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Ex-Wife Tried To Kill Husband in Twisted Murder Conspiracy · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Picture this, right? It's 2.15 p.m. on a Tuesday.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You are sitting in the parking lot of a really
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: high-end suburban mall in Nashville, Tennessee. And the spring weather is,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you know, probably quite nice.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Right. Just a totally normal afternoon.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And in this incredibly mundane, everyday setting, you are
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: handing over the state-issued registration to your car as a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: down payment to have your ex-husband murdered.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: It is just, wow, it's incredibly jarring to even hear
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: it laid out like that.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: That really is. Today, we are taking a deep dive
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: into an absolutely sprawling, just profoundly twisted true crime web
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that leads directly to that suburban parking lot.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's a web that, you know... pulls in
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: so many different threads.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: It does. It's a story centered around a former local
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: news anchor, the really tragic death of a young man,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: viral accusations of horrific abuse, and ultimately a brazen daytime
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: murder for hire sting. So our mission today for you,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the listener, is to unravel all of this. We are
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: going to synthesize the facts, the mechanics, and the very
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: severe allegations drawn from a detailed source transcript from the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Law and Crime Network, which features digital journalist Justin Shepard
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and host Chris Stewart.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And before we move an inch further, I am
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: stepping in here to establish a really crucial baseline for you,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: the listener.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. This is important. Right.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Because the case we are examining today involves severe, unproven allegations.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, we were discussing accusations of sexual abuse, domestic
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: violence and murder. Yeah. So as we navigate this deep dive,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: we will impartially report the contents of the source material provided.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We are not endorsing any of the viewpoints expressed in
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: the law and crime broadcast, nor are we like taking
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: sides here.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Our job is simply to convey the ideas, the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: claims and the timeline as they were originally presented. Right.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: And it's vital to note that Aaron Solomon, the father
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: at the center of a lot of these allegations, has
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: never been charged with any of these accusations.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And he vehemently denies them. Through his legal representation.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Because the sheer whiplash of this story is staggering. You
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: look at the beginning of this timeline and you see
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: what appears to be a picture-perfect, influential family.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You really do.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: And we are going to trace how their lives fractured
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: into a saga that culminated with that hitman meeting this
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: past April.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and to understand the architecture of that fracture, we
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: really have to start with the catalysts. For the most
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: recent media explosion.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Right. That mall parking lot.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Let's look at the mechanics of April 11th of
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: this year. Because the details of that 2.15 p.m. meeting,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: they tell us so much about the mindset of the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: person initiating it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So true.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So, Angelia Solomon, who goes by Angie, she's a former
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: pharmacist from Franklin, Tennessee. She arrives at this mall believing
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: she is finalizing a contract killing.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And the hitman, of course, is an undercover police officer. Right.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And according to the arrest affidavit discussed in our source material,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Angie didn't just casually vent about her ex-husband Aaron Solomon.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: She wanted him to, quote, disappear and explicitly stated she
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: wanted him put underground.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Which is incredibly specific language.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It is. And she provided actionable intelligence, like where Aaron works,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: where he lives, his daily routines.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But here is the detail that completely stops me in
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: my tracks. To secure the hit, she promised a future
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: cash payment, but as an immediate down payment, as collateral,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: she handed over the vehicle registration to her car.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I know, it's wild.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I cannot wrap my head around the logic here. I mean,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: if you are trying to orchestrate a clandestine, untraceable crime,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: handing over a highly documented, state-issued piece of paper that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: ties directly to a specific asset you own... Seems like
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a remarkably desperate, almost self-sabotaging move.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: It does, but what's fascinating here is the intersection of
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: criminal intent and everyday desperation.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, why a vehicle registration?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Well, in the context of an undercover sting operation, law
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: enforcement is always looking to establish an overt act.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, an overt act.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Right. They need concrete, undeniable proof that the suspect isn't
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: just venting or indulging in some dark fantasy. They need
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to prove intent to solicit murder.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So they push for collateral.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Asking for collateral forces the suspect's hand. From the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: suspect's perspective, handing over the registration is a way to say,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: you know, I am good for the money. I have
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: tangible assets.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: But from the police perspective.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: From their perspective, taking physical possession of a state document
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: directly linked to the suspect builds an absolutely airtight evidentiary chain.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is an incredibly low tech, Traceable transfer.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Which perfectly aligns with how this whole plot was supposedly discovered. Like,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: this wasn't intercepted on the dark web or decrypted from
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a secure server.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Our sources note the police were alerted by a concerned
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: citizen via word of mouth. Someone literally heard she was
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: shopping for a hitman and told the authorities.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: And that low-tech approach, it actually dictates the entire legal
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: framework of her arrest.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Well, Justin Shepard points out that murder-for-hire plots, they frequently
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: trigger federal charges. But that federal jurisdiction... Under laws like
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: the federal murder-for-hire statute, it usually requires the use of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: a facility of interstate commerce.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, like crossing state lines.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If you use a cell phone across state lines,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: if you use the Internet, or if you physically cross
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: a state border to arrange the hit, the FBI gets involved.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Because Angie seemingly arranged this locally, face-to-face, via word of mouth,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: she circumvented federal jurisdiction entirely.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Wow. So she faces a state charge. Right.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: First degree solicitation murder for hire. And it was investigated
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the TBI.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So we have a highly analog crime in a digital age.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: But that brings us to the motive. I mean, why
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: does a mother and former pharmacist decide she needs a hitman?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the massive question.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: The arrest affidavit provides an alleged motive that I think
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: completely shatters the public narrative she had been building for years.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: The police claim her motivation was to gain access to
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: their daughter Gracie's trust fund.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: And the mechanics of that financial motive requires some unpacking here.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Because for years, the public campaign spearheaded by Angie was
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: framed entirely around justice and protection. Right.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Protecting her children from an abusive father.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But a trust fund introduces a starkly different, highly
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: calculated dynamic.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: While we don't have the specific bylaws of Gracie's trust,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: typically a trust fund for a minor might be locked
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: until a certain age. Or it might be managed by
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: a primary guardian or trustee.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Which is often apparent.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Right. So if Aaron was the trustee, or if his
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: death would somehow trigger a payout or a change in
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: guardianship over the estate that Angie could leverage, well, that
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: creates a direct financial incentive.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: But wait, wouldn't the Slayer Rule apply here? Like, if
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you murder someone, you can't inherit their money.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Generally, yes. Under probate law, you cannot profit from a
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: murder you commit.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: However, the alleged motive states the money was for Gracie
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to gain access to, not Angie directly.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Right. If Aaron is dead and the trust passes to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the daughter, Angie, as a surviving mother, she might believe
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: she could exert influence or control over those funds, even
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: if she couldn't legally inherit them herself.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: The juxtaposition is just jarring. A crusade supposedly built on
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: exposing a monster is suddenly, according to law enforcement anyway,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: fueled by probate payouts and trust management.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It completely reframes the legacy of her public advocacy. And
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: to understand how we arrived at a point where a
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: trust fund payout could allegedly motivate a parking lot murder plot,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: we really have to rewind to 2013.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to go way back.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: We have to look at the genesis of this conflict
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: back when the facade of the Solomon family first cracked.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Right. And to the outside observer in Nashville prior to 2013,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: the Solomons were a highly visible, very successful family.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Aaron Solomon had a tremendous amount of social capital. He
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: was a local news anchor.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And a local anchor isn't just a face on a screen.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: There is... a psychological halo effect at play there.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: They are in your living room every night. They are
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: perceived as pillars of the community, trustworthy, safe.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And he resigned around 2011 to supposedly focus on the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: business he shared with Angie, the pharmacist. So you've got
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: two kids, Grant and Gracie. An immaculate suburban profile.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Yet in 2013, court records reveal that Aaron filed for divorce. Okay.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: And this was the moment the private reality spilled into
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the public record.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Angie responded to the divorce filing with catastrophic allegations against Aaron.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: She accused him of physical, mental, and sexual abuse against
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: her and their two children.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: So Aaron countersues for slander. And usually in these cases,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: if someone makes false abuse allegations of that magnitude, that
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: is an open and shut defamation win for the accused, right?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Like he clears his name in civil court and simultaneously
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: dismantles her credibility.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: You would assume that, yeah, but the mechanics of civil
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: litigation are rarely that clean.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Aaron's slander lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by the judge.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: However, it was dismissed primarily on procedural and financial grounds,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: not on the veracity of the abuse claims.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: OK, explain that.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Defamation law requires the plaintiff to prove actual financial harm
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: or damages resulting from the false statements.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Furthermore, the judge stated that the federal court was not
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the proper venue for the suit. Federal courts, they often
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: decline to entangle themselves in disputes that are deeply rooted
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: in domestic relations and family law. They defer to state
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: family courts.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So the dismissal of the slander suit wasn't a vindication
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of Angie's claims.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Far from it. In the court documents related to that
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: very dismissal, the judge explicitly noted that the state divorce
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: court had already evaluated Angie's allegations of abuse and found
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: that they, quote, lacked merit.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The family court looked at the evidentiary standard required
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: for custody and determined the claims of physical, mental, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: sexual abuse were unsubstantiated.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And the resulting custody arrangement was incredibly severe. Aaron was
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: awarded full custody of both Grant and Gracie. Angie's access
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: was reportedly restricted to just a couple of hours of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: supervised visitation a week. And later on, Aaron actually sued
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: her for back child support and legal fees, which Angie
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: agreed she owed.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have to think of the local justice
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: system as a series of circuit breakers designed to handle
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: disputes and protect the vulnerable.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Like the police, child protective services, family court judges, appellate courts.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Exactly. All those layers. And Angie's narrative... The story she
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: began broadcasting to the community was that Aaron had the
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: power and influence to bypass every single one of those breakers.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Right, because of his anchor status.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She claimed his status as a former anchor, his
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: political connections, and his ties to a high-powered church allowed
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: him to rig the system. She even alleged he used
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: this influence to have her involuntarily committed to a mental
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: institution just to systematically discredit her as a witness.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: It is a terrifying premise either way you slice it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: If she is telling the truth, a man used institutional
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: leverage to trap children in an abusive home and gaslight
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a mother into an asylum. But if she is lying,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: a mother weaponized the most horrific accusations imaginable, backed by
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the credibility of a mental health crisis, to completely destroy
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a man's reputation. simply because she lost custody.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: It's like a legal hall of mirrors. Yeah. Depending on
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: whose reflection you look at, Erin is either a mastermind
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: manipulating the justice system or a victim of a relentless,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: baseless smear campaign by a vindictive ex.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And for years, this localized conflict just simmered. But
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: on July 20th, 2020... The narrative escalated from a bitter
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: family dispute into an irreversible tragedy.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, it did. The battlefield shifted entirely when their 18-year-old son,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Grant Solomon, died.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Right. He was a promising high school baseball player. Yeah.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: And he died at a baseball training facility in Gallatin, Tennessee,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: up in Sumner County.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: And the official determination by the Sumner County Police Department
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: was that this was a freak, tragic accident.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: The police narrative states that Grant was getting equipment out
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of the back of his five-year-old Toyota Tacoma. And the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: truck supposedly slipped out of gear or suffered a mechanical failure,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: rolled backward down a steep hill in the parking lot,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and dragged Grant into a ditch, fatally crushing him.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: But the inescapable complication in this official ruling is the
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: witness list. Yeah. There was exactly one witness to this event,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: and that was Aaron Solomon.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Aaron was the only person present, and Aaron made the
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: 911 call.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Justin Shepard, the digital journalist from Our Source Material— He
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: spends a significant amount of time highlighting what he sees
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: as physical anomalies in the police and medical reports.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: He does.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: He focuses heavily on the physics of the scene, like
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: it's July in Tennessee.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Which is incredibly hot.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Asphalt temperatures can easily exceed 140 degrees. Yet
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Shepard claims the reports show no massive drag marks on
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the pavement and, more importantly, no severe road rash on
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Grant's body that you would expect from a large athletic
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: teenager being dragged under a truck.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Shepard also points to the thermal reality of the vehicle itself.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Well, they had just driven 40 to 50 miles from
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Franklin to Gallatin. That engine, the undercarriage, the exhaust system,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: all of it would be operating at maximum temperature.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: If a person is trapped and crushed underneath a hot
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: vehicle like that, thermal burns are a standard forensic expectation.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: But according to Shepard....
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Grant had no exhaust burns.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Shepard also scrutinizes the 911 call, claiming Aaron didn't sound, quote,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: overly concerned or appropriately panicked.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he mentions that.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: And I have to push back hard on the specific methodology.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, analyzing a 911 call to determine guilt is
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: an incredibly dangerous armchair metric.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, entirely.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Trauma responses bypass the logical brain entirely. When a human
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: being is subjected to catastrophic, sudden shock like watching their
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: child crushed by a vehicle, the nervous system can trigger
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a massive dissociative state.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Right. Flight, fight or freeze.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Some people scream. Some people go entirely flat and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: sound robotic. Is it responsible for Internet sleuths to treat
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a lack of audible hysterics as evidence of murder?
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: It is deeply irresponsible and medically flawed. The court of
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: law does not convict based on the pitch of a
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: panicked voice.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: However. In the court of public opinion, the 911 call
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: serves as confirmation bias. When you have a vacuum of witnesses,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: and the sole survivor is already the target of a
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: years-long smear campaign regarding severe abuse, the public immediately fills
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: that vacuum with conspiracy.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's inevitable.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: For Angie and her supporters, the Sumner County police ruling
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: wasn't the result of a standard investigation. It was just
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: another circuit breaker Aaron had successfully bypassed.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: The physical evidence, the truck itself, became this bizarre focal
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: point of their campaign, actually. Angie claimed Aaron kept the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: truck and drove it for a while after Grant's death
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: until it was totaled in a wreck. And she suspects
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: that wreck was intentional automotive insurance fraud.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: And she took it a step further. Angie allegedly tracked
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: down the specific junkyard where the totaled truck was taken,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: purchased the crushed vehicle, and hid it away in a
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: storage unit.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Which paints a picture of a mother desperately trying to
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: preserve a crime scene the police refused to acknowledge. Right.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And to fund this fight, she launched a GoFundMe campaign that,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: according to Shepard, raised over $ 200, 000.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And this is where we have to look closely at
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: the mechanics of independent investigations.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Right, because what was the money for?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Well, exhuming a body is legally complex and incredibly expensive.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: You have to petition a court, secure a medical examiner
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: willing to perform a private second autopsy, and coordinate specialized transport.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Not to mention the vehicle analysis.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Hiring top-tier traffic reconstruction experts, engineers who can digitally
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: map the topography of the parking lot and run mechanical
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: stress tests on the transmission of a hidden, crushed truck
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: that costs tens of thousands of dollars. The $ 200, 000 raised
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: was explicitly meant for these exact procedures.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: But Shepard points out a glaring issue. It has been
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: nearly five years.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: The rant has not been exhumed. No bombshell independent traffic
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: reconstruction report has been released to the media. The money
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: appears to have sat untouched or at least unused for
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: its stated purpose.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: If you have the funding, the physical evidence in a
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: storage unit and the absolute conviction that your son was murdered,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: why does the investigation stall? It creates a massive credibility gap.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: It does. It forces you to question whether the goal
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: of the campaign was actually scientific exoneration and legal action.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: or simply the generation of public outrage. And while the
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: physical investigation stalled, the digital war escalated dramatically. Less than
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: a year after Grant died, the battleground shifted. If the
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: courts wouldn't listen, they needed a jury who would. They
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: took the case directly to the algorithm.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I want to pause here and just acknowledge the sheer
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: heaviness of what comes next.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: If you are listening to this and feeling completely overwhelmed
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: by the cascade of trauma we are discussing, you are
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: not alone. The public reaction to this next event was visceral,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and rightly so. On May 12, 2021, an 18-minute video
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: was uploaded to YouTube under the account Freedom for Gracie.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: And the video features Gracie Solomon, who was 16 years
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: old at the time of the upload, though she references
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: letters and journal entries from when she was as young
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: as 12. In this video, a minor directly, publicly accuses
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: her father of the most heinous crimes imaginable.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: She calls him a monster, a rapist, a molester, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: a liar.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: She explicitly claims that Aaron never let her mother bathe
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: her as a child to ensure his own access to her.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: She says she felt more like a wife to him
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: than a daughter.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Just horrific things to hear a teenager say.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Truly. And she accuses him of being a killer, stating
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that Grant died protecting her.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: And the scale of this escalation cannot be overstated. Gracie
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: and Angie eventually took this narrative from a YouTube channel
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: directly to national television.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Securing an interview on News Nation with Ashley Banfield. On
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: national TV, Gracie, still a minor, doubled down on the
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: accusations of abuse and murder.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: During these broadcasts, they presented a highly specific motive for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: why Aaron allegedly murdered Grant.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this was a major addition to the narrative.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Gracie claimed that Grant had previously testified in juvenile court.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: According to her, the judge dismissed Grant's concerns, allegedly telling
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the teenager, I think you're big enough to take care
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of yourself. Gracie's narrative is that Grant, feeling failed by
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the system, formulated a plan. The moment he turned 18,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: he was going to initiate new legal proceedings to expose
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Aaron and Sue for full custody of Gracie to rescue her.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: So that's the alleged motive.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Yes. The allegation is that Aaron discovered this impending legal
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: threat and killed Grant to silence him.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, we have
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: to examine how social media acts as a completely unregulated
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: judicial system.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: When you post an 18-minute video of a teenager recounting
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: horrific abuse, the algorithmic standard of proof is not beyond
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: a reasonable doubt.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: No, of course not.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: The standard is emotional resonance and social proof. That video
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: garnered over 177,000 views. To a viewer, the trauma in
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: her voice sounds entirely real. Therefore, the viewer assumes the
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: specific factual allegations she's making must also be entirely true.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Completely bypassing the fact that multiple state agencies previously investigated
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and found no merit. Here's where it gets really interesting, though,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: from a jurisdictional standpoint. Justin Shepard brings up a critical
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: detail regarding where some of this abuse allegedly took place.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Right, the out-of-state allegations.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yes. Angie claimed that instances of abuse occurred at a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: baseball game in North Carolina.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: And that geographic detail is a legal game changer.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Why is that?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Well, the entire foundation of Angie's public defense for why
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: Aaron was never arrested in Tennessee was his immense localized
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: political and social power.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Right, the connection.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: He allegedly controlled the local judges and local cops. But
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: the moment you allege that domestic or sexual abuse occurred
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: across state lines, you trigger federal jurisdiction.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, right.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Specifically laws related to the Interstate Domestic Violence Act, Or
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: federal child exploitation statutes.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Crossing state lines invites the FBI into the investigation.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And the FBI does not care about a local Nashville
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: news anchor's ties to a Tennessee church.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Shepard noted he heard rumors the FBI was looking into
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the North Carolina allegations. Yet he explicitly states nothing came
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of it. No federal indictments, no late night FBI raids,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: just another legal dead end.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Which brings us to the most debated aspect of this
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: entire saga. And that's Aaron Solomonow's response.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is highly contested.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Faced with a viral YouTube campaign calling him a rapist,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: national television broadcasts accusing him of murdering his son, and
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: a highly mobilized internet mob, Aaron deployed a PR strategy
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: that absolutely infuriated true crime journalists.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Complete absolute silence in the media.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. He has never spoken publicly to the press about
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: the abuse allegations or his son's death.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: And Justin Shepard is highly critical of this.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he compares Aaron's silence to Brian Laundrie.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Right. And for context, Brian Laundrie was the fiancé of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Gabby Petito. He entirely stonewalled the police and the public
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: while Gabby was missing, a tactic that the public almost
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: universally reads as an admission of guilt.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Shepard argues that if Aaron is innocent, he should be
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: acting like a high-profile celebrity facing a scandal, like Jay-Z
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: or someone.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Deploying aggressive PR teams, giving interviews, and forcefully clearing his name.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: But this is the ultimate paradox of modern public relations
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: versus legal liability.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: We're 100%.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: In a court of law, your silence is a constitutional right.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: In the court of public opinion, silence is a confession.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: But look at the reality of Aaron's situation. If you
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: are a defense attorney, you tell your client to never
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: speak to the media because any slight inconsistency in a
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: frantic interview will be weaponized.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: And from a human perspective, I really have to push
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: back on Shepard's demand for a media tour. I agree.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Is it truly fair or productive to expect a father
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to go on national TV and verbally eviscerate his traumatized
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: teenage daughter? If we assume for a moment that Aaron
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: is innocent of the abuse and the murder, he is
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: watching his surviving child, who just tragically lost her brother,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: broadcast horrific things about him under the influence of her mother.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Maybe his silence isn't a sinister calculation. Maybe it's the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: only way he knows how to avoid inflicting further damage.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Publicly calling her a liar on television won't bring Grant back,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and it certainly won't repair Gracie's psyche.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: And Aaron's sister, Courtney, made this exact point in Instagram comments,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: defending his refusal to entertain the media circus. But it
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: is vital to note that Aaron was not entirely passive.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: His response was just strictly confined to the legal arena.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: He filed defamation lawsuits against Angie and several adult social
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: media creators who amplified her claims.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Notably, he did not name Gracie as a defendant. He
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: targeted the adults driving the narrative. And this brings up
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the mechanics of defamation in the true crime space. Shepard
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: talks about the legal boundary of the word, allegedly.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in defamation law, particularly when dealing with public figures
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: or matters of public concern, the plaintiff has to prove
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: actual malice.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Which means?
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: It means that the creator knew the information was false
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, I see.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: True crime creators often use words like supposedly or allegedly
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: as a magic shield. But if a creator abandons those
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: qualifiers and presents unproven accusations as objective fact, they cross
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: from protected speculation into actionable defamation.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Erina's lawsuits were a legal mechanism to force these creators
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: to prove their claims in court or face severe financial ruin.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: So we have this years-long pressure cooker, unproven allegations, federal
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: jurisdictions ignored, unspent GoFundMe money, defamation lawsuits, and a complete
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: breakdown of a family. Yeah. All of this is the
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: necessary preamble that explains why a former pharmacist might feel
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: that the only remaining option was a 2.15 p.m. meeting
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: in a mall parking lot.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The digital noise finally crystallized into a physical, undeniable
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: criminal act. Angie Solomon's arrest for solicitation of murder abruptly
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: halts the momentum of her viral justice campaign and initiates
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: a very real legal reckoning.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Let's look at the fallout. Angie is currently being held
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: on a $ 500, 000 bond. Her initial bond hearing was pushed
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: back to late May. Shepard speculates this delay is tactical,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that prosecutors are using the time to prepare additional charges,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: perhaps related to the mechanics of the plot itself or
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: other aspects of this sprawling saga.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: And the legal scrutiny is expanding into financial forensics, actually.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, regarding the GoFundMe. Yes.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Aaron's legal team has reportedly subpoenaed Chase Bank Records to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: track that money.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: If over $ 200, 000 was solicited from the public under the
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: specific advertised premise of investigating Grant's death and those funds
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: were diverted to personal expenses or hypothetically used to fund
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: a murder-for-hire plot, that introduces a cascade of potential wire
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: fraud or theft by deception charges.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Which utterly destroys her credibility as a victim advocate. Justin
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Shepard admits this in the broadcast.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: He does.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: The revelation of the trust fund motive, combined with the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: sheer audacity of trying to hire a hitman, caused him
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and other true crime creators to quietly step back from
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the case even before the arrest went public.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: It is the tragedy of the unreliable narrator. In literature,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: if the person telling you this story is exposed as
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: a liar or a criminal, the reader questions every single
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: detail they previously accepted as truth. In real life, it
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: has devastating consequences. Because of Angie's arrest, the state district
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: attorney in Sumner County has publicly stated they have zero
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: interest in reopening the investigation into Grant Solomon's death.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: It makes sense.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: From a legal standpoint, a mother's subsequent attempt to murder
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the father does not magically generate forensic evidence that the
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: father murdered the son four years prior.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for the people left
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: standing in the wreckage? I mean, ask yourself. What happens
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: to a viral justice movement when the leader is arrested
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in a murder sting? Does a mother's descent into criminal
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: conspiracy invalidate the very real trauma her daughter claims to
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: have experienced?
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: That is the most painful question of all, particularly regarding Gracie.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: At 18, she is now a legal adult. Shepard notes
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: that if she wishes to pursue any legal action regarding
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: her allegations of abuse, her only viable path is to
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: speak entirely for herself, completely severing her narrative from her
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: mother's actions.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: That's a huge burden.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: It is. She faces a monumental uphill battle. She's confronting
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: a legal system that has already reviewed these claims and
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: found no merit. And she's now facing a public that
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: is deeply skeptical of her family's entire dynamic.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: This intensely localized Tennessee story is a masterclass in the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: terrifying duality of our modern information ecosystem.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, complete.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: On one hand, it shows us how easily a tragic
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: localized accident can be weaponized into a sprawling viral murder
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: conspiracy through the sheer power of algorithmic outrage and a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: GoFundMe page. It challenges you to ask yourself, how fast
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: do you believe a highly emotional TikTok video before you
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: wait for the slow, often boring, but entirely necessary legal
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: facts to emerge?
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: But we must hold the opposing thought as well. The
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: reverse scenario is equally terrifying. If abuse truly is happening
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: behind closed doors, a person with enough community influence and
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: institutional knowledge could theoretically mask it, utilizing the very systems
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: designed to protect victims to make those victims appear unhinged
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: to the outside world.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: It is a dark, complex labyrinth, but there is one
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: final lingering thought that hangs over this entire case. something
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: not explicitly debated in the source material but undeniably present,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and that is the concept of digital permanence.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Yes. If we play out the legal tape to its
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: furthest conclusion, let's say Angie Solomon is convicted of this
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: murder-for-hire plot and sent to federal or state prison. Okay.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: And let's say Aaron Solomon is completely unequivocally innocent of
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: every single horrific thing he's been accused of over the
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: past decade.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: Even if he is totally vindicated in a court of law,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: his name will forever be permanently tethered to the words
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: monster- Rapist and killer in every major search engine.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: That 18 minute video, those national television broadcasts, they are
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: part of his permanent digital record.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: In an era where the Internet never forgets and an
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: accusation can be viewed by millions before the truth even
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: puts its boots on, we have to ask, is true
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: exoneration even possible anymore? Once that digital verdict is rendered
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: by the algorithm, can a person ever actually clear their name?
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: It's a sobering thought.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It really is. Thank you for joining us on this
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: incredibly dense, deep dive into the Solomon family case. We'll
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: be back next time to unpack another stack of sources.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Until then, keep questioning what you read and always look
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: closely at the source of the story.