170: Blue Eyed Butcher: The Controversial Murder of Jeff Wright

WEBVTT

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Southern Fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. On

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a Saturday in January of two thousand
three, Neil Davis was trying to enjoy

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his weekend. He was a young
criminal defense attorney who had recently secured a

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job at an impressive Texas law firm. His new firm represented a laundry list

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of high profile clients like American cult
leader David Koresh, but so far,

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Davis hadn't had a chance to test
his medal on a high profile case of

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his own. Little did Davis know
that was about to change. He received

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a cryptic call from his firm that
he needed a head over to northwest Houston.

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There was a situation with a client's
daughter. It was urgent, a

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matter of life and death. Saying
about at his week end, Davis copied

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down an address. By mid afternoon, he arrived at the small suburban home

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of Jeff and Susan Wright. It
looked like a normal house. It was

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small, with a small lawn and
a wooden privacy fence. The woman who

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answered the door also looked normal.
If a little teary eyed. After some

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conversation, the woman led Davis through
the house and opened the door to the

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back yard. Again normal, a
dog, grass, some tools lying around,

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but after a moment's pause, Davis
saw it an arm sticking out of

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a plot of recently disturbed dirt.
Welcome to episode one seventy, The Blue

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Eyed Butcher, The controversial murder of
Jeff Wright. Jeffrey Andrew Wright was born

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on March first, nineteen sixty eight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to his

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mother Kay and his father, Ronald
Senior. Jeff had a sister and a

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brother. We don't know much about
his childhood or upbringing, but as an

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adult, Jeff's friends described him as
a happy, go lucky guy with a

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congenial, backslapping personality. He was
a Christian who attended church regularly, but

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Jeff didn't follow the straight narrow path
strictly. Actually, Jeff's friends described him

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as a hardcore party animal. His
friend Paul Collin said, when Jeff and

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I would party, anything went.
I mean drugs, alcohol, partying for

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days at a time, no sleep. It was just completely out of control.

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But Jeff didn't just do drugs.
He also sold, distributed and muled

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illegal drugs across the country. In
nineteen ninety six, twenty eight year old

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Jeff was called smuggling a large amount
of marijuana from Mexico to the US.

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He was held in jail and Mexico
until his then girlfriend Misty McMichael drug of

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hours from Central Texas to the Mexican
border and paid his twenty five hundred dollar

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bill. Misty later claimed Jeff never
paid her back. But the next year,

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in nineteen ninety seven, everything changed
for Jeff. While lounging on a

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beach in Galveston, Texas, Jeff
met an attractive woman named Susan Wike.

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She was a twenty year old Houston
waitress on vacation with her friends. Jeff

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was a twenty nine year old carpet
and flooring salesman. Immediately, Jeff knew

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he had found something special in Susan. In an interview, Jeff's friend Paul

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said, He'd told me he found
the girl who was going to be the

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one. This was the one he
was going to marry, This would be

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the mother of his kids. He
was ecstatic. Susan Lucille Wike was born

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on April twenty fourth, nineteen seventy
six to her mother Sue and her father,

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Jimmy. She had a twin brother
and an older sister named Cindy.

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They were raised in an up her
middle class home in the Champions area of

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northwest Harris County in Houston, Texas. Susan was a Texas woman born and

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raised. She spent her entire life
within or nearby Houston. Susan's mother was

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a stay at home mom who loved
to bake. Her father was a wealthy

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mechanical engineer with a bad temper,
but it's debatable just how bad his temper

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was. In twenty ten, Susan's
sister, Cindy, gave an interview with

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Texas Monthly. At the time of
the interview, Cindy was an assistant professor

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of psychology at the University of Houston
Downtown. In the interview, Cindy explained

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that their father would regularly beat their
mother. According to Cindy, she and

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her siblings were taught that it was
perfectly acceptable for husbands to yell at,

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belittle, and rape their wives.
As a child, Cindy didn't realize other

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people's father's didn't attack their mothers.
She also said that sometimes their father would

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hit her. Susan and their brother
too. Both of the white parents have

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consistently denied these domestic violence allegations,
and later in court, Susan didn't use

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this to defend herself. She said
she didn't want to embarrass her family.

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However, Susan agreed with Cindy's account
of their traumatic childhood. Susan's friends and

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family described her as timid and quick
to cry when other students were mean to

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Susan at school, she would never
stand up for herself. One time,

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she tried out for the high school
drill team. During tryouts, an older

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girl made a rude comment to her, and Susan was so upset that she

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transferred schools. In class, Susan
was a C student. Outside of class,

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she had an active social life and
dated boys regularly. She told Texas

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Monthly that she craved the attention that
young men gave her in her teen years,

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and for Susan, young men were
an abundant supply. By all accounts,

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she was a pretty woman, but
Susan lacked self confidence, so she

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was susceptible to criticism, no matter
how dumb it was. Once a boyfriend

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insulted Susan's weight despite how slender she
was, so she went on a crash

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diet and lost nineteen pounds in a
matter of weeks. Shortly after high school,

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Susan moved out of her family's home. She didn't seem to have a

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clear path forward, yet, she
worked at a harri salon while taking classes

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at the local junior college. When
she turned eighteen, she became a topless

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dancer at the Gold Cup strip club
in Houston. Susan's family was baffled by

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her choice of a job. Susan
had always aspired to be a stereotypical,

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prim and proper young lady, the
kind of woman who would apologize for saying

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crap as a curseword. But Susan
told Texas Monthly that she started stripping mostly

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because her then boyfriend encouraged her too. She didn't dance at the Gold Cup

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for long, only working for two
months and only on Saturdays. After that,

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she stayed on as a waitress for
a while. In less than two

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years, Susan had left the Gold
Cup entirely and was waitressing for a different

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restaurant. That's when she met Jeff
Wright, the cute and successful salesman on

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her vacation to a beach in Galveston. As soon as Jeff met Susan,

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he began showering her with attention.
He called her two or three times a

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day. He brought her flowers and
gifts. He took her to fancy nightclubs.

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Basically, Jeff was trying to sweep
Susan off her feet, and Susan

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was thoroughly swept. Today we would
call this love bombing. The clinical definition

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of love bombing has been around since
the seventies, but it wasn't a part

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of the larger discussion on relationships that
we have to day. Susan thought Jeff

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was charming, and she appreciated that
he had traditional values. He wanted a

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stay at home wife, kids,
a house, and a dog. Susan

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wanted that life too. When Jeff
told her he wanted to open his own

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carpet and flooring business some day,
Susan thought Jeff showed ambition. Plus,

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Susan thought Jeff was handsome. He
was six foot two, fit, and,

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in Susan's words, had beautiful brown
eyes. Jeff also thought Susan was

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gorgeous. She had blonde hair,
blue eyes, and was petite. Susan

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barely reached Jeff's shoulder, since she
was five foot three inches tall, almost

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a foot shorter than he was.
They matched in that classical opposite kind of

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way. He was dark with boyish, impish dimples. She was fair with

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a beauty queen's wide, perfect smile. Jeff told his friends that Susan saved

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his life. Before he met her, he was drinking and partying way too

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much. But now that he had
Susan, Jeff wanted to be home with

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her and start a family. It
seemed like that's what Susan wanted to She

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described her relationship with Jeff as a
fairy tale. Susan and Jeff's friends could

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see how enamored they were with each
other, and an interview with Snapped.

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Jeff's friend Mary Brow said, they
did look adoringly at each other. They

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hugged, they were affectionate, they
held hands. I thought it was a

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very good relationship, but fairy tales
can be deceiving. In February of nineteen

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ninety eight, Susan became unexpectedly pregnant. The couple had only been dating less

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than a year. She and Jeff
discussed having an abortion, which Jeff was

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okay with but ultimately they decided to
keep the baby. But Jeff's friends weren't

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sure he was ready to be a
dad yet, after all, he had

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only just stopped his intense party lifestyle
when he had met Susan. But also,

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according to his friends, Jeff was
determined to do the right thing by

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marrying Susan, but it took him
a while to decide. Susan said,

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when she was eight months pregnant,
he handed her an engagement ringing while they

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were in his truck and asked her
to marry him. So shortly after,

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on October tenth of nineteen ninety eight, Susan and Jeff were married in a

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small church ceremony. Their wedding reception
was held at the local outback steakhouse.

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It wasn't their dream wedding, but
it was the best they could afford.

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And even if people won't say it, not all couples want the big wedding

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with the fancy dress. When the
bride is that pregnant, this would be

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more of a shotgun wedding. On
November fourteenth, Susan gave birth to a

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boy who will call gus. In
April of nineteen ninety nine, the Right

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family moved into a small but nice
house in the White Oak Bend subdivision in

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northwest Harris County. Two years later, Susan gave birth to their second child,

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a daughter we will call Kara.
Jeff's friends said he was incredibly proud

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of his wife and two children,
and, according to Susan's best friend,

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Jamie, Susan should have been living
her dream. She loved being a homemaker,

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taking care of the kids and having
dinner on the table every evening.

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Jamie said she was always giving me
cleaning tips and cooking tips, and how

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to get the baseboards clean, and
how to whip up this great three course

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meal in twenty minutes. She managed
to do it all. It's true,

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Susan did trove very hard to be
the picture perfect wife and mother. Although

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Susan was the primary caretaker for her
and Jeff's children, she also worked part

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time at an orthodonist office. She
wanted to become a nurse and was trying

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to earn enough money to pay for
her nursing school tuition, but Jeff controlled

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all of their finances. At his
request, Susan gave him her paychecks.

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In return, Jeff would give Susan
a weekly allowance of seventy five dollars to

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raise the kids and buy the family
groceries. Seventy five dollars in nineteen ninety

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eight is one hundred and forty dollars
today. Maybe enough to pay for a

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family of four's groceries, but just
barely, certainly not enough for Susan to

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save money for nursing school. Money
was always a tough topic for Jeff and

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Susan. In the fall of two
thousand and two, Susan said Jeff wasn't

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making it. Susan said Jeff wasn't
making as much money as he had been

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for unknown reasons. Jeff had to
get a new, lower paying job,

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and Jeff was struggling with his drug
addictions. Again. I'm going to pause

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now for a short commercial break.
Susan claimed that Jeff came home drunk,

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often smoked pot daily, and occasionally
used harder drugs like cocaine. Ron Wright,

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Jeff's father, confirmed that Jeff had
a drug problem during this time,

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but according to Ron it wasn't a
big deal. He said Jeff was good

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at keeping his drug habit under control, but a habit is a habit,

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and this was Jeff's dad, talking
Ron also said that Susan was incorrect about

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her family's finances. From Ron's perspective, Jeff was quote making good money and

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in fact was planning on building a
new house and at the time shopping for

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a new car for her. A
friend of Jeff's also believed that the right

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family was financially fine. He told
Snapped, I wouldn't say they were rich.

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Jeff had a pretty decent truck,
Susan had a nice car. But

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these are outside appearances, and a
cocaine habit is expensive. So even if

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someone is making good money and seems
financially stable, they still could have been

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struggling. And despite what others thought
the marriage looked like from the outside,

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Susan was unhappy with how things were, and in two thousand three, their

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marriage of five years was falling apart. On Monday, January thirteenth, two

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thousand three, Susan called her mother
in law Kay. She was extremely upset.

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She told Kay that Jeff had come
home from his boxing class high on

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cocaine. He had, according to
Susan, punched their four year old Gusts

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in the face. Outraged that Jeff
had hit their son, Susan said she

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snapped at Jeff, which started a
heated argument. She said she kicked him

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out of the house and he left
on foot. She said that Jeff's parting

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words were, fucked this house,
I'm tired of you and the kids.

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Kay was caught off guard. Her
son had called her several hours earlier on

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his way home from the boxing class. To Kay, he had seemed fine.

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Susan also called her best friend Jamie. She explained to Jamie that she

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and Jeff had had a terrible fight. Once more, Susan reiterated that Jeff

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had stormed off in a fit of
anger. Concerned for her friend, Jamie

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urged Susan to call the authorities and
make a report about Jeff hitting gus,

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but at this time Susan didn't.
On Tuesday, January fourteenth, Susan went

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to her doctor, Stephen Fisher.
She was covered in bruises and cuts,

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which Susan said happened when Jeff had
attacked her during their argument the day before.

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Susan hadn't told her mother in law, Kay or her best friend Jamie

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that Jeff was violent toward her that
night. She had only mentioned Jeff punching

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Gus. At doctor Fisher's urging,
Susan made plans to get a restraining order

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against Jeff the next day. Two
days after Jeff left, on Wednesday,

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January fifteenth, Susan entered the Harris
County Police station. She spoke to a

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deputy, telling him about Jeff's drug
usage, that he hit their son,

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Guss, and had attacked her.
She explained that when she fussed Jeff for

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hitting Gus, he lashed out.
He grabbed Susan by the wrists, twisted

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her face to the wall, and
repeatedly slammed her into the walls while screaming

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at her. The cuts on Susan's
hands happened because Jeff was holding his keys

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when he grabbed her, As Susan
had told several others, after Jeff had

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hurt her, he walked out of
the home and had not returned this.

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Deputy Officer Scott Hall believed Susan's account
without question. He took pictures of the

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cuts on her hands for evidence and
put out an arrest warrant for Jeff Wright.

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Officer Hall said in interviews, Susan
appeared to be a victim of domestic

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violence. That's what I perceived at
the time, she was very tearful,

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crying a lot, acted extremely afraid
of Jeff returning home. Indeed, every

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time Susan spoke to a person about
Jeff's violence, she appeared very concerned that

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he would return and harm her.
When the authorities called Susan on Friday,

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January seventeenth to ask if Susan had
figured out where Jeff was, she claimed

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she still had no idea, but
she could tell the police that she feared

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Jeff would come back to the house
to hurt her. Susan's close family members

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said during this time after Jeff disappeared, Susan was withdrawn and panicked. She

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had also told them that she was
terrified Jeff would return and hurt her.

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It had been four days since anyone
had laid eyes on Jeff Wright. People

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were starting to get worried. Jeff's
friends said his cell phone went straight to

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voicemail. Ron Wright, his dad, said he became anxious about Jeff's disappearance

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when Jeff didn't call on his wedding
anniversary. Jeff always remembered to call on

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important dates, and Ron also wondered
why was jeff truck still in the driveway

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even if Jeff intended to leave his
wife and kids, wouldn't he have taken

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his truck. Meanwhile, Susan continued
to tell people that Jeff had walked out

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on her and the kids, but
her story changed a little over time.

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At first, Susan told her mother
in law and friend that Jeff had only

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struck gus Later, Susan told the
doctor and the police that Jeff slammed her

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00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:44.200
into the wall. Susan also told
the police that Jeff had cut her hands

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with his car keys, but she
told others that Jeff had scratched her with

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his nails. But no matter who
Susan spoke to, she repeated over and

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over again that she was scared Jeff
was going to come home and hurt her.

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00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.039
To some people, Susan said,
Jeff did return home, but she

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wasn't present at the time, and
her absence, Jeff had allegedly ransacked the

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house, poured bleach onto Susan's clothing, wrote Susan a note, and left

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the house again. Strangely, Jeff
again did not take his truck. It

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00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:25.200
was still in the driveway. On
Saturday, January eighteenth, five days after

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Jeff went missing, Susan met with
her parents. She told them that she

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was feeling physically and mentally awful.
I'm not sure exactly how the conversation came

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00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:41.119
to this question, but eventually Susan's
mother asked her what we've all been wondering,

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00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:47.920
did she kill Jeff? In response, Susan put her head down on

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the table. After a time,
she told her mother that she had killed

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Jeff on Monday, January thirteenth.
He had never walked out. In a

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fit of anger, Susan used a
knife to stab Jeff death and had hidden

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his body on the property. She
said the murder happened when four year old

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Guests and baby Kara were in bed. She said, Mamma, it wasn't

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me. I snapped. I was
up in there and I saw somebody do

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it, but it wasn't me.
Immediately, Susan's mother called attorney Neil Davis,

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who went to the police station.
At this time, Davis didn't reveal

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00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:29.960
much to law enforcement. He just
wrote down Susan's address on the back of

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00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.880
a business card, gave it to
the officers, and explained that there was

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00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:38.200
a body at this location. A
short while after, Davis had given the

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00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:42.680
authorities a cryptic message about a body
and an address scrawled on the back of

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00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:48.000
a business card. Detective Mark Reynolds
and his investigative team arrived at the right

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family home. Reynolds had been employed
by the Harris County Sheriff's Apartment for over

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00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:59.559
twenty years. He had been a
detective for twelve years and worked in the

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Homiest Side division for ten years.
Throughout his law enforcement career, Reynolds had

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investigated hundreds of homicides, but none
like this one. In Susan and Jeff's

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backyard were several unfinished home improvement projects. Jeff had dug a shallow hole so

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that he could install a water fountain. In that same hole, investigators found

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thirty four year old Jeff's partially buried
body. He was faced down. The

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back of his head, left shoulder, and left arm were exposed. When

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the police unearthed Jeff's body, they
discovered he was completely nude. Neck ties

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were tied around each of his wrists, and a bathrobe sash was tied around

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his right ankle. There was no
binding on his left ankle. The officers

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also documented candle wax on Jeff's thigh
and scrotum. Based on the scene,

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investigators suspected that Jeff's body was fully
buried, but the family dog had dug

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00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:06.440
it up. An animal, probably
the same family dog, had partially eaten

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one of Jeff's hands. Inside the
house, the master bedroom was a mess.

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Blood was splattered on their curtains,
walls, ceiling, furniture, and

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other items in the bedroom. Blood
was especially visible on one wall in particular,

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although someone had recently tried to paint
over it. A piece of the

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carpet had been cut out and other
portions of the carpet were bleached. The

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00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:37.599
floor was littered with different items,
including paint supplies, a box cutter,

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and scissors. Authorities found a receipt
for two gallons of bleach bleach stained size,

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six women's jeans, and a towel. The bed was in pieces.

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All that remained of it was the
footboard and rails. The police recovered the

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bed's mattress, box spring, and
headboard from the backyard where they had found

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Jeff's body. The mattress was soaked
with blood. While searching the back yard,

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further investigators found a bloody knife with
the tip broken off. The knife

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tip was later found lodged in Jeff's
skull. Immediately Detective Reynolds suspected that Susan

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was the killer. His suspicions were
solidified when he saw at least ten bags

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of topsoil and the back of Jeff's
pickup truck. Reynolds also received a report

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that someone had recently seen Susan covered
in dirt. I'm going to pause now

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00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:41.079
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SFTC. Jeff's autopsy was performed by
the Assistant Harris County Medical Examiner, Doctor

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00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:41.960
Dwayne Wolfe. Doctor Wolfe determined that
Jeff had been stabbed approximately one hundred and

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00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:48.039
ninety three times. He had received
forty one stab wounds to the face,

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00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:52.319
twenty three to his neck, forty
six to his chest, twenty two to

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00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:59.039
his abdomen, seven to his pubic
region, including superficial cuts on his penis,

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00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.279
eighteen to his legs, twenty three
to his arms and hands, and

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00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:11.000
one to his back. The wounds
were not deep. No single stab wound

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00:27:11.119 --> 00:27:15.920
would have been fatal to Jeff on
its own, but the culmination of all

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00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:22.119
one hundred and ninety three had killed
him. Doctor Wolfe also clarified Jeff had

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00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:26.720
probably been stabbed more than one hundred
and ninety three times. Since Jeff's body

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00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:32.279
was so extraordinarily mutilated, it was
difficult for doctor Wolfe to differentiate one stab

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00:27:32.279 --> 00:27:38.039
wound from the next. Toxicology reports
showed that Jeff had alcohol, cocaine,

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00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:42.039
and GHB, which is commonly known
as a date rape drug, in his

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system before he died. From Monday, January thirteenth to Saturday January eighteenth,

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00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:53.720
Susan had lied. She had told
friends, family, doctors, and law

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00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.839
enforcement officials that Jeff had walked out
of their home after a bad fight.

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00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:03.640
Why would she do that? What
would push her to? As Susan herself

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00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:11.160
said Snap. Incidentally, Susan's case
was featured on the very first season of

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00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:18.960
the show Snapped. While local law
enforcement was searching Susan's home on Saturday January

325
00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:23.960
eighteenth, Susan was voluntary checking into
a psychiatric unit at the Ben Taub General

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00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:30.319
Hospital. One of the hospital's psychiatrists, doctor Jerome Brown, worked with Susan

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00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:37.519
extensively. She told doctor Brown that
her husband, Jeff Wright, had been

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00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:42.319
physically and emotionally abusing her for years. Susan told forty eight Hours, I

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00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:47.640
couldn't go on how things were.
Our whole marriage was a really big cover

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00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:52.960
up. According to Susan, Jeff
was not the easy going, good guy

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00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:56.759
he appeared to be behind closed doors. She said Jeff was a sadistic and

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00:28:56.839 --> 00:29:02.960
manipulative monster. When Susan first married
Jeff, she was sure they were a

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00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.640
match made in heaven. But after
the birth of their son in nineteen ninety

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00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:11.559
eight, Susan said, Jeff changed
instantly. Where he was thoughtful and nice

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00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:18.359
before, now he was controlling and
demanding. Suddenly, Jeff wanted Susan to

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00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:22.200
be the perfect housewife and mother.
Dinner had to be on time, the

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00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:27.079
house had to be spotless, the
newborn baby had to be quiet. When

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00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:33.279
Susan didn't meet Jeff's impossible standards,
he would become furious, and initially that's

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00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:41.079
all it was misplaced anger, Susan
said, Jeff's extreme anger started after she

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00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:47.480
had Guess. She said he was
critical of the weight she gained during her

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00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:52.480
pregnancy. She said he called her
a fat ass, stupid, and worthless.

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00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:56.880
When Susan was diagnosed with postpartum depression, she said Jeff wouldn't let her

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00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:03.000
take the antidepressants she had been prescribed. Susan explained, he said it wasn't

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00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:06.839
rocket science what women did and that
I needed to suck it up and do

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00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:11.480
my job. Susan said she tried
to talk with Jeff about improving his behavior.

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00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:15.440
After all, Jeff had never treated
Susan like this when they were dating.

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00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:21.559
Surely they could restore their relationship to
what it was before baby gus.

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00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:26.839
But soon after Susan began sharing her
complaints with Jeff, he began physically abusing

349
00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:33.839
her. She reported that Jeff would
kick her or hit her repeatedly, especially

350
00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:40.480
in the chest, stomach, back, and legs. While Susan never explicitly

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00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:44.920
told her sister Cindy that Jeff had
physically abused her, it was no surprise

352
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:48.759
to Cindy. She had seen the
bruises on Susan's arms and legs on two

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00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:55.440
occasions. Susan had a black eye. Susan's best friend, Jamie Darrhall,

354
00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:02.519
also suspected Jeff abused Susan, but
Susan never said Jeff caused the bruises.

355
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:07.799
Instead, she claimed they were accidents
or that Guss had accidentally thrown a toy

356
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.559
at her. Despite the alleged abuse, Susan felt it was her job to

357
00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:18.000
keep up the family's appearances. Cindy
told reporters that Susan wanted to make things

358
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:22.000
look beautiful on the outside so that
no one would wonder what it was like

359
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:29.319
on the inside. Cindy attributed Susan's
behavior to their childhood and how their father

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00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:34.720
was abusive toward their mother in a
seemingly picturesque home. One time in the

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00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:38.839
summer of nineteen ninety nine, Susan
said Jeff had thrown her through a wall

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00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:44.160
in her home. Cindy said she
saw the Susan sized hole in the wall

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00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:48.759
The next day. Cindy moved Susan
and her son Gus to their parents' house,

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00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:55.240
but Susan and Gus didn't stay long. After one night, Susan said

365
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:59.480
Jeff called her and told her that
he would kill her and Gus if she

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00:31:59.480 --> 00:32:04.000
didn't return hern home. The next
day, Jeff sent a moving truck to

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00:32:04.039 --> 00:32:07.960
Susan's parents' house. She packed up
her belongings and returned to Jeff with their

368
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:14.359
son. On another occasion of horrific
abuse, in December of two thousand,

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00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:20.720
Susan claimed that she miscarried after Jeff
kicked her in the stomach. Susan said

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00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.000
she couldn't go to the hospital because
Jeff forbade it. He said they couldn't

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00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:29.799
afford the medical bill. This was
between the birth of Susan's first child,

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00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:35.319
Gus, and her second child,
Kara. After Kara was born in two

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00:32:35.319 --> 00:32:39.680
thousand and one, Susan had postpartum
depression again. Just like when she struggled

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00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:45.279
after Guss's birth, Jeff had no
sympathy for her. To make matters worse,

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00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:50.359
Susan said Jeff began cheating on her. He used Internet dating sites to

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00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:54.359
meet new women. Jeff told Susan
he needed other women because she wasn't good

377
00:32:54.440 --> 00:33:00.799
enough. Due to Jeff's frequent extramarital
affairs, Susan claimed he her harpies.

378
00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:07.160
While Susan never shared with a single
soul that Jeff had abused her, she

379
00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:12.200
did tell her sister Cindy that Jeff
had a drug problem. He used cocaine

380
00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:17.400
and marijuana regularly. As their marriage
continued, Susan claimed that Jeff's drug abuse

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00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:23.680
worsened. According to Susan, when
Jeff was high, he was more likely

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00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:29.039
to abuse her. For example,
one time, he got high and began

383
00:33:29.160 --> 00:33:32.279
tossing baby gusts up into the air
as a way of playing with him.

384
00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:37.519
Susan was worried Jeff would accidentally drop
him and asked him to stop. In

385
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.839
response, Jeff told Susan she didn't
have the right to tell him when or

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00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:45.799
how he would pick up his son. She said, he threw her against

387
00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:49.960
the wall, shook her by her
arms, and punched her in the chest

388
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:57.960
repeatedly. Basically, Susan said Jeff
was unfaithful, drug addicted, physically abusive

389
00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:02.480
to her, and inappropriately aggressive toward
their children. By the time two thousand

390
00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.360
and three came around. Every mild
inconvenience sent Jeff into a spiral of anger

391
00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:13.360
and abuse. If there was an
issue with his paycheck, if he had

392
00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:16.119
had a bad encounter with a customer
at work, if the bills were too

393
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:21.400
high, if Susan hadn't cleaned the
house, correctly or made dinner to his

394
00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:27.440
standards. Still, Susan told no
one about Jeff's abuse. Even her sister

395
00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:31.280
Cindy and best friend Jamie, who
both suspected Jeff was abusive, didn't have

396
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:37.440
true confirmation. Susan said she never
considered going to the doctor to document the

397
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:43.320
bruises on her body, or falling
a police report to try to escape Jeff.

398
00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:47.599
She feared he would become even more
dangerous if she did. She later

399
00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:52.760
told Texas Monthly, I felt like
it was my fault. I felt if

400
00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:55.960
I could be perfect enough and he
would always be happy, then everything would

401
00:34:55.960 --> 00:35:01.880
be okay. When asked why she
didn't divorce Jeff, Susan said she couldn't.

402
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:07.159
Jeff had explained that if she left
him, he'd kill her, and

403
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:13.039
Susan believed him. That winter,
Susan claimed Jeff was out of control.

404
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:20.679
He wasn't making as much money and
was constantly frustrated about their finances. He

405
00:35:20.760 --> 00:35:25.119
was drunk all the time. Once, Jeff was so inebriated that he ped

406
00:35:25.199 --> 00:35:30.039
and their baby daughter Kara's crib.
Also, he had bought an air rifle

407
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:35.360
and hit Susan with it. He
threw bricks at her while they were working

408
00:35:35.400 --> 00:35:39.639
in the backyard, and Jeff's rules
for Susan were getting stricter and stricter.

409
00:35:40.519 --> 00:35:44.760
Susan was only allowed to go to
the grocery store and visit her mother.

410
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:49.960
She could not leave the house for
longer than ninety minutes. When Susan asked

411
00:35:49.960 --> 00:35:55.119
to take some college classes, Jeff
said no, he thought Susan would lie

412
00:35:55.159 --> 00:36:00.480
about going to classes and cheat on
him instead. Susan and Jeff's words,

413
00:36:00.519 --> 00:36:06.840
as reported by Susan a nasty whore, On New Year's Day of two thousand

414
00:36:06.840 --> 00:36:10.119
and three, she said, Jeff
told her happy fucking New Year, bitch,

415
00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:15.800
this will be your last. Two
weeks later, twenty six year old

416
00:36:15.800 --> 00:36:21.559
Susan killed thirty four year old Jeff. For five days, Susan hid the

417
00:36:21.639 --> 00:36:28.480
murder, telling everyone Jeff had left. On January eighteenth, Susan confessed and

418
00:36:28.599 --> 00:36:34.960
checked herself into a hospital psychiatric unit. On January twenty third, Susan was

419
00:36:35.039 --> 00:36:38.679
arrested, charged with first degree murder, and held in jail without bond.

420
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:50.519
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slash Southern fraud. Many of Jeff's
family and friends do not believe Jeff ever

451
00:39:21.960 --> 00:39:25.679
laid a hand on Susan. They
think that Susan lied about his domestic violence

452
00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:30.000
so she would be able to claim
she was a battered wife. Then she

453
00:39:30.039 --> 00:39:36.000
could say she killed him in self
defense in hopes of reducing or eliminating her

454
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:42.280
prison sentence. Ron Wright, Jeff's
father, told Court TV that Susan never

455
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:46.599
had any symptoms of being an abused
woman. But let's be fair. He's

456
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:52.639
Jeff's dad. I've watched the interviews, I've read the court documents. I

457
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:59.880
want to believe Susan is telling the
truth. I know these situations have happened

458
00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:07.119
where victims do not report their abuser's
violence, and with Susan saying Jeff usually

459
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:10.079
punched her in the chest, stomach, and legs, that is the classic

460
00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:15.840
way for an abuser to hide the
bruises. Not all domestic violence victims have

461
00:40:15.960 --> 00:40:21.639
black eyes all the time. People
always respond, will they never reported it,

462
00:40:21.679 --> 00:40:24.360
so it can't be true. But
we know, of course that sometimes

463
00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:30.199
it is true. Sometimes it is
literally impossible for a victim to escape their

464
00:40:30.199 --> 00:40:37.840
abuser without violence. In fact,
we know that the most dangerous time for

465
00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:44.000
a battered woman is when she tries
to leave her abuser. But it is

466
00:40:44.159 --> 00:40:49.000
really, really difficult to believe.
Susan is telling the whole truth. In

467
00:40:49.079 --> 00:40:53.480
a moment, you'll understand why.
According to Susan, this is what happened

468
00:40:53.519 --> 00:40:59.360
when she killed Jeff. On the
evening of Monday, January thirteenth, Jeff

469
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:02.880
came home from his boxing lesson.
His eyes were red and glassy. He

470
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:07.320
was extremely agitated. He tried to
rough house with their four year old son,

471
00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:12.519
Gus. He wanted to box,
probably since he had just come from

472
00:41:12.519 --> 00:41:17.599
his boxing class. When Gus lost
interest, Jeff became angry. He hit

473
00:41:17.679 --> 00:41:22.199
Gus with a closed fist so hard
that Gus flew backward into a love seat.

474
00:41:23.920 --> 00:41:29.199
Frustrated, Jeff called Gus as sissy
and then went to take a shower.

475
00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:34.320
When Jeff entered the master bedroom wearing
only a towel, Susan confronted him.

476
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:38.000
She said that unless he sought professional
help for his drug abuse and anger

477
00:41:38.039 --> 00:41:44.159
issues, she would leave him.
At this news, Jeff became enraged.

478
00:41:44.519 --> 00:41:49.320
He threw Susan on the bed,
kicked her, and raped her. Susan

479
00:41:49.320 --> 00:41:53.679
said she closed her eyes during the
rape. After he was done, Susan

480
00:41:53.719 --> 00:42:00.440
felt Jeff move then she heard him
say die bitch. That's when she opened

481
00:42:00.440 --> 00:42:05.840
her eyes and saw Jeff had a
knife. A struggle ensued. Susan went

482
00:42:05.880 --> 00:42:09.440
for the knife and and the process
was cut. She kneed Jeff in the

483
00:42:09.480 --> 00:42:14.199
groin, which allowed her to gain
control of the knife and a feet of

484
00:42:14.199 --> 00:42:19.079
strength. She pushed him off of
her. Fearing for her life, Susan

485
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:24.039
used to the knife and stabbed Jeff
repeatedly, first in the neck and then

486
00:42:24.079 --> 00:42:29.679
in his chest. At this point, Susan claimed she suffered a break from

487
00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:36.159
reality. This is important to Susan's
story from here on out. Susan claimed

488
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:40.920
that she didn't understand Jeff was dead. Susan said she was certain Jeff would

489
00:42:40.920 --> 00:42:45.559
wake up and continue to hurt her, so she continued to stab Jeff over

490
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:51.360
and over again. At first,
she stood next to him while stabbing him,

491
00:42:51.880 --> 00:42:54.519
but then she climbed on top of
him, marrying how he had been

492
00:42:54.519 --> 00:43:00.719
on top of her during the sexual
assault. Once she mounted Jeff, she

493
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:07.880
continued stabbing. During her court testimony, Susan cried while she explained that she

494
00:43:07.960 --> 00:43:10.559
stabbed Jeff in his head and in
his chest, and in his neck and

495
00:43:10.719 --> 00:43:15.800
in his stomach and his leg from
when he kicked me and I stabbed him

496
00:43:15.800 --> 00:43:19.159
in his penis for all the times
he made me have sex and I didn't

497
00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:22.039
want to. I couldn't stop.
He was going to kill me. I

498
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:28.920
couldn't stop. The only thing that
stopped Susan was her toddler, Gus,

499
00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:34.239
knocking on their bedroom door. Susan
panicked. In her delusional state, she

500
00:43:34.280 --> 00:43:37.519
said, she continued to believe Jeff
would open his eyes and attack her,

501
00:43:37.360 --> 00:43:40.760
so her solution was to tie one
of his hands to the bed so that

502
00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:45.679
he couldn't escape. To be clear, it's almost certain that Jeff was already

503
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:50.519
dead. Susan put on a robe, hid the knife in the bedroom,

504
00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:53.920
and put her son, Gus,
to bed. Then she retrieved a different

505
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:58.920
knife from the kitchen. She was
worried Jeff might have escaped his bonds and

506
00:43:58.960 --> 00:44:02.599
found the knife she had hidden in
the bedroom. With the second knife in

507
00:44:02.639 --> 00:44:09.039
hand, Susan returned to the bedroom
and continued to stab Jeff. Eventually she

508
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:15.679
stopped stabbing him. After killing her
alleged abuser, Susan did not go to

509
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:20.039
the police. She did not go
to her family or friends. Instead,

510
00:44:20.440 --> 00:44:29.000
Susan did many strange and frankly incriminating
things. But why well, According to

511
00:44:29.039 --> 00:44:35.679
Susan, she was in a post
traumatic stress disorder induced fog. From Monday

512
00:44:35.719 --> 00:44:43.280
through Saturday. Susan experienced a unique
fugue state. She reported that she didn't

513
00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:47.840
understand anything that was happening around her, including her own words and actions.

514
00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:52.280
Susan reported that the fog began when
she stabbed Jeff, which is why she

515
00:44:52.360 --> 00:44:58.559
couldn't fathom that he was dead.
While in her fog, Susan seemed to

516
00:44:58.599 --> 00:45:01.840
have a convenient explanation and for all
of the evidence that made her look guilty

517
00:45:01.960 --> 00:45:08.960
of murdering her husband in cold blood. After killing Jeff, Susan hid his

518
00:45:09.039 --> 00:45:15.000
body due to the fog. She
didn't think of it as hiding her crimes.

519
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.239
She was determined to get Jeff out
of the house so that when he

520
00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:22.840
woke up, he couldn't attack her. She tried to drag Jeff off the

521
00:45:22.880 --> 00:45:25.639
bed, but he was too heavy. His head and shoulder hit the nightstand,

522
00:45:27.039 --> 00:45:30.960
causing a lit candle to fall on
him. That's how Susan explained the

523
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.800
wax on his scrotum and thigh.
Then Susan tied Jeff to a dolly with

524
00:45:36.840 --> 00:45:39.639
two neckties and a bathrobe. If
you don't know what a dolly is,

525
00:45:39.920 --> 00:45:45.239
picture the thing that movers used to
handle heavy things like appliances. It has

526
00:45:45.239 --> 00:45:50.360
wheels on the bottom. And as
a woman who thought I could never move

527
00:45:50.719 --> 00:45:54.239
my own washer and dryer when I
left my first husband, my best friend

528
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:59.800
proved me wrong when she showed up
at my apartment with a dolly. I'll

529
00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:05.280
have a photo of the one Susan
used on my social media. So with

530
00:46:05.440 --> 00:46:08.480
a dolly, Susan managed to get
Jeff's body to the backyard, where she

531
00:46:08.559 --> 00:46:13.079
buried him in the pre dug hole, the one Jeff was going to install

532
00:46:13.119 --> 00:46:17.840
a water fountain in. Again,
Susan said she wasn't quote hiding the body

533
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:22.239
when she shoveled dirt on Jeff.
Rather, she wanted to make it harder

534
00:46:22.280 --> 00:46:28.400
for Jeff to quote get out when
he woke up. Next, Susan sat

535
00:46:28.440 --> 00:46:31.719
on the couch facing the backyard.
She stayed awake the entire night, waiting

536
00:46:31.800 --> 00:46:38.360
for Jeff to return and come after
her. And then Susan lied a lot.

537
00:46:39.280 --> 00:46:43.880
For nearly a week, she acted
as if she hadn't killed her husband.

538
00:46:44.559 --> 00:46:47.039
She told friends and family that Jeff
had left their home of his own

539
00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:53.599
will. Once again, Susan attributed
this to the fog Throughout the week,

540
00:46:54.159 --> 00:46:59.960
Susan repainted the master bedroom. She
dragged the bloody mattress to her backyard,

541
00:47:00.360 --> 00:47:04.639
along with other parts of the ruined
bed. She cut out the bloodier portions

542
00:47:04.679 --> 00:47:09.679
of the bedroom's carpet and bleached other
sections. But again, Susan said she

543
00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:15.079
wasn't trying to hide evidence. As
a part of her fog. Susan was

544
00:47:15.199 --> 00:47:20.280
terrified that Jeff would come home to
a dirty house. She knew he liked

545
00:47:20.280 --> 00:47:22.679
things spotless, so she needed to
clean up the blood in the bedroom.

546
00:47:23.119 --> 00:47:30.239
If she didn't, Jeff would beat
her. As we have discussed, Susan

547
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:35.199
went to the doctor to get treatment
for the cuts on her hands. Then

548
00:47:35.239 --> 00:47:39.000
she went to the police to receive
her straining order against the now deceased Jeff.

549
00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:45.320
To onlookers, it appeared as if
Susan was establishing a pattern of domestic

550
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:51.599
violence after she had already killed him. If you'll recall, Susan had never

551
00:47:51.639 --> 00:47:55.440
gone to the doctor or made a
police report before she killed Jeff. She

552
00:47:55.599 --> 00:48:00.000
maintained that due to her fog,
she genuinely thought that Jeff would return.

553
00:48:00.719 --> 00:48:07.079
After this horrible experience, Susan was
ready to take the precautionary steps that would

554
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:10.960
allow her to leave him in the
future. And there's one more small odd

555
00:48:12.079 --> 00:48:20.440
detail. Susan rerecorded the answering machine
message removing Jeff's name. Instead of something

556
00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:23.320
like, this is Susan, Jeff, Gus and Kara, leave a message

557
00:48:23.320 --> 00:48:28.039
and we'll get back to you,
it became this is Susan, Gus and

558
00:48:28.119 --> 00:48:34.360
Kara. Why would Susan do that
if she thought Jeff would return? Was

559
00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:39.039
it she cleaning the bedroom specifically in
preparation for his return. If you're wondering

560
00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:45.400
if Susan's fogg was actually an elaborate
hoax to avoid the consequences of killing her

561
00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:52.159
husband and hiding the body, well
you're not alone. But doctor Jerome brown

562
00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:59.519
believed Susan. After Susan confessed and
checked into the psychiatric unit, she spoke

563
00:48:59.559 --> 00:49:05.039
to doctor Browne for several days.
From their conversations, he determined that Susan

564
00:49:05.199 --> 00:49:12.840
was disassociated from reality. Doctor Browne
described Susan as dreamy and unfocussed. He

565
00:49:12.880 --> 00:49:17.639
said Susan responded to his questions with
poor concentration, no eye contact, flat

566
00:49:17.639 --> 00:49:25.079
emotions, frequent sighing, and continuous
crying. He theorized that Susan's contact with

567
00:49:25.199 --> 00:49:32.559
reality was tenuous, and doctor Browne
also observed Susan's obsessive paranoia that Jeff would

568
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:38.280
return. While in the hospital,
Susan was convinced that Jeff was wandering the

569
00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:43.400
hallways. She said he was trying
to find her so he could beat her

570
00:49:43.400 --> 00:49:51.480
to death. Doctor Browne diagnosed Susan
with PTSD and depression. He thought that

571
00:49:51.559 --> 00:49:57.880
Susan's fog was a psychological defense mechanism, which essentially removes the person from their

572
00:49:57.880 --> 00:50:04.519
immediate situation. Additionally, Susan told
doctor Browne that when Jeff raped her,

573
00:50:05.039 --> 00:50:08.360
she would go away in her mind
to cope with a trauma. Doctor Browne

574
00:50:08.440 --> 00:50:15.079
believed that this impaired Susan's memory.
He told Texas Monthly Quote, on the

575
00:50:15.199 --> 00:50:19.920
night she stabbed her husband, she
had some kind of mental break, and

576
00:50:20.039 --> 00:50:23.360
she stayed that way for days,
probably weeks. I don't want to say

577
00:50:23.400 --> 00:50:28.800
she became completely psychotic, but she
drifted in and out of reality. She

578
00:50:28.840 --> 00:50:34.480
didn't have any real idea of what
she was doing or why. This may

579
00:50:34.519 --> 00:50:40.639
sound wild to someone who hasn't experienced
PTSD or have been a domestic violence victim,

580
00:50:40.679 --> 00:50:46.920
but doctor Browne's opinion is not abnormal. Many domestic violence experts report that

581
00:50:47.079 --> 00:50:54.039
victims can experience disassociative states, especially
after a violent incident. Later, the

582
00:50:54.159 --> 00:51:00.159
victims can't remember the events clearly.
Throughout the year lead up to Susan's trial,

583
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:07.440
her case gained national attention. News
outlets had dubbed Susan the blue Eyed

584
00:51:07.480 --> 00:51:14.199
Butcher. Local TV reporter Jessica Willie
told Snapped people were shocked. They couldn't

585
00:51:14.199 --> 00:51:17.960
imagine such a pretty young thing stabbing
her husband one hundred and ninety three times.

586
00:51:20.360 --> 00:51:23.320
When Susan's trial began in early two
thousand and four, the courtroom was

587
00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:30.760
packed. Many people stood because there
weren't enough seats. Susan's defense lawyer,

588
00:51:30.960 --> 00:51:37.880
Neil Davis, was relatively inexperienced.
He had never defended a murder case involving

589
00:51:37.920 --> 00:51:43.199
a domestic violence victim. His co
counsel, Todd Ward, had never defended

590
00:51:43.199 --> 00:51:46.840
a murder case at all. Right
from the jump, these two young men

591
00:51:46.960 --> 00:51:52.199
were no match for state prosecutor forty
one year old Kelly Siegler, a renowned

592
00:51:52.280 --> 00:52:00.280
veteran of fifteen years. Usually,
lawyers are tools in the courtroom. Their

593
00:52:00.360 --> 00:52:04.800
job is to extract the truth as
much as they can from a plaintiff and

594
00:52:04.920 --> 00:52:08.960
a defendant. Most of the time, lawyers are minor characters and crime cases,

595
00:52:09.880 --> 00:52:15.559
but Kelly Siegler played a much larger
role in Susan Wright's trial. In

596
00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:20.239
fact, there are a few moments
in Susan's trial where Siegler wasn't just a

597
00:52:20.320 --> 00:52:27.960
character, she was the protagonist.
In the early two thousands, Kelly Siegler

598
00:52:28.039 --> 00:52:31.880
was described as the fiercest prosecutor in
Houston. By two thousand and four,

599
00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:37.239
she had prosecuted sixteen murderers who had
ended up on death row. Siegler was

600
00:52:37.280 --> 00:52:42.639
known to stand very close to defendants
during the trial, gesturing to them as

601
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:49.639
she talked about their alleged crimes.
When defendants testified, Siegler would stand within

602
00:52:49.719 --> 00:52:52.960
inches of them, grilling them face
to face. She told the Houston Chronicle,

603
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:59.360
I think a right thinking juror appreciates
the fact that someone accused of murder

604
00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:02.039
gets to be treated like they're accused
of murder, and they don't feel sorry

605
00:53:02.039 --> 00:53:07.719
for them when they're treated that way. So much for guilty until proven innocent,

606
00:53:07.079 --> 00:53:15.039
but anyway, Siegler's supervisor referred to
her affectionately as pushy. Besides being

607
00:53:15.119 --> 00:53:21.239
pushy, Siegler was also known for
her theatrics in the courtroom. A few

608
00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:24.599
years before Susan's case, Siegler sat
on a pickle bucket in front of a

609
00:53:24.679 --> 00:53:30.840
jury. She told the jury that
the defendant sat on the same bucket right

610
00:53:30.840 --> 00:53:36.599
after he murdered a four year old
girl. On another occasion, Siegler brought

611
00:53:36.599 --> 00:53:40.400
an entire wall and window frame into
the courtroom. She used it to demonstrate

612
00:53:40.599 --> 00:53:46.360
how a killer broke into their victim's
home. A former judge told The Houston

613
00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:51.519
Chronicle, she keeps the jurors on
the edge of their seat. Trial with

614
00:53:51.559 --> 00:53:54.880
Her was a soap opera and a
law and order television show wrapped into one

615
00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:00.920
experience. Around two thousand and four, Siegler was included on a list of

616
00:54:00.960 --> 00:54:07.760
the nation's top forty litigators under age
forty. She was also recognized as one

617
00:54:07.760 --> 00:54:12.679
of the top fifty women litigators in
the country. In two thousand and thirteen,

618
00:54:13.199 --> 00:54:16.079
Siegler would star in an investigative true
crime series on T and T and

619
00:54:16.199 --> 00:54:22.760
Oxygen called Cold Justice, produced by
Law and Orders Dick Wolfe. It followed

620
00:54:22.800 --> 00:54:30.159
Siegler and her team as they reopened
unsolved murder cases. It ran for six

621
00:54:30.199 --> 00:54:35.639
seasons and might be renewed for a
seventh. Oxygen stated that Cold Justice has

622
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:39.199
helped lead to twenty one convictions and
fifty five arrests. There was even a

623
00:54:39.239 --> 00:54:46.360
short lived spin off show called Cold
Justice Sex Crimes, but Siegler and her

624
00:54:46.360 --> 00:54:52.639
show Cold Justice have been sued twice
now for defamation. She was also sanctioned

625
00:54:52.679 --> 00:54:59.320
for withholding evidence in two other cases. Southern Fried listeners may remember her as

626
00:54:59.360 --> 00:55:04.880
the first secutor in the Belinda Temple
murder, specifically from episode one twenty eight.

627
00:55:05.559 --> 00:55:10.280
That was another famous case that happened
after Susan Wright's murder trial. It

628
00:55:10.320 --> 00:55:15.000
was just a year after Susan's trial
in February of two thousand and five.

629
00:55:15.519 --> 00:55:21.480
I definitely recommend checking out the two
part Belinda Temple series because it was one

630
00:55:21.480 --> 00:55:27.559
of the most interesting courtroom dramas I've
ever covered. But most of Siegler's celebrity

631
00:55:27.639 --> 00:55:32.599
awards and TV shows can be traced
back to Susan Wright's trial. After a

632
00:55:32.639 --> 00:55:40.480
twenty minute courtroom demonstration, Siegler's career
was launched into the stratosphere. I'm going

633
00:55:40.519 --> 00:55:52.760
to pause now for a final commercial
break. When preparing for Susan's trial,

634
00:55:52.239 --> 00:55:57.320
Siegler knew the jury would be tempted
to sympathize with Susan since she was a

635
00:55:57.400 --> 00:56:02.079
young, pretty woman. Strategy was
to make the jury see and feel what

636
00:56:02.239 --> 00:56:07.000
happened to Jeff. She wanted the
jurors to look past the martyr act she

637
00:56:07.119 --> 00:56:13.440
thought Susan was putting on. Siegler
did not believe Susan was ever abused.

638
00:56:13.679 --> 00:56:17.559
She said, all that battered wife
abuse was bull was just that it was

639
00:56:17.639 --> 00:56:23.119
bull. In two thousand and eight, Siegler publicly stated that her stepfather abused

640
00:56:23.159 --> 00:56:29.400
her mother. When a Texas Monthly
reporter asked if that affected how she handled

641
00:56:29.440 --> 00:56:36.519
Susan Wright's case, Siegler said it
did. But even though Siegler's familial abuse

642
00:56:36.639 --> 00:56:39.760
was also a secret, there were
still small incidents that let people know it

643
00:56:39.840 --> 00:56:45.880
was happening. She said that evidence
of it all the bruises, the one

644
00:56:45.880 --> 00:56:49.679
time we called law enforcement and they
did nothing, The little bit we told

645
00:56:49.679 --> 00:56:52.559
our friends, the little bit they
witnessed, the visits to the doctor,

646
00:56:52.800 --> 00:56:57.800
the arguments, both public and private, all in spite of our efforts to

647
00:56:57.880 --> 00:57:02.679
keep it secret, were still there. Susan Wright had no evidence of any

648
00:57:02.679 --> 00:57:07.079
of that. I looked for it
as hard as I ever looked for evidence

649
00:57:07.320 --> 00:57:13.559
of any defendant's guilt or innocence.
But if you believe Susan's sister and friends,

650
00:57:13.920 --> 00:57:17.840
they're were psalms. They saw Bruce's, they worried for Susan, and

651
00:57:19.079 --> 00:57:22.880
everyone knew Jeff was abusing drugs,
even his family, even though they minimized

652
00:57:22.920 --> 00:57:28.599
his drug abuse and said it didn't
affect his job, finances, or marriage,

653
00:57:28.960 --> 00:57:32.679
which if you've ever lived with an
addict, you know cannot be true.

654
00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:38.880
During opening statements, Siglar asserted that
Susan planned to kill Jeff to avoid

655
00:57:38.920 --> 00:57:45.639
a divorce and benefit from Jeff's recently
acquired two hundred thousand dollars life insurance policy.

656
00:57:45.920 --> 00:57:51.280
Siglar explained that Susan seduced Jeff and
then tied his arms and legs to

657
00:57:51.320 --> 00:57:57.400
the bed to initiate BDSM style sex. Susan wanted Jeff to be defenseless.

658
00:57:58.760 --> 00:58:02.199
And I will point out here that
Jeff had alcohol, cocaine, and GHB,

659
00:58:02.480 --> 00:58:07.199
which is commonly known as a date
rape drug, in his system before

660
00:58:07.199 --> 00:58:13.039
he died. He definitely used pot
and coke regularly, but it's strange he

661
00:58:13.079 --> 00:58:16.320
would have a date rape drug in
his system. GHB is also used by

662
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:21.840
partiers. No doubt, it can
cause a sense of euphoria and was popular

663
00:58:21.880 --> 00:58:25.960
with club kids at the time.
Jeff was known to party hard and maybe

664
00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:31.599
this was something he used. It
could help come down from the cocaine or

665
00:58:31.719 --> 00:58:37.039
enhance it as well as create the
sense of euphoria. But on the other

666
00:58:37.079 --> 00:58:40.239
hand, if Susan slipped it in
his drink, it is a depressant and

667
00:58:40.320 --> 00:58:45.599
can cause sleepiness and blackouts. That's
why it is known as a date rape

668
00:58:45.679 --> 00:58:51.039
drug. He would have been easier
to control if she had slipped him GHB.

669
00:58:52.599 --> 00:58:55.000
But now I guess you need to
wonder if Susan Wright had access to

670
00:58:55.079 --> 00:59:00.960
drugs the way her husband did.
Siegler painted a detailed picture of Susan's seduction.

671
00:59:02.719 --> 00:59:07.719
She told the jury Susan was setting
the mood. She was teasing him,

672
00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:10.679
she was leading him on, she
was getting him aroused. She was

673
00:59:10.760 --> 00:59:15.599
kissing him, licking him, she
was flirting with him and loving him for

674
00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:19.480
all she was worth. And at
some point, when the wax was melted

675
00:59:19.519 --> 00:59:22.920
just enough, she poured a little
bit on his penis. Then, with

676
00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:30.559
unfathomable anger, Susan brutally stabbed Jeff
over and over again. According to Siegler,

677
00:59:30.960 --> 00:59:36.079
Susan spent the next week covering up
her crime. She buried Jeff's body

678
00:59:36.079 --> 00:59:38.920
in the backyard, cleaned up the
bedroom, and began a campaign of lies.

679
00:59:39.639 --> 00:59:44.960
She told Jeff's friends and family that
Jeff had abused their son and her,

680
00:59:45.079 --> 00:59:49.840
and then left. At some point, Susan emptied their joint bank account.

681
00:59:51.599 --> 00:59:54.119
She knew if Jeff had abused her, she might escape a harsh sentence,

682
00:59:54.679 --> 00:59:59.079
so Susan went to the doctor and
made a false report of Jeff's abuse.

683
01:00:00.039 --> 01:00:02.360
Also lied to the police when she
followed a restraining order against Jeff,

684
01:00:02.719 --> 01:00:08.800
which resulted in a warrant for his
arrest. The only reason Susan's plan fell

685
01:00:08.840 --> 01:00:14.760
apart, according to Siegler, was
because the family dog partially dug up Jeff's

686
01:00:14.800 --> 01:00:20.599
body, leaving out the part that
Susan confessed to her mother, who called

687
01:00:20.599 --> 01:00:23.840
her attorney, who then reported a
dead body to the police at the right

688
01:00:23.920 --> 01:00:30.119
home. Also, the Texas Monthly
article reported that Susan had said that Jeff

689
01:00:30.159 --> 01:00:36.360
had also abused their sixty pound dog, often kicking him and throwing him across

690
01:00:36.400 --> 01:00:40.719
the room gallows. Humor in the
courtroom was that the dog had dug up

691
01:00:40.760 --> 01:00:46.440
the hand and ate it for revenge. During the trial, Sigler called Detective

692
01:00:46.480 --> 01:00:51.599
Mark Reynolds to the stand. I've
mentioned him before. He was there when

693
01:00:51.679 --> 01:00:58.760
Jeff's body was unearthed. He was
also present for the autopsy. When Siegler

694
01:00:58.800 --> 01:01:01.679
cross examined Reynold, he told the
jury that he believed Jeff was tied to

695
01:01:01.679 --> 01:01:07.679
the bed when he was murdered.
The placement of Jeff's wounds was especially damning.

696
01:01:07.480 --> 01:01:12.519
When a person is being stabbed repeatedly, they try to move away from

697
01:01:12.519 --> 01:01:15.880
the attacker, causing the majority of
the stab wounds to happen on the victim's

698
01:01:15.920 --> 01:01:21.719
side or back as they try to
escape. This wasn't the case for Jeff.

699
01:01:22.360 --> 01:01:24.280
All but two of his one hundred
and three wounds were on the front

700
01:01:24.320 --> 01:01:30.320
of his body. Jeff was probably
tied down, spread eagle, face to

701
01:01:30.360 --> 01:01:36.480
face with his killer. He couldn't
move away. Reynolds believed Susan was lying

702
01:01:36.519 --> 01:01:40.199
about killing Jeff in self defense.
He admitted that he didn't understand how Susan,

703
01:01:40.559 --> 01:01:45.079
who was a small woman of five
foot three, could have wrestled a

704
01:01:45.159 --> 01:01:47.519
knife away from Jeff, a man
who was six foot two tall. And

705
01:01:47.639 --> 01:01:53.039
athletic. Between the two, there
was over a hundred pound weight difference.

706
01:01:54.719 --> 01:02:00.199
As Siegler questioned the detective, several
police officers arrived in the courtroom carrying pieces

707
01:02:00.239 --> 01:02:06.199
of wood in a mattress. At
her instruction, the officers assembled Susan and

708
01:02:06.280 --> 01:02:10.480
Jeff's bed in the courtroom. Get
ready. This is what took Siegler from

709
01:02:10.480 --> 01:02:16.559
a locally known lawyer to a nationwide
phenomenon. Siegler had organized an in court

710
01:02:16.599 --> 01:02:22.800
demonstration of Jeff's murder on the exact
bed the murder had occurred on. It

711
01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:30.280
was crazy. Everyone could see Jeff's
bloodstains on the mattress. Then Siegler taught

712
01:02:30.320 --> 01:02:35.360
her male colleague Paul Doyle to the
bed. She used neckties and a bathrobe

713
01:02:35.400 --> 01:02:40.199
sash, just like the ones discovered
with Jeff's body. Next, she established

714
01:02:40.320 --> 01:02:44.760
that she was the same size as
Susan Wright and that Paul was about the

715
01:02:44.800 --> 01:02:49.679
same size as Jeff Wright. Once
that was settled, Kelly climbed on the

716
01:02:49.719 --> 01:02:53.360
bed and straddled her bound colleague.
She held a knife in her hand and

717
01:02:53.519 --> 01:02:59.760
proceeded to ask the detective clarifying questions
about how Susan could have murdered Jeff.

718
01:03:00.280 --> 01:03:07.400
As she asked the questions, Sigler
would mind stabbing her colleague. For example,

719
01:03:07.760 --> 01:03:10.679
Siegler asked Reynolds to identify where most
of the wounds would be on Jeff's

720
01:03:10.719 --> 01:03:15.480
body if Susan were positioned like she
was. Reynolds said that the wounds would

721
01:03:15.480 --> 01:03:21.440
be on the left side of Jeff's
body because Susan was right handed. Sigler

722
01:03:21.480 --> 01:03:24.880
mimed stabbing her colleague on the left
side of his head, and Reynolds confirmed

723
01:03:24.920 --> 01:03:31.760
that most of Jeff's wounds were concentrated
in the same area. Susan's defense lawyer,

724
01:03:31.880 --> 01:03:37.920
Neil Davis objected several times throughout this
in court demonstration, but the judge

725
01:03:37.920 --> 01:03:43.960
almost always overruled him. Siegler and
her colleague Paul were careful not to use

726
01:03:44.000 --> 01:03:50.039
facial expressions or play out the murder
as a scene. For as weird as

727
01:03:50.079 --> 01:03:53.440
the demonstration was, it was done
in a fairly matter of fact way.

728
01:03:54.119 --> 01:04:00.840
Siegler didn't reenact all one hundred and
ninety three stabbings or pretend to sedu Jeff

729
01:04:00.960 --> 01:04:06.119
to the bed with promises of sex. Still, by courtroom standards, this

730
01:04:06.280 --> 01:04:14.920
was a spectacle. Both Susan and
Siegler's lives were changed forever. Before Susan's

731
01:04:14.920 --> 01:04:18.559
trial had even ended, Hollywood producers
were calling ABC to pitch a show based

732
01:04:18.559 --> 01:04:24.199
on Siegler's persona, an off the
wall female lawyer who beat out the good

733
01:04:24.199 --> 01:04:30.559
old boy Texas lawyers with her creative
arguments. People magazine was also inspired by

734
01:04:30.599 --> 01:04:36.920
the bed demonstration and profiled Siegler in
an article entitled Drama Queen. During Susan's

735
01:04:36.960 --> 01:04:43.280
testimony, she was obviously disgusted at
Siegler's description of the murder as a bondage

736
01:04:43.360 --> 01:04:48.840
sex scene, but Siegler implied that
Susan was not the traditional Christian housewife who

737
01:04:48.880 --> 01:04:54.679
never dripped candlewax on her husband.
She pointed out that Susan had been a

738
01:04:54.679 --> 01:05:00.360
topless dancer when she was eighteen.
Siegler told Snapped, she just acted so

739
01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:04.159
so offended that how dare I suggest
she would do anything besides regular, boring

740
01:05:04.199 --> 01:05:09.480
missionary sex. It's like, come
on, lady, you got handcuffs in

741
01:05:09.519 --> 01:05:15.920
the drawer. Susan's defense lawyer,
Neil Davis, tried to convince the jury

742
01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:20.679
that Jeff had emotionally and physically abused
Susan throughout their marriage, that Susan had

743
01:05:20.719 --> 01:05:25.800
to kill Jeff out of self defense, that she had a genuine mental break

744
01:05:26.119 --> 01:05:30.079
that caused her to hide the murder
for almost a week under the mistaken belief

745
01:05:30.119 --> 01:05:33.639
that Jeff was alive and trying to
kill her, But Davis didn't do a

746
01:05:33.760 --> 01:05:42.239
very good job. Rather than bring
in an expert on PTSD to help explain

747
01:05:42.679 --> 01:05:47.039
Susan's fogg state, Davis said,
let's talk about another topic briefly. It's

748
01:05:47.079 --> 01:05:54.000
called post traumatic stress disorder. Anyone
know about that? Does everyone here understand

749
01:05:54.039 --> 01:05:58.639
that going through that can lead to
a break in reality? Anyone not understand

750
01:05:58.679 --> 01:06:03.639
that or not believe in that at
all? Imagine raising your hand as a

751
01:06:03.719 --> 01:06:11.360
juror and saying I don't understand that
requires a nerve racking level of vulnerability that

752
01:06:11.519 --> 01:06:18.360
lawyers cannot expect of jurors, especially
with court TV cameras on. Davis treated

753
01:06:18.440 --> 01:06:25.320
Susan's battered women's syndrome defense in the
same flippant manner. Rather than putting a

754
01:06:25.400 --> 01:06:30.119
domestic violence expert on the stand,
he said, anyone ever hear of battered

755
01:06:30.119 --> 01:06:34.039
wife syndrome? Here? Do people
understand that when you're a battered spouse that

756
01:06:34.199 --> 01:06:42.199
divorce is not a realistic solution sometimes. Later, Davis clarified that he didn't

757
01:06:42.199 --> 01:06:45.679
want to overwhelm the jury with experts. He felt that battered women's syndrome wasn't

758
01:06:45.760 --> 01:06:51.400
rocket science and that the jury should
understand it easily. For the record,

759
01:06:51.760 --> 01:07:00.519
juries don't understand battered women's syndrome easily. Juries are often unknowingly prejudiced against victims

760
01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:04.519
of domestic violence. They need help
from experts to understand the answers to questions

761
01:07:04.559 --> 01:07:10.719
like why didn't she leave? Did
she really feel that trapped? Could she

762
01:07:10.840 --> 01:07:17.280
legitimately have had a mental breakdown and
snapped. Historically, juries are biased against

763
01:07:17.320 --> 01:07:23.519
women who kill their abusers, so
much so that women will often receive longer

764
01:07:23.519 --> 01:07:29.079
prison sentences for killing their male abusers
than their male abusers would if they had

765
01:07:29.159 --> 01:07:34.480
killed their female victims. The legal
system is more kind to male centered definitions

766
01:07:34.519 --> 01:07:40.760
of self defense. For example,
juries understand when a defendant says, he

767
01:07:40.920 --> 01:07:45.519
hint me so hard, I feared
for my wife, so I stabbed him.

768
01:07:45.639 --> 01:07:50.000
However, women who are victims of
domestic violence can often predict imminent danger

769
01:07:50.320 --> 01:07:56.280
because they have lived with it for
so long they know their abuser. Therefore,

770
01:07:56.599 --> 01:08:00.840
self defense doesn't look like a cut
and dry punched me, so I

771
01:08:00.920 --> 01:08:05.519
killed him situation. The abuser could
be asleep or tied up, but the

772
01:08:05.639 --> 01:08:11.199
victim might still act in self defense
because they know they will be harmed later.

773
01:08:12.760 --> 01:08:15.560
It does make some sense why Nell
Davis didn't call doctor Jerome Browne to

774
01:08:15.600 --> 01:08:20.600
the stand. When Susan first checked
herself into doctor Browne's psychiatric unit, she

775
01:08:20.720 --> 01:08:26.239
told him a vastly different story about
Jeff's murder than what she would later tell

776
01:08:26.239 --> 01:08:30.439
the authorities. Susan told doctor Browne
that she had attacked Jeff while he was

777
01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:35.680
sleeping. She told Texas Monthly she
does not remember telling doctor Browne that Jeff

778
01:08:35.760 --> 01:08:42.960
was asleep, and doctor brown believed
that Susan was so rattled by her experiences

779
01:08:43.319 --> 01:08:46.880
and her fog that she shouldn't be
held to this original story. In the

780
01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:51.359
end, Davis didn't bring doctor Browne
to the stand because he didn't want two

781
01:08:51.399 --> 01:08:58.159
stories muddying the waters for the jury. But that doesn't explain why Davis didn't

782
01:08:58.239 --> 01:09:03.640
hire a different domestic violence expert.
Shelby Moore, a Harvard educated professor at

783
01:09:03.640 --> 01:09:09.800
South Texas of Law, was an
expert in domestic violence who offered to testify

784
01:09:09.880 --> 01:09:15.760
for free, but Davis never followed
up with more, and Davis also didn't

785
01:09:15.800 --> 01:09:19.680
bring to the stand Jeff Sex's girlfriend, Misty McMichael i, spoke of her

786
01:09:19.720 --> 01:09:25.199
earlier. She billed Jeff out of
jail in Mexico when he was caught with

787
01:09:25.239 --> 01:09:30.399
illegal drugs. After hearing about Susan's
case on the news, Misty reached out

788
01:09:30.439 --> 01:09:36.039
to Susan's lawyers. Misty said Jeff
had abused her too. In the early

789
01:09:36.159 --> 01:09:41.319
nineties, Misty was working at a
trip club. Jeff was a regular who

790
01:09:41.399 --> 01:09:45.119
was known as a big spender.
Similar to Susan's experience with Jeff, he

791
01:09:45.159 --> 01:09:51.119
was very charming at first, but
over time his demeanor changed. Misty said

792
01:09:51.199 --> 01:09:55.880
Jeff had two sides to him.
When he was sober, he was really

793
01:09:55.960 --> 01:09:59.239
sweet and he wanted to go to
church and pray a lot. But when

794
01:09:59.279 --> 01:10:02.880
he was drinking, he was mean
and abusive toward me. During a fight

795
01:10:02.920 --> 01:10:08.159
at Misty's apartment, Jeff grabbed her
and threw her down a spiral staircase.

796
01:10:09.720 --> 01:10:13.840
In response, Misty through a ring
that Jeff had given her at him.

797
01:10:14.319 --> 01:10:18.479
With no hesitation. Jeff backhanded Misty. She called the police to report the

798
01:10:18.560 --> 01:10:23.760
incident, but Jeff told the officers
she had hit him first so that he

799
01:10:23.800 --> 01:10:28.560
could avoid being arrested. Later on, the couple got into a fight at

800
01:10:28.560 --> 01:10:31.600
a bar. Jeff tried to strike
Misty and broke a few glasses as he

801
01:10:31.640 --> 01:10:35.079
swung at her. A piece of
glass cut Misty on her chin, and

802
01:10:35.159 --> 01:10:41.439
she bled profusely. To this day, she says a shot of glass is

803
01:10:41.479 --> 01:10:45.319
still embedded in her chin. Someone
called the police, and Jeff was arrested

804
01:10:45.319 --> 01:10:50.399
for aggravated assault. An ambulance took
Misty to the hospital, but she declined

805
01:10:50.399 --> 01:10:55.319
treatment. She was worried that Jeff
would be angry when he got out of

806
01:10:55.359 --> 01:11:00.439
jail. To mitigate his response,
Misty called the police and told them the

807
01:11:00.479 --> 01:11:05.479
whole thing was an accident. Davis
knew of Jeff's prior arrest for assaulting an

808
01:11:05.479 --> 01:11:12.720
ex girlfriend. He had even contacted
Misty, but after some communication Snaphews,

809
01:11:13.119 --> 01:11:18.560
Davis didn't get Misty on the stand
during Susan's trial. Communication issues are a

810
01:11:18.600 --> 01:11:23.680
bullshit excuse. She could have been
the key to Susan's defense, and it's

811
01:11:23.720 --> 01:11:27.760
not like she was a hostile witness. She reached out to Davis, willing

812
01:11:27.800 --> 01:11:31.840
to come testify for Susan. Another
point I'll make about Misty is that she

813
01:11:31.920 --> 01:11:38.159
had some notoriety. She was married
to Stephen McMichael, an NFL player who

814
01:11:38.199 --> 01:11:41.800
played for the Patriots, the Bears, and the Packers. But he also

815
01:11:41.840 --> 01:11:45.880
played college football at the University of
Texas at Austin and was an All American

816
01:11:45.920 --> 01:11:50.239
player. Texas jurors might have known
him even if he wasn't a big shot

817
01:11:50.279 --> 01:11:57.920
in the NFL. So Misty McMichael
would have brought star power to Susan's side

818
01:11:57.920 --> 01:12:02.000
of the trial. Her testimony have
helped immensely for obvious reasons, but you

819
01:12:02.039 --> 01:12:08.439
can't ignore how her celebrity status may
have helped Susan. But jurrors never got

820
01:12:08.439 --> 01:12:13.039
to hear from Misty. By the
end of Susan's trial, the jury was

821
01:12:13.079 --> 01:12:16.840
conflicted. It was Susan's word against
the word of her dead husband. In

822
01:12:16.960 --> 01:12:21.960
Kelly Siegler's closing statement, she accused
Susan of being a good actress. She

823
01:12:23.119 --> 01:12:26.960
said, she said, what you're
left with is the word of Susan Lucille

824
01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:30.560
Wright, the word of a card
carrying obvious no doubt about it, caught

825
01:12:30.600 --> 01:12:39.439
red handed, confirmed documented liar.
After five hours of deliberation, the jury

826
01:12:39.479 --> 01:12:44.640
found twenty seven year old Susan guilty
a first degree murder. She was sentenced

827
01:12:44.640 --> 01:12:48.079
to twenty five years in prison.
Jurrors said it was problematic that there was

828
01:12:48.119 --> 01:12:54.960
no evidence of Jeff's abuse from unbiased
third parties like medical records or police reports.

829
01:12:55.840 --> 01:13:00.199
Only Susan's friends and family said they
saw bruises, and Susan never said

830
01:13:00.279 --> 01:13:06.439
Jeff caused them. However, it's
clear the jury sympathized with Susan. Prosecutors

831
01:13:06.439 --> 01:13:11.720
wanted Susan to receive forty five years
in prison, so twenty five years was

832
01:13:11.760 --> 01:13:17.119
a best case scenario. Later,
Susan would have a well known appellate attorney

833
01:13:17.159 --> 01:13:21.880
take up her cause and work for
her pro bono. Brian Weiss would appeal

834
01:13:21.920 --> 01:13:27.119
to the courts that her defense lawyer, Neil Davis, provided her with ineffective

835
01:13:27.119 --> 01:13:32.039
counsel, and Susan won that appeal. Her sentence was reduced from twenty five

836
01:13:32.119 --> 01:13:39.239
years in prison to twenty Susan's other
appeals were denied. Ironically, at the

837
01:13:39.279 --> 01:13:43.239
beginning of the episode, I told
you Neil Davis was starting at a new

838
01:13:43.319 --> 01:13:49.640
law firm who had represented David koresh
Well Dick Degeron, who famously defended Koresh

839
01:13:49.800 --> 01:13:55.239
was the trial attorney who did battle
with Kelly Siegler in the Belenda Temple case

840
01:13:55.279 --> 01:13:59.279
I told you about. It was
known as the Clash of the Titans,

841
01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:03.359
but Siegler would wind up losing big
time on appeal. I actually defended her

842
01:14:03.359 --> 01:14:10.720
in that case, not so much
in this one. In January of twenty

843
01:14:10.960 --> 01:14:15.119
twenty one, Susan Wright was released
from prison. She had served sixteen years,

844
01:14:15.560 --> 01:14:20.079
which was nine years fewer than her
original twenty five years sentence. Susan

845
01:14:20.119 --> 01:14:25.479
will remain on parole until twenty twenty
four. As a part of her parole,

846
01:14:25.880 --> 01:14:30.319
she must wear a GPS ankle monitor, attend anger management classes, and

847
01:14:30.359 --> 01:14:34.520
stay in Texas. Susan lost all
parental rights to her two children, Gus

848
01:14:34.520 --> 01:14:42.760
and Kara. They are adults now
and were raised by Jeff's family. I

849
01:14:42.840 --> 01:14:47.239
really did try not to editorialize much
in this episode. My sympathies will almost

850
01:14:47.319 --> 01:14:51.239
always be with women who are abused, and it's not that I don't believe

851
01:14:51.279 --> 01:14:57.239
Susan. I do. I believe
her sister and friends who saw bruises.

852
01:14:58.520 --> 01:15:02.079
I believe Misty McMichael, for whom
Jeff did have an arrest record for abusing.

853
01:15:02.880 --> 01:15:08.199
I believe a neighbor who testified that
they saw Jeff grab Susan's arm angrily

854
01:15:08.600 --> 01:15:14.359
a lot. The problem is the
murder looks premeditated, and not in the

855
01:15:14.399 --> 01:15:18.960
way that many abused women are accused
of premeditation. Shooting a sleeping abuser who

856
01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:23.439
had just beaten them is something we
see a lot. But you know what,

857
01:15:24.079 --> 01:15:29.439
prisons are filled with women like that. Anyway. I told you earlier

858
01:15:29.680 --> 01:15:34.439
that statistically, women killing their abusers
get harsher sentences than the men who kill

859
01:15:34.479 --> 01:15:40.680
a women they have abused. But
it's the GHB in Jeff's system. It

860
01:15:40.840 --> 01:15:43.920
is the way he was tied up
and the wounds on his body. I

861
01:15:44.039 --> 01:15:46.960
don't believe she could have fought him
off on a knife attack, especially if

862
01:15:46.960 --> 01:15:50.960
he was high. And even though
doctors say these feugue states can happen,

863
01:15:51.520 --> 01:15:56.760
it's hard to imagine one where the
woman is buying cleaning materials, burying her

864
01:15:56.840 --> 01:16:00.359
husband in the backyard, repainting the
room. That all just looks bad.

865
01:16:02.159 --> 01:16:06.760
Kelly Siegler's antics got her national news
attention and made her a media darling,

866
01:16:08.199 --> 01:16:13.079
but I'm not sure that's what really
convicted Susan, though Siegler had a lot

867
01:16:13.119 --> 01:16:16.800
of circumstantial evidence on her side.
She is a good lawyer, folksy,

868
01:16:17.079 --> 01:16:21.760
a good storyteller. She could set
the scene. But Susan did not have

869
01:16:21.840 --> 01:16:27.760
any police reports of the abuse or
doctor's visits. That's not unusual, but

870
01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:32.199
it hurt her in trial, and
losing Misty McMichael and refusing to put on

871
01:16:32.239 --> 01:16:40.600
domestic violence in PTSD experts at trial
made Neil Davis's defense a travesty. It's

872
01:16:40.640 --> 01:16:45.239
funny. Susan testified that Jeff told
her the postpartum depression wasn't real because what

873
01:16:45.359 --> 01:16:51.279
women do wasn't quote rocket science,
and Neil Davis told Texas Monthly that battered

874
01:16:51.279 --> 01:17:00.399
women's syndrome to him wasn't rocket science. Nothing Susan Wright experienced was supposedly rocket

875
01:17:00.439 --> 01:17:05.000
science, so why should a defense
attorney try to explain it to a jury.

876
01:17:05.279 --> 01:17:11.720
Davis also called it psychobabble, indicating
his lack of belief or respect for

877
01:17:11.800 --> 01:17:15.840
battered women's syndrome. He's the last
man who should have been defending an abused

878
01:17:15.880 --> 01:17:23.239
woman. Luckily, an appellent attorney
named Brian Weiss watched the whole trial in

879
01:17:23.319 --> 01:17:29.079
disbelief and did Susan's appeals on pro
bono. He wasn't just outraged by Neil

880
01:17:29.159 --> 01:17:33.640
Davis but also by Kelly siegler belittling
of battered women's syndrome with what he called

881
01:17:33.680 --> 01:17:41.439
her quote blatant attempts to mislead the
jury with misconceptions and stereotypes about battered women.

882
01:17:43.119 --> 01:17:46.840
It's fair her sentence was reduced because
of Neil Davis's shitty defense, and

883
01:17:46.960 --> 01:17:51.760
I'm not surprised she got out early
after being a model prisoner. As for

884
01:17:51.840 --> 01:17:56.920
Kelly Siegler, it's fine. If
that's the way she wants to prosecute abused

885
01:17:56.960 --> 01:18:00.640
women, that's her choice. It
sucks, but she's within legal bounds for

886
01:18:00.760 --> 01:18:06.399
now. But I wish Siegler didn't
prop up her own experience with domestic abuse

887
01:18:06.760 --> 01:18:12.000
as the way it always happens,
and that women can so easily just run

888
01:18:12.039 --> 01:18:15.680
away from their abusers. She doesn't
believe in this type of self defense.

889
01:18:16.039 --> 01:18:19.880
As she put it at trial.
Self defense would have been once she got

890
01:18:19.920 --> 01:18:23.960
him tied up, running out the
door for all she was worth with her

891
01:18:23.960 --> 01:18:29.880
babies. But what's the story after
that? After Jeff got free and came

892
01:18:29.960 --> 01:18:33.199
looking for Susan. How long until
he made good on his threats to kill

893
01:18:33.239 --> 01:18:40.680
her. That's what people don't understand
about battered women's syndrome causing murders to look

894
01:18:40.880 --> 01:18:46.800
premeditated, and Jeff Writes's murder did
look premeditated. I think it's possible she

895
01:18:46.880 --> 01:18:50.279
had had enough of his abuse and
the only way she knew she could get

896
01:18:50.279 --> 01:18:57.000
the upper hand was by seducing him. It's sad that she never felt safe

897
01:18:57.079 --> 01:19:00.880
enough to report his abuse before this
happened. It's sad that it came to

898
01:19:00.960 --> 01:19:05.439
this, and it's sad that she
knew no one would understand how it happened,

899
01:19:05.840 --> 01:19:10.880
so it wasn't the story she told
in court. She may have truly

900
01:19:10.920 --> 01:19:14.680
felt like a prisoner in her own
home and that this was her only way

901
01:19:14.720 --> 01:19:21.720
out. Southern frid True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly.

902
01:19:23.000 --> 01:19:27.960
Today's episode was researched and written by
Andrea Marshbank. As usual, any editorial

903
01:19:28.000 --> 01:19:31.920
comments and opinions are my own.
Southern Frad's original music is by Rob Harrison

904
01:19:31.920 --> 01:19:36.119
of Gamma Radio and the original graphic
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905
01:19:36.199 --> 01:19:40.880
any case suggestions, please go to
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906
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909
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01:19:57.479 --> 01:20:01.159
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913
01:20:10.119 --> 01:20:13.279
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01:20:13.319 --> 01:20:15.560
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915
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916
01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:24.800
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918
01:20:30.840 --> 01:20:31.840
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