Latest / Crime and Horror / The crime at this Alabama Mayor's house will make you sick - MrBallen

Transcript

The crime at this Alabama Mayor's house will make you sick - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One evening in August of 2000, a city council candidate
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: stood behind a podium at a high school in small
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: town Alabama. He was speaking about why he'd entered the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: race in the first place. And he said it was
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: because he wanted a platform to discuss a very important issue.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And that issue was the unsolved murder of a local
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: school district employee. And then right there in front of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: all the news cameras and microphones, this candidate said he
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: knew who committed that crime. because it had been revealed
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to him in a dream. But before we get into
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the right place, because that's all we do, and we upload.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Two, three, even four times every week.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please invite the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: like button to your next big house party. But be
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: sure to give them the wrong address. Also, please subscribe
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to our channel and turn on all notifications so you
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: into today's story. On the morning of August 4th, 1998,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: A 49-year-old woman named Charlotte Waits rushed around her kitchen
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in Lynette, Alabama. She reached past her husband, Barry, who
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: was washing the dishes at the sink, and she grabbed
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a coffee mug from the cupboard. It was a Tuesday morning,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and they were both getting ready for busy days at work.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Charlotte was a school administrator, and Barry was the acting
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: mayor of the small town of Lynette, a very tight-knit
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: community of about 9,000 residents. And as Barry left the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: sink to go grab his briefcase from the dining room, Charlotte,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: who was pouring herself some coffee... reminded him that she
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: had a hair appointment later that morning, and also that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: she'd be home later than usual because she had a
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: meeting with her attorneys that afternoon. So Charlotte was unfortunately
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a legal battle with her cousin
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Wayne over the inheritance.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: From her late uncle's will.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: The uncle had left a lot of valuable land to Charlotte,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: but Wayne thought that he deserved some of that land too.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: So basically, he was contesting the will, and today was
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the day that Charlotte, Wayne, and their attorneys were going
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: to meet and attempt to.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Hash it out.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Barry asked Charlotte if she had decided what she was
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: going to say at this meeting. And Charlotte shook her
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: head and said no, and said she was still kind
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: of thinking it over. Now, she knew she didn't want
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to just give up the land, but she also knew
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: that she didn't necessarily want to risk tearing her whole
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: family apart over money.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Barry walked over.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: To her and put a hand on her shoulder and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: reassured her that whatever happened, the family would get through it.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Then he gave her a kiss on the cheek and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: he left for work. Once he was out the door,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Charlotte left the kitchen and went upstairs and knocked on
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the bedroom door of her 17-year-old daughter, Kara. And as
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: soon as she did this, Charlotte heard a groan from
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: inside the room. So Charlotte opened the door up and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: she found Kara curled up in bed. And Kara was
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: looking very tired and very pale. But, you know, Charlotte
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: knew this was not just a teenager who didn't want to, like,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: go to school or something. The reason that Kara looked
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the way she did and was sounding the way she
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: did is because Kara was pregnant and she was dealing
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: with pretty obvious morning sickness. Now, Charlotte was not thrilled
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: about her 17-year-old daughter being pregnant. But more than that,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: she was especially not thrilled because she absolutely hated Kara's boyfriend,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Dave Reed. Dave drank and got into trouble with the law.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And he just was not the kind of guy Charlotte
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: wanted her daughter around. At one point, before Kara was pregnant,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Charlotte and Barry had forbid her from seeing Dave. They said,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you cannot date him. But in secret, the two had
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: continued to see each other, and now Kara was pregnant.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: And so Charlotte really.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Couldn't help but feel deeply disappointed in her daughter. But
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: she also knew her daughter was going to need a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: lot of support from her, not just to finish high school,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: but also to be a teen mom. And so for
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: right now, Charlotte was just trying to keep the peace.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: So with that in mind, Charlotte stepped into the bedroom
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and asked Kara how she was feeling. And Kara just
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: kind of shrugged and said she was okay, just a
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: little nauseous. Charlotte was sympathetic and nodded along and kind
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of helped straighten up her room for a second. And
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: then she reminded Kara that her older sister Heather was
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: coming home from.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: College that night.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And so it would be nice if they all had
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: dinner together as a family. And Kara said, you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: she did have a babysitting gig for basically the whole day,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: but She promised she would make it home for dinner.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Charlotte was pleased and told Kara she would see her
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: later that night, and then she said she had to
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: get to work. So Charlotte left the bedroom, went downstairs,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: grabbed her purse, and then out the door she headed
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to the garage to go to her car. Later that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: same morning, around 11.30 a.m., Charlotte drove back down her
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: quiet residential street toward her house. She lived in a
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: respectable upper-middle-class neighborhood where basically all the neighbors seemed to
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: know each other, and historically crime had been very low.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Although recently there had been a string of robberies in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the area, which had some people on edge. But, you know,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: for the most part, Charlotte and her family felt safe
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: in their home. Charlotte was having a pretty hectic day.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: She'd had a very busy morning at work and then
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: she'd gone to the salon for a haircut. And pretty
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: soon she had to get back to the office for
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a few more hours before her afternoon meeting with her
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: cousin Wayne and all the lawyers. However, Charlotte never really
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: liked how her hair looked right after leaving the salon.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So first, she wanted to stop by her house and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: restyle it herself before heading back to work and finishing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: up her day. So she pulled into her garage and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: ran inside the house and went straight upstairs right to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. As she was plugging in her blow dryer,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: she heard a door open downstairs. And the sound surprised
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: her because she thought that Kara was off at her
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: babysitting gig. And Barry, her husband, usually didn't come home
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: during his lunch break. So she set the blow dryer
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: down and went to go see who it was. A
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: few hours later, around 4.30 p.m., Charlotte's 21-year-old daughter, Heather,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: pulled up to the house. She'd just arrived from college,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: which was located a few towns away, and she was
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: excited to see her parents and sister when they all
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: got home from work that night. But as Heather parked
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: her car in the driveway, she noticed something odd. She
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: saw the garage door was open and her mom's car
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: was parked there. And this surprised her because when she
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: had spoken.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: To her mom on the phone the day before.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Charlotte had said she probably wouldn't be home until around six,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but Heather didn't think much of it. So she just
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: grabbed her laundry hamper and a couple of grocery bags
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: filled with her stuff out of the backseat of the car.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And then as she walked into the garage to make
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: her way into the house, she saw the door that
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: led into the house.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Was actually already open, but just a crack, which was
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: kind of odd.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Like there's no reason that door would be left open.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And so now sensing that maybe something was off here,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Heather walked up and slowly pushed that door open and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: she just called out for her mother to see what
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: she was doing.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: But There was no answer.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: And so Heather stepped into the house, into the kitchen
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and set down her hamper and the bags. And then
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: she began walking around the first floor of the house
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to just see where her mom was.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: She didn't hear her. She couldn't see her. She's just
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: walking around.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: And as she, she rounded the corner into the foyer,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: she saw her mom, but her mom.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Was laying at the foot of the stairs, totally motionless.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Heather immediately ran to her mom and just grabbed her
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: to see if she was okay. But when she touched
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: her mom's leg, It was ice cold, and so she
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: ran into the other room, picked up the phone, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: called 911. A few minutes later, Lieutenant Richard Carter of
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the Lynette Police Department sped down Charlotte's residential street with
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: his lights flashing and siren blaring. He was responding to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: a 911 call about a woman who had been found unresponsive,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and he'd been very surprised when the dispatcher told him
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: whose house this woman had been found inside of. It
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: was the home of the town's mayor, Barry Waits. Now,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: as he pulled up in front of the home, he
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: saw this young woman come running out the front door,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: crying hysterically. And so Lieutenant Carter, he stopped his car,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: he got out, and he intercepted the young woman who
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: begged him to come in and help her mom. And
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: so Carter and this young woman rushed over to the house,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and then he told her to stay outside while he
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: went in and investigated.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: And so she did.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: She stayed out front and just quietly wept to herself
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: while Lieutenant Carter stepped through the front door, right away,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: right inside, he saw what appeared to be a middle-aged
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: woman lying on her back at the bottom of a staircase,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: and she was totally motionless. Nearby, the contents of a
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: purse were strewn all across the floor. Carter immediately knelt
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: down and felt for a pulse on this woman, but
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: there was nothing. And so Carter, he stood back up
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and just kind of assessed the scene, and what he
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: noticed was there was foam at the corner of this
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: woman's mouth. So he wondered if maybe she had had
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: a seizure or some sort of allergic reaction. at the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: top of the stairs and sort of had lost her
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: balance and maybe fell down the stairs and the fall
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: had killed her. But then he also noticed there were
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: definitely a few drops of blood on the front of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: her blouse. And when he looked closer at her face,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: he noticed there were pretty obvious scratch marks on her
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: chin and also a red mark around her neck. And
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: he realized this woman likely had not just fallen down
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the stairs. She'd been attacked, beaten, and potentially strangled. If
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: you're hiring, you want a candidate who is passionate about
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: your role, but you can't get that insight from a
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: resume unless you post your job on ZipRecruiter. And now
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash ballin.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I remember hiring someone who checked all the boxes, but
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: what really sold it was just how interested they were.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: You could tell they had already bought into the role
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and wanted to grow with it and That really made
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a huge difference.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: And that was.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Thanks to ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology that finds qualified candidates quickly.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And ZipRecruiter has a new feature that shows you the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: most interested qualified candidates first, so you meet the right
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: people faster.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Candidates can tell.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: You in their own words why they're interested in your job.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Find candidates who really want your job on ZipRecruiter. Four
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: at ZipRecruiter.com slash Ballin. Again, that's ZipRecruiter.com slash Ballin. Meet
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: your match on ZipRecruiter. Later that day, around 5 p.m., Lt.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Richard Carter sorted through a pile of dirty laundry on
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the floor of Charlotte Waits' laundry room. For the past
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: half hour, he'd been scouring the crime scene for clues,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and now he was holding two white towels that were
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: dotted with reddish-brown spots that looked like blood that had
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: just begun to dry. He called over a forensics officer
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and told him to take the towels into evidence. He
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: couldn't be sure yet that the blood was even Charlotte's,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: but if it was, it could be a potential clue.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: After searching the whole house, Carter actually had a pretty
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: strong theory about what had happened to Charlotte. There were
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: no signs of forced entry, and the TV and other
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: valuables were still in the home. Charlotte's purse had been
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: dumped out on the floor just a few feet away
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: from the stairs, but her cash and her credit cards
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: were still in her wallet. So Carter did not think
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: this was a robbery gone wrong. He thought maybe the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: killer just kind of dumped out the purse at the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: end to make it seem like a robbery, but it
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: was a weak attempt.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: This did not seem like a robbery.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: What this seemed like, at least to Carter at this point,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: was that Charlotte had been intentionally killed by somebody that
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: she knew. But just then, Carter heard commotion by.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: The front door. And so he went to go see
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: what was going on.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: And he saw there was a man out on the doorstep,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: literally being physically held back by two forensics officers. And
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: then after a second, Carter recognized who it was. It
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was the town's mayor, Barry Waits, the victim's husband. The
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: officers were trying to keep him outside, but Barry pushed
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: past them. And right away, he saw what they were
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: kind of keeping him from, which was his wife's body
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: laying there on the floor, obviously dead. And when Barry
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: saw that, he just froze and began to hyperventilate. At
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: this point, Carter didn't try to force Barry back outside. Instead,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: he gently grabbed Barry's arm and led him into the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: next room and sat him down on the couch and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: just tried to get him to calm down. But it
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: was like he couldn't. Barry was gasping and like really
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: was struggling to breathe. And then he actually doubled over
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: and clutched at his chest. And Carter thought maybe he's
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: having a heart attack. And so instead of trying to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: talk to him, he just yelled for somebody to call
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: an ambulance. Later that same night, around 8 p.m., Lieutenant
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Carter stepped into the lobby of the local hospital's emergency department.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: He showed his badge to the nurse at the front
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: desk and then asked to see Barry Waits. But the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: nurse said he would have to wait because they were
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: still running tests on Barry and he couldn't have any
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: visitors until they were sure he was stable. And Carter
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: was pretty disappointed to hear this. Not because he was,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: you know, desperate to get in there and console the mayor.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: It was actually because he needed to talk to the mayor.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: This is the the spouse of a potential murder victim,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: he needed to know what Barry knew. And so he
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: turned to leave, but before he did, he noticed sitting
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: in the waiting room was Barry and Charlotte's daughter, Heather, who,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: you know, Carter and Heather, they had spoken for a
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: few minutes back at the house earlier that day when,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: you know, Heather was the one who came running out
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and directed him into the house. They had spoken a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: little bit, but Carter thought, you know what, if I
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: can't talk to Barry, maybe I can talk to Heather.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe she's calmed down enough that we could have a
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: real conversation right now.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: And so he walked over to her.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: As Carter approached, Heather looked up and definitely recognized who
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: he was and sort of gave off body language that
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it was okay for him to come and sit down.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And so Carter, he walked over, he sat down next
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to her, and he saw there was actually another girl,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a teenager, who was sitting next to Heather. And Heather
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: quickly turned and pointed to her and said this was
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: her younger sister, Kara. Lieutenant Carter nodded and introduced himself
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: to Kara. And then he asked both women, you know,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: how was.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Their dad doing?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And Heather said that the doctors so far believed he
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: was not having a heart attack, that it was likely
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a panic attack. But they were going to monitor him
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: overnight just to be sure. Both of the girls seemed
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: very upset. They had tears in their eyes. They both
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: appeared to be in shock. They hadn't done anything suspicious, really.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Carter knew he couldn't just rule them out as suspects yet.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: He had to really ask them some pointed questions.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: So he took out his notebook.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And as delicately as he could... he began asking them
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: some questions. So by this point, Carter's officers had already
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: learned that Charlotte had left her work around 11 a.m.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: that morning, and it was not until about 1 p.m.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: that her co-workers called her house because she had not
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: come back to work, and they said there was no answer.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: And so that meant the murder had likely taken place sometime.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: So with that in mind, Carter asked Heather and Kara
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: why where they'd been that morning and afternoon, with a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: focus on 11 to 1. Kara told him she'd been
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: babysitting all day, and Heather said she'd been at her school,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: her college, which was 30 miles away, until around 4 p.m.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that afternoon when she had left to drive to her
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: parents' house. At some point, Carter asked both of them
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: if they had any idea if there was someone out
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: there who might have had a grudge against their mother,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: or who might have wanted to hurt their mom, or
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: who might have been happy if something happened to her.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And the girls immediately shook their head and said, absolutely not.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: There was no one. I mean, their mom was awesome.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Everybody seemed to like her, and they were a happy,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: normal family. There was no issues they knew of. Carter
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: jotted all this down in his notebook, and his plan
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: was to check out the daughter's alibis as soon as
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: he got back to the station. The next day, Lieutenant
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Carter was at the precinct debriefing with the other investigators
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: on Charlotte's case. He'd listened to the local news on
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the radio while driving to work that morning, and since
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Charlotte was the acting mayor's wife, her murder was all
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: anybody in town could talk about. So Carter was really
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: feeling a lot of pressure to solve this case quickly. Now,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: by this point, he had already followed up on Heather
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and Kara's alibis, and they had both checked out. Neither
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: of the daughters could have been home between 11 and 1.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: So Carter had officially... ruled them out as suspects.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: And so now the other officers were going around the room,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: basically updating Carter on what they had done the night before.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: And Carter was admittedly a little frustrated to hear that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: after they had questioned Charlotte's neighbors and coworkers, right after
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: they had gotten to the scene, that that had not
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: led to any new suspects. And also another point of
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: frustration was the one person who likely would be able
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to help them the most, at least at this point
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: in the investigation, was the acting mayor, Barry, Charlotte's husband.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: But he was still in the hospital and so was
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: not being allowed to speak to them. But just as
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Carter and the others were sort of scratching their heads,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: wondering what they were going to do next, the front
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: door of the precinct opened and who walked in?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: But Barry waits.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: A few minutes later, Lieutenant Carter and Barry were sitting
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: in Carter's office. Barry said he had just been released
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: from the hospital and they had determined that his heart
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: was fine and he really had just had a panic attack.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: So as soon as he was out of the hospital,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: He'd come right over here to see what he could
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: do to help with the investigation. And so Carter asked
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Barry to walk him through what he had done the.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Previous day, the day Charlotte was killed.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Barry said that on top of being the acting mayor,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: he was also the head of the local National Guard armory,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and he had been attending to business at the armory
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: all day. He did say he left at some point
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: to get a haircut, maybe mid-morning, but the barbershop was closed,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: so he went right back to work, and he had
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: stayed there until around 4.30 a.m. when he got a
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: panicked phone call from his daughter, Heather, telling him their
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: mom was unresponsive in the house. As Barry spoke, Carter
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: actually primarily was just looking at Barry's hands and arms
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: to see if there were any scratches or cuts or bruises,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: because the running theory, based on what they saw at
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the crime scene, is that Charlotte put up a fight
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: against her attacker.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Before she was killed.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: And so presumably there should be wounds of some kind
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: on the attacker and probably on their hands and arms.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But as Carter stared at Barry, there were no visible
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: injuries at all. And also, I mean, Barry's story seemed
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: very linear, very simple, and he seemed very earnest about
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it and eager to help. And so, you know, Carter
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: couldn't just jump to conclusions and assume that Barry was,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: you know, telling the truth and that he was not
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a suspect here. But Carter's first impression was that Barry
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: was telling the truth. At some point, Carter kind of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: shifted the conversation and asked Barry if he had any
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: idea about who might have wanted to.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Hurt his wife. And Barry said, yes, he did.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: There were actually two people who would definitely benefit from
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Charlotte being dead. He said the first person was this
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: guy named Dave Reed, who was actually their daughter Kara's boyfriend.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: He said that he and Charlotte had tried to stop
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Kara from seeing this guy because he was kind of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a bad guy. But the teens had kept sneaking around
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: and eventually Dave had.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: Gotten Kara pregnant.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: And so Barry wondered if maybe Dave had gone over
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: to sort of confront Charlotte to maybe demand to be
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: able to see Kara. and things got out of hand.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Carter grabbed a pen and he wrote down Dave's full name.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Then he asked about the second person who had been
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a problem with Charlotte. He explained that his wife and
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: her cousin were in the middle of this contentious dispute
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: over an inheritance. In fact, he said Charlotte had been
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: scheduled to meet with Wayne and their attorneys the same
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: day that she was killed. And when he heard this,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Carter sat up in his chair because he thought to
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: himself that the timing here could not be a coincidence.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: The cousin was suddenly his top suspect. The following day,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Carter walked into an interrogation room at the Lynette police station,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and he sat down across the table from two people,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Wayne Rice and his attorney. When Carter had called Wayne
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to set up this meeting, Wayne had responded by saying
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: he would not say a word without his lawyer present.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: And this made Carter pretty suspicious because during this very
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: brief phone call, Carter had never even suggested to Wayne
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that he was a suspect in his cousin's murder. So
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: when Carter sat down with Wayne and his lawyer, he
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: pretty much leaned right in and grilled Wayne.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: He wanted to know what was going on with this inheritance.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Wayne said he knew that his contesting their uncle's will
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had caused a lot of problems within the family. But
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: he said that he hadn't wished any harm on Charlotte.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: And in fact, she'd been his best ally at the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: time of her death. Carter asked him to explain what
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: he meant by that. And Wayne said that the last
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: time he spoke to Charlotte... she seemed to be in
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: favor of giving him some of the land that their
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: uncle had left to her. According to Wayne, Charlotte had
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: said she was really upset about the family being torn
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: apart over money, and she felt like keeping all the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: land for herself was just not worth it. And when
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Carter heard this, he was pretty surprised, because Barry had
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: made it sound like Charlotte had no intention of giving
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: up the land to Wayne, like that wasn't even an option.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So Carter wondered if anything Wayne was saying here was
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: even true. He asked Wayne for his alibi. And Wayne
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: said he'd literally been at work all day at an
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: aluminum processing plant just outside of town. He said he
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: hadn't even left for lunch, something he typically did.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Like, he was at work truly all day.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: And then he also gave Carter the names of several
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: co-workers who could confirm his whereabouts. Before Carter let Wayne go,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: he asked him if he could take his fingerprints. And
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Wayne immediately looked at his attorney, and his attorney kind
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of nodded at him.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And so Wayne looked at Carter and said, okay.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Later that same day, Carter sat down with the other
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: suspect on his list, Kara's.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Boyfriend, Dave.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Dave was very moody and standoffish and just seemed kind
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: of annoyed that he was even there. When Carter asked
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: him if he knew why he'd been called to the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: station in the first place, Dave just kind of sighed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and said, yeah, I do. He'd heard about what happened
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to Kara's mother, and he knew, you know, given his
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: contentious relationship with.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Her and her husband.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: that of course he was going to be viewed as
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a suspect, which to him was absurd. And so Carter
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: actually just asked Dave point blank about his relationship with
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Kara's parents. And Dave would admit that, yeah, they definitely
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: didn't like him. But Dave insisted he would never hurt Charlotte,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: or Barry for that matter, and he hadn't even been
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: in town the day that she was killed. He'd been
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: at work all day at a landscaping job miles away.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Carter asked for the names of some of Dave's co-workers
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to verify his alibi. And he also asked him to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: provide his fingerprints, to which Dave sort of rolled his
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: eyes and said, you're wasting your time. But he said
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: he would do it just because he wanted to clear
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: his name. A couple of weeks later, in the middle
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of August, Lieutenant Carter sat at his desk flipping through
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's autopsy report, which he had just received from the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: medical examiner. And he realized that Charlotte's murder had been
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: even more brutal than he had thought. It turned out
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the murder weapon had been Charlotte's own blouse. Her killer
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: had grabbed the strings dangling from her neckline and then
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: used them to strangle.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Her to death.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: She'd also received a pretty serious head injury that could
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: have been fatal on its own, and she also had
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: a broken wrist. Now, this level of violence made Carter
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: feel even more sure that this murder had to have
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: been personal. But as he read deeper into the report,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the evidence seemed to paint a different picture. There were
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: three sets of fingerprints found at the crime scene. and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: two of them belonged to Barry and Kara, which was
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: not a surprise because they lived in the house. But
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the third set of prints was actually unidentified, and it
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't a match for any of the suspects on Carter's radar,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: including Kara's boyfriend Dave and Charlotte's cousin Wayne.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: So at this point, Lieutenant.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Carter just felt kind of stuck. Also, Barry, Wayne, and
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Dave's alibis had all checked out as well, so truly
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: his list of suspects was basically down to zero.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: So if Charlotte had been.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Killed by someone she knew, which was the initial running theory,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Carter was going to have to dig even harder to
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: find out who it was. In October of 1998, so
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: a couple of months after Charlotte Waits was killed, Lieutenant
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Carter walked into the Lynette Police Precinct right as the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: desk sergeant was hanging up the phone.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: The sergeant stopped Carter and.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Told him they had just gotten yet another call on
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the Charlotte Wade's tip line. And before the sergeant even
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: explained what the caller had said, Carter felt dread building
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: in the pit of his stomach. Ever since the police
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: had set up this tip line for information on Charlotte's murder,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it had been flooded with calls basically every day. But
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: rather than all these tips helping with the case... The
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: tip line had actually just slowed the investigation down because
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Carter and his team had to take time to follow
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: up on every single one of these leads, even though
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: most of them were just rumors and conspiracy theories. By
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: this point, from all these tips, they'd looked into a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: young man who lived on the same street as Charlotte
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: and who had a history of robbing houses, but he
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: had an airtight alibi. They'd also investigated another local man
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: who'd strangled his girlfriend in a similar way to how
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Charlotte was attacked, but he also had an alibi. Carter
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: had even driven all the way to Georgia to investigate
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: a tip that a small-time criminal had bragged at a
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: party about killing Charlotte, only to find out this small-time
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: criminal had an alibi too, and that the tipster had
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: made the whole story up just to get him in trouble. Also,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: in addition to these new suspects having alibis, their prints
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: didn't match the prints found at the crime scene, that
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: third set of prints. But sort of adding more confusion
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to this was an expert, told Carter that actually it
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: seems like those third prints could belong to a child.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And so maybe we're totally unrelated to the murder. And
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: so now as Carter looked over at this desk sergeant
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: who was getting ready to tell him about whatever call
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: he had just had, you know, Carter just braced for
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: more bad news because all these tip calls were basically
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: bad news. And when the desk sergeant spoke, it was,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it was more bad news. The sergeant said this call
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't even a tip at all. A local woman had
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: just called in to complain about the lack of progress.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And as difficult as it was for Carter to hear
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that now, in addition to the pressure he was feeling
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: that locals were literally spamming the hotline just to complain
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: about him, like that was bad. But Carter also understood
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: their frustration because he was actually feeling just as upset
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: as everybody else in town. But after running into nothing
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: but dead ends here, he was out of ideas. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: he had a feeling in his gut that unless something
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: major changed soon, This case, unfortunately, was going to go cold.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Fast forward about three years.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: To one morning in 2001.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: On this day, Lieutenant Carter was working at his desk
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: when he heard a familiar sound. The precinct's tip line
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: was ringing yet again. After that initial wave of tips
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: on the Charlotte Waits case, the case had completely stalled
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: out for a couple of years.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: It was basically cold.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Carter had ultimately been reassigned to other cases and And
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's family had just sort of been forced to move
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: on without any sort of closure. Kara had her baby
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: and Heather graduated college and was, you know, working a
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: real job. And Barry had also basically moved on with
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: his life. He had gotten remarried and was still very
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: much in politics. And in fact, just the previous year,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: he'd run for a term on city council. However, during
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: that election cycle, Barry's opponent had publicly accused him of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: killing his wife, Charlotte. And even though he had no
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: actual evidence to support his accusation, aside from the fact
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: that he had a dream about it, all the attention
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: from these accusations had totally reinvigorated the case. And calls
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: had once again begun flowing to this tip line. However,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: just like before, the vast majority of these tips were
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: just wild theories and gossip. But that particular day, when
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the desk sergeant who manned the tip line opened up
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Carter's office, Carter looked up and saw he was visibly excited,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: like whatever he had just heard on the tip line
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: actually mattered.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: And before Carter could even ask him, like, what'd you hear?
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: The desk sergeant said he had just spoken to two
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: tipsters who clearly had some real information that they wanted
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to share that was going to blow this case wide open.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Based on that crucial tip, forensic evidence, and witness testimony,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: this is what police believe happened to Charlotte Waits on
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: August 4th, 1998. Around 1130 a.m., the killer pulled up
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: outside of Charlotte's house and right away recognized Charlotte's.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Car in the garage. saw it, their heart raced.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: With excitement because they hadn't been sure that she'd even
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: be home. But clearly the killer had gotten here right
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: at the right time. So they parked at the end
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: of the driveway and they walked up into the garage
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and they walked over to the door that led into
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the house and they.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Tried the handle and found it was unlocked. So they
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: opened it up.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: The killer stepped inside the kitchen and right away they
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: heard footsteps on the second floor and they knew it
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: had to be Charlotte.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: There was nobody else home.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: So the killer closed the door and They went around
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to the stairs that led to the second floor, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: up they went. And right as the killer reached the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: second floor hallway, Charlotte came out of the bathroom and
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: saw them. And Charlotte was definitely very surprised to see
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: them standing there. But the killer immediately just asked her
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a question, point blank. And when she answered the question,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: it was not what the killer wanted to hear. And
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: so the killer tried to get her to change her mind,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to answer this question differently, but The conversation quickly escalated
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: into a full-blown argument, and then the killer just totally
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: lost their temper. and hit Charlotte across the face.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Blood immediately began pouring out of Charlotte's nose and kind
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: of stunned.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: She just kind of stepped back and went back into
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the bathroom to grab a towel to blot her face
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: with it. Now, at this point, the killer knew they
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: had crossed a line. And so persuading Charlotte at this
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: point to do what they wanted was clearly out of
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: the question. Like this was a no going back moment.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: So as Charlotte came out of the bathroom with this
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: towel on her face, looking totally shaken up, the killer
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: walked up and grabbed her from behind and they clutched
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the strings that were hanging from the neckline of her
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: blouse and they pulled them tight around her neck. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: so Charlotte began gasping for breath and trying to fight
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: them off, but the killer absolutely had her in this chokehold.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And then finally, when Charlotte had lost enough oxygen that
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: she stopped struggling, the killer let go of the strings
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and then kicked her down the staircase. And when the
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: killer saw what they had done, when they saw Charlotte
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: at the base of the stairs, obviously motionless, very likely dead,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the reality of what they had just done, it hit them.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: And so in a panic, they grabbed the bloody towel
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: that Charlotte had dropped. You know, she was using to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: blot her nose, but she had dropped it on the ground.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: They grabbed that and they rushed down the stairs and
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: kind of cleaned up the rest of the blood on
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's face and then dumped the towels in the laundry room.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Then they grabbed Charlotte's purse off the table and kind
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: of scattered its contents on the floor near her body,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: hoping the police would think this was a robbery gone wrong.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And then after that, they fled the house, got back
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: in their car, and hurried back to work at the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: National Guard Armory before anyone even noticed they were gone.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: The killer was Lynette, Alabama's mayor, and Charlotte's own husband.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Barry Waits.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Barry had secretly gotten into a lot of debt and
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: he needed the full inheritance from Charlotte's uncle to pay
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: it off. And so when Barry went to his own
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: home in the middle of the day and basically confronted
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Charlotte and asked her, what do you plan to do
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: at this meeting with Wayne? Are you going to give
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: him some of this inheritance? And she told him that, yes,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: her plan was to settle and split the inheritance. Well,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: when Barry heard that, he snapped back. and he killed
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: his wife. Not just because he was mad at her
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: for her decision, but also because he needed more money.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: He's thinking, okay, I'm going to get half of this
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: inheritance because she's given the other half to Wayne, but
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: if I kill her, I'll get her life insurance policy,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and then together I'll have enough to pay off my debts. However,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: when the insurance company went to pay out the claim,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: because Barry early on in the investigation was clearly a
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: suspect in his wife's murder, The company would not pay
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: him the money. Instead, they paid the insurance money to
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: their daughters. But a couple of years later, Barry still
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: tried to get his hands on that money by tricking
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: his own daughters into signing it over to him. But
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: when Heather and Kara realized what he was doing, they
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: finally saw their father for what he was. And so
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: it was the daughters who were the tipsters who broke
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: this case wide open. They told Lieutenant Carter everything they
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: knew about their dad's very suspicious behavior. along with his
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: clear financial motives for the murder. They also said that
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: their father had intimidated them into hiding information from the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: police and had even called in fake tips to redirect
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: attention away from himself. Barry Waits was arrested in February
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: of 2006, and nine months later, he was found guilty
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the comments. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: true crime episodes ready for you to binge right now.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: So click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: until next time, see ya.