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. Just Happened, Caara. Two men, include a
31:00
Speaker 2: wanted felon, were arrested after an argument. A arrested after
31:06
Speaker 2: an argument escalated into a violent fight involving a machete
31:11
Speaker 2: and a hatchet and the parking lot of a Florida supermarket.
31:16
Speaker 2: According to authorities, The Panama City Police Department identified the
31:22
Speaker 2: suspects as James Gay, aged thirty five, and Everett Kritch Babam,
31:28
Speaker 2: age fifty two, adding they were each charged with aggravated
31:32
Speaker 2: battery and with a deadly weapon. Police on Wednesday said
31:36
Speaker 2: officers responded to a publix a day prior for reports
31:39
Speaker 2: about a fight and found both men hurt. The Washington
31:44
Speaker 2: County Sheriff's Office described kirch Babooma as a wanted felon,
31:49
Speaker 2: adding that he was arrested at his home in Vernon, Florida.
31:53
Speaker 2: According to the New Station, witnesses told authorities Gay was
31:56
Speaker 2: the primary aggressor as he drove up to confront kirchin
32:00
Speaker 2: Babom over an ongoing personal dispute. After the argument inten intensified,
32:06
Speaker 2: kerch Babom. This is a hard name to say. What
32:08
Speaker 2: can't they? What's this guy's first name? I got to
32:10
Speaker 2: change that. What Everett? I'm gonna call him Everett. Oh,
32:14
Speaker 2: kerch ku Babom. I'm gonna call him Everett from Allen.
32:18
Speaker 1: What's his name?
32:19
Speaker 2: Everett kerch Babom. Let me seebaum no k r I
32:25
Speaker 2: c h b A b U m B kirch Babam,
32:30
Speaker 2: krich Babom, kirch Babam Everett as we will call him
32:35
Speaker 2: from hereafter After the argument intensified, Everett allegedly displayed a hatchet.
32:40
Speaker 2: Police say Gay then retrieved a machete from his car.
32:43
Speaker 2: Authority say Gay hit Everett with the sheathed machete, and
32:47
Speaker 2: then two men struggled over their weapons, per the media outlet,
32:51
Speaker 2: with both men suffering hand injuries during the fight, and
32:55
Speaker 2: anyone with information about the case blah blah blah blah
32:59
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. So yes, two men in a public's
33:02
Speaker 2: parking lot, Oh, you said.
33:04
Speaker 1: Public says, I don't, Well, they are they have publics,
33:07
Speaker 1: maybe in I don't know where else they are. Publics
33:10
Speaker 1: is a Florida thing.
33:11
Speaker 2: I think it's a Floria thing. Yeah, kind of like
33:13
Speaker 2: the ABC stores in Hawaii.
33:15
Speaker 1: I was so annoyed with publics on our road trip.
33:18
Speaker 2: Because you wanted that pub sub and you never got one.
33:20
Speaker 1: I never got a pub sub. But I was annoyed
33:22
Speaker 1: because I was trying to have the groceries delivered when
33:26
Speaker 1: we'd write a thing, and they made me do a
33:27
Speaker 1: whole driver's licensing and all this stuff, and so I
33:30
Speaker 1: couldn't get stuff delivered. I ended up having too.
33:34
Speaker 2: That's when we got to Key West.
33:35
Speaker 1: Wasn't Yes, it was so annoying. It was like, how
33:38
Speaker 1: am I supposed to have things. I mean, you're in
33:40
Speaker 1: a vacation town, you're in Florida. I feel like people
33:43
Speaker 1: are getting stuff delivered to different addresses all the time.
33:45
Speaker 2: You had to sign up for some account. We had
33:47
Speaker 2: no self service drive in the water or highway or
33:50
Speaker 2: whatever it's called.
33:51
Speaker 1: Yes, it was a pain, and so we ended up
33:53
Speaker 1: getting Walmart. I think when I finally gone, there's no
33:57
Speaker 1: Walmart down there. Oh, there's no Walmart. How do we
34:00
Speaker 1: get food?
34:01
Speaker 2: I don't know what we got.
34:03
Speaker 1: Maybe we ended up getting it finally Publics came through.
34:05
Speaker 2: Maybe why did you use door dashers? I don't know
34:08
Speaker 2: what you did, but that was the problem.
34:09
Speaker 1: Publics uses door dash but through the Publics one, you
34:12
Speaker 1: can't just randomly send it to You have to sign
34:14
Speaker 1: it for the Public's account. And there was something about
34:16
Speaker 1: the address, and they make you verify your driver's license.
34:19
Speaker 1: If it doesn't match the address, then you got to
34:21
Speaker 1: they gotta do this verificate. It's but you're a you're
34:24
Speaker 1: in a vacation town, You're in a vacation state. Anyways,
34:28
Speaker 1: all right, Well, I was driving.
34:30
Speaker 2: I heard all the bitching and combestion from the passenger seat,
34:33
Speaker 2: but couldn't pay attention to it as much as you
34:37
Speaker 2: probably wanted me to. Yeah, all the details drink.
34:41
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that is our episode for this week.
34:45
Speaker 1: Just a reminder you can join our Patreon, which Stu
34:48
Speaker 1: failed this time. He was supposed to have all the
34:50
Speaker 1: new patroons. He will get them next week to give
34:53
Speaker 1: you guys a shout out all our our moonshine tears.
34:59
Speaker 1: He will get it to We've been, We've been. It's
35:01
Speaker 1: been crazy. He was out of town all last week
35:04
Speaker 1: signing for our house. We had to get our house
35:06
Speaker 1: ready for pictures.
35:07
Speaker 2: We had to get the old the new house ready
35:10
Speaker 2: for the epoxy people.
35:12
Speaker 1: Yes, to get some stuff done in the garage. So yeah,
35:15
Speaker 1: it's just been crazy. But he'll he'll get all the
35:17
Speaker 1: whole list together next week and he will we will
35:19
Speaker 1: read out all the new patroons because we really appreciate
35:22
Speaker 1: you guys. We've been real active on the Patreon. We
35:24
Speaker 1: got stuff going on, you know. Anyways, So check that out.
35:28
Speaker 1: All that's in the show notes and then I think
35:31
Speaker 1: that's it. Do you have anything else? Do you say?
35:33
Speaker 2: I do not at the moment. All right, well, unless
35:35
Speaker 2: you want going to come up with something.
35:36
Speaker 1: No, Okay, now, remember, stay safe, lock your doors, and
35:40
Speaker 1: keep that portrait on by everyone. Say bye, Stu bys Dove,
35:44
Speaker 1: tell you know it's.
35:48
Speaker 2: To be superstay shots, minds works
36:00
Speaker 3: Shame and sworring Bouly I can