177: The Disappearance & Murder of Theresa Parker

WEBVTT

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Southern true crime covers cases that are
not suitable for young listeners, and there

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may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion is advised. No body,

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no crime is a common phrase in
the justice system, also known as

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bodyless murder or no body homicide.
But no matter what you call it,

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it means the same thing in years
past. If you can't find the victim's

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body, then you can't prove the
victim was murdered. And when you think

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about it, that wasn't a terrible
idea. In fact, it makes a

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lot of sense. Throughout history,
the punishment for murder has always been severe,

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lifelong imprisonment, death. These are
experiences that you don't come back from.

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Literally, it was difficult to justify
sentencing someone to such extreme consequences without

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the victim's body. After all,
what if the victim wasn't really dead?

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And it's happened before. In the
eighteenth century, a young woman disappeared.

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Her uncle was accused of murdering her. A judge demanded that the uncle present

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his niece to the court. If
she was alive, it would prove he

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didn't kill her. Easy, right, Except the uncle couldn't find his niece,

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so he brought a different young woman
to the court room and lied,

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this is my niece, the uncle
said. But the judge saw through the

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uncle's lies. He realized that this
young woman was an impostor. And more

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than that, the judge assumed that
the uncle's lie was an admission of guilt.

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That's why he brought a fake niece
to the court to hide his misdeeds.

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The uncle was tried, sent to
and executed. Years later, when

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the murdered niece turned old enough to
claim her uncle's fortune, she returned to

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claim her inheritance in person. She
was alive and well, and her uncle,

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who was not a murderer, was
dead. As a result of situations

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like these, many states developed nobody
no crime laws. Courts wanted to avoid

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unfairly convicting people of murder, and
if a few murderers got away in the

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process, well, it couldn't be
helped. Today, our modern legal system

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handles no body cases differently. Courts
need corpus delectee to convict a murderer of

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a crime law. Corpus delectie is
Latin for body of the crime. It

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doesn't mean that a murder case must
have a body. It means there must

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be significant evidence that a crime occurred
before someone can be convicted. That evidence

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could be a victim's body, or
be a combination of witness accounts or forensic

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evidence and other circumstantial evidence. Still, it's incredibly difficult to convict a person

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of murder without the victim's body.
Tad Tobias is a federal homicide prosecutor and

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author of the book Nobody Homicide Cases, and according to him, there have

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been an estimated five hundred trials for
nobody cases in the United States. Of

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those five hundred trials, approximately forty
cases have been solved in fifteen states.

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That's eight percent, meaning that ninety
two percent of the time that the victim's

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body isn't found, someone might be
getting away with murder. Welcome to Episode

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one seventy seven, The Disappearance and
Murder of Teresa Parker. Teresa An Fielding

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was born on September ninth, nineteen
sixty five, to her mother Claire and

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father William in San Diego, California. Teresa spent her youngest years on the

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West Coast, but by the time
she was a teenager, her family had

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moved to their forever home, Lafayette, Georgia. Located in northwest Georgia,

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Lafayette is the seat of Walker County. Lafayette is considered a bedroom community for

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the more heavily populated Chattanooga, Tennessee, meaning people go to Chattanooga to work

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and grab dinner and attend big events, but at the end of the day

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they drive thirty miles south back to
their bedrooms and Lafayette, with just under

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seven thousand residents, Lafayette is a
small, sleepy town. It has a

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rich Civil War history and an annual
honeybee festival in the summertime. Lafayette is

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a far cry from the hustle and
bustle of Teresa's previous home in San Diego.

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But this change of scenery might have
been an intentional decision by Teresa's parents.

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Since her father was from Georgia,
he would have known the Lafayett area.

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Maybe he thought it was a better
place for his children to grow up

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than in San Diego. After all, Lafayette City website says it's a great

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place to raise a family, and
Teresa had a great family. She had

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two sisters and two brothers. Out
of five kids, Teresa was the middle

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child and it showed. According to
Reader's Digest, middle children are often characterized

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as peacemakers. By de Fault,
middle children are always the ones to negotiate

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truces between their arguing siblings. This
is a broad generalization, of course,

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but for Teresa, it rang true. She was such a peacemaker that her

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family affectionately nicknamed her mother Teresa.
Teresa's sister Christina said her kindness, calmness,

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and empathy held their family to gather
like glue. Teresa loved everyone,

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and everyone loved Teresa. She was
the type of person who is happy to

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help whoever, whenever, no questions
asked, and she was always there for

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her family. Teresa was a fantastic
aunt to her many nieces and nephews.

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Her brother in law said, you'd
instantly fall in love with her. She

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was just that way. She just
made you feel comfortable. In nineteen eighty

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four, Teresa graduated from Lafayette High
School. She married her first husband,

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but it didn't work out. They
divorced. Then sometime in the early nineties,

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she became a dispatcher for the City
of Lafayette Police Department. She was

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an instant star. Her colleagues liked
her. The Lafayette police officers liked her.

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One police officer in particular really liked
her, and that officer was Sam

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Parker. Samuel Logan Parker was born
in nineteen fifty six. His father raised

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him in Lafayette alongside his older sister
Carolyn and his younger brother Kenneth. From

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a young age, Sam was very
close to his father, so close that

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friends and family called Sam Daddy's little
buddy. For many years, Sam and

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his little brother Kenneth were also two
peas in a pod. Kenneth described his

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in Sam's childhood as idyllic, that
they were like the Norman Rockwell version of

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two brothers growing up next to a
river. But Sam's older sister, Carolyn

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remembered their childhood differently. She recalled
Sam as having quite the temper. Like

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Teresa, Sam was the middle child, but unlike Teresa, Sam was not

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known for ending conflicts. He was
known for starting them. Still, Sam

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was a likable young man. He
had a quick wit and a smart mouth.

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When he wasn't playing pranks on his
friends, he was explored ring the

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outdoors around Lafayette. He would hunt
in the dense woods or fish in the

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countless ponds. After he turned eighteen, Sam joined the military. Then in

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the early eighties he became a Lafayett
police officer. Sam's brother, Kenneth,

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looked up to Sam as a role
model. He even followed a similar career

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path. As Sam, Kenneth told
Forty eight Hours, he went into the

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Marine Corps. I went into the
Marine Corps. He went in the police

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department law enforcement. I went into
law enforcement. And it makes sense that

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Sam encouraged his little brother to go
into law enforcement. Sam loved being a

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police officer. His friends joked that
he was on duty twenty four to seven.

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To Sam, being an officer of
the law was the dream and he

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would never jeopardize his dream. Sam
did everything by the book. His uniform

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was spotless, his patrol car was
meticulously clean, and beyond that, Sam

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was a pretty good police officer.
He once saved a child from a burning

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building. After that, Sam was
named the local police Officer of the Year.

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The Lafayette Police Department might have been
Sam's favorite place on earth. So

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when the new nine one one dispatcher, beautiful twenty something Teresa Parker walked in,

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it must have felt like fate.
Right away, Sam asked Teresa out,

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and the two began dating. Over
time, their relationship became more and

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more serious. Friends and family thought
Sam and Teresa made a handsome couple.

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Sam was six one with blue eyes
and brown hair, and Teresa was a

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petite brunette with brown eyes. They
looked sharp together. Teresa's younger sister,

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Christina, told forty eight Hours that
she liked Sam mostly he was a gentleman

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and he had a good sense of
humor. But Christina and others often felt

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Sam took his jokes way too far, he didn't know when to stop.

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But hey, Teresa was head over
heels for the guy, even though he

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had two felled marriages under his belt. But Christina trusted her sister's judgment.

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In fact, Christina was pretty sure
Sam and Teresa would stay together forever.

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And that's exactly what Sam and Teresa
thought too. So on September eleventh,

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nineteen ninety three, twenty eight year
old Teresa married thirty seven year old Sam.

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Near this time, Sam had made
rank of sergeant for the Lafayette PD

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and Teresa was a supervisor at the
Walker County nine one one Center. For

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a while, Sam and Teresa were
incredibly happy with their marriage, but after

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a few years, the honeymoon period
passed, and that's when their relationship began

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to unravel. I'm going to pause
now for a short commercial break. Sam

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and Teresa were constantly at odds,
and these weren't small I chose the restaurant

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last time arguments. These were big, blowout fights, screaming tears, the

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whole nine yards, but somehow they
would always make up. Sam's brother Kenneth,

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described their relationship as a seesaw,
but that evidently they liked it that

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way. Sam and Teresa were well
aware that their relationship was struggling, but

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to Sam, the two weren't hostile
towards each other. They just weren't in

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love anymore. Sam told Forty eight
Hours the marriage was playing itself out,

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but it wasn't in a bad way. Sam and Teresa filed for divorce in

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August of two thousand and six,
after nearly thirteen years of marriage, but

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in the fall and winter of two
thousand and six, Sam and Teresa reconciled.

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They resolved to stick things out for
better or for worse, but only

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a few months later, in March
of two thousand and seven, Teresa decided

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she was done. She went on
a quick vacation to Mexico without Sam.

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She signed a new lease in a
different city, and she followed for divorce.

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Soon after Teresa and Sam were officially
separated. Sam was going to get

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the house, so Teresa was in
the process of moving out. She had

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taken a few days off from her
job at the Walker County nine one one

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Center to get her new place in
order. So on Wednesday, March twenty

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first, two thousand and seven,
Teresa didn't go into work. She was

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moving her stuff from her old house
with Sam to her new apartment. After

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a long day of trucking boxes back
and forth, Teresa took a break.

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That evening she went to her younger
sister, Christina's house. Teresa was so

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excited to show Christina her apartment.
It was a few miles north of Lafayette

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and Fort Oglethorpe, and it was
much closer to Christina's house. This was

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handy. Teresa would be able to
see her sister and her nieces and nephews

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much more often. She loved being
present in their lives. But as Christina

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and Teresa said goodbye that night,
Christina felt weird. She couldn't put her

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finger on it exactly, but something
felt wrong, she told forty eight hours.

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When I hugged her that night,
it was just the strangest thing.

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It was almost just like this feeling
of I was never going to see her

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again. I just got the emptiest
feeling. Then Teresa hopped in her suv

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and drove to Sam's house. She
was going to sleep there before continuing to

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move the rest of her stuff out. The next day, at around ten

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thirty pm, Teresa's good friend and
co worker, Ronda Knox, gave her

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a call. Teresa told Ronda she
was headed to Sam's house, but she

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was taking her sweet tom getting there. Teresa wanted to wait long enough that

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Sam would be asleep. She was
sick of fighting. It would have made

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things a lot easier if her estranged
husband was out cold. When she walked

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in, Ronda wasn't shocked to hear
that Teresa was avoiding Sam. Teresa had

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confided in Ronda about Sam's hot temper
before. Ronda and Teresa spoke for a

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while and then the two hung up. Ronda went to bed, and she

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assumed that Teresa did the same.
The next day, at six am,

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Ronda got a call from Teresa,
but When she picked up the phone,

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Teresa didn't say anything. The call
abruptly ended. This freaked Ronda out.

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Was she okay? Was that even
her on the other end of the line.

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Did someone have Teresa's phone? Who? Why? Ronda panicked? She

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called Teresa back. Her phone rang
a few times before going straight to voicemail.

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Ronda called her cell number, her
landline number, and any other number

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she could think of, over and
over again, but Teresa never responded.

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Concerned that Teresa was hurt or in
danger, Ronda called a friend of hers,

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a local police officer named Shane Green. Gronda told Shane the situation and

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asked him to check on Teresa.
So Shane grabbed a few other officers and

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went to the house and what they
found was odd. At six thirty am,

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only thirty minutes after that weird phone
call from Teresa, Shane and his

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officers knocked on Sam's door. There
was no response. The police officers went

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around to the houses detached garage and
used flashlights to peek inside the windows.

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Teresa's vehicle, a Toyota Forerunner,
should have been in the garage. After

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all, Teresa was going to spend
the night at Sam's house. And she

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always parked in the garage, but
the forerunner was nowhere to be found,

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and Shane and his officers did see
Sam's patrol car in the garage and his

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pickup truck was parked outside the house. Then, mysteriously, that afternoon,

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Teresa's forerunner reappeared in Sam's garage,
and no one could explain how. No

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one had heard from or seen Teresa
since Wednesday night, not her friend Rohnda,

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not her sister Christina. Even Sam
called Teresa's phone a few times as

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he tried to figure out where she
was. At this point, Teresa's sister,

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Christina wasn't on high alert. After
all, Teresa was an adult,

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she could take care of herself.
Plus Teresa was busy with the move.

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She told Christina on Wednesday that she
was going to deep clean the new apartment

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on Thursday, so it would make
sense that Teresa was focused on scrubbing floors

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and not looking at her phone.
Thursday passed without a word from Teresa.

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But when Friday, March twenty third
came around with still no sign of Teresa,

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Christina knew her sister was in danger. She had called Theresa that morning

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hoping for a quick chat with her
before work, but she didn't pick up.

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Christina went to work, thinking Teresa
would return her call during the day.

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Teresa always called back as soon as
she was able, but Friday passed

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and Teresa didn't call. Now Christina
was thinking the worst. She told forty

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eight Hours there were no ifs ands
or butts about it. I knew something

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so horrible happened, and I was
just scared to death. So on Saturday,

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March twenty fourth, two thousand and
seven, Teresa's family filed a missing

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person's report with the Walker County Sheriff's
Department. From its inception, Teresa's case

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was considered a high priority investigation.
Local authorities called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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The Lafayette Police Department put Sam on
leave. Sheriff Steve Wilson told forty

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eight Hours that he could tell that
teresa case was gonna be bigger than Walker

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County when it was all said and
done. But why did Teresa's case grab

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so much attention from three different law
enforcement departments? Lafayette, Walker County,

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and the State of Georgia were all
working on her case in some capacity.

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Usually, the family of missing adults
have to beg and plead for police departments

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to take the disappearance seriously. They're
told, Hey, they're an adult,

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they have money and a car,
they're around somewhere. So how did authorities

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00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:37.839
already know that Teresa, a forty
one year old woman, was actually in

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danger. Well, let's consider the
context. Teresa was a supervisor at the

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Walker County nine one one Center.
GBI special agent Mark Vesey describe the situation,

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saying, she's one of our own. She's a nine one one dispatcher.

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She's that person on the other end
of the radio when you're in need.

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She's there. And then there's Sam
Parker, Teresa's husband of thirteen years.

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He was a Lafayette Police sergeant.
Teresa would have known the local corps

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00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:15.000
not only from her job at the
nine one one Calls Center, but also

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00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:18.839
through Sam. This wasn't a random
woman going missing in a big city.

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This was Teresa Parker from the small
town of Lafayette with less than seven thousand

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00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:29.880
residents. People knew her, not
just the police. And while all of

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these are sensible reasons as to why
the Lafayette PD, the Walker County Sheriff's

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Department, and the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation were interested in Teresa's case. They

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00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:44.839
weren't the main reason. No,
the main reason was According to nine one

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one logs, the police were called
to Sam and Teresa's location to resolve domestic

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disputes on two separate occasions. On
May fourth, two thousand and two,

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Sam was drunk and angry. According
to Teresa's family, that happened a lot.

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Teresa's sister, Christina told forty eight
Hours that Sam was a violent,

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00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.359
mean, drunk. He would keep
a water bottle in the refrigerator during family

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00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:14.200
dinners or whatever, and he would
sneak over there and drink out of this

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bottle. It was straight vodka.
I'd seen him in action, you know,

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00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:22.279
so scary. Christina said. If
Sam was drunk, he could flip

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from cordial to cruel and the blink
of an eye, and this night was

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no different. When the police arrived
at Sam and Teresa's home, they saw

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a drunk Sam yell and curse at
Teresa, who was sobbing. Sam told

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the officers that Teresa was cheating on
him. Sam had thrown Teresa's clothing and

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other items in the yard, and
there was a noticeable red mark on Teresa's

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face as if Sam had hit her
recently, but Teresa reassured the police that

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she had just scratched herself and she
refused to brush charges. Next on April

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00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:03.799
twenty seventh of two thousand and three, Sam and Teresa were on vacation in

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00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:08.319
Panama City, Florida. They were
at a restaurant when Sam began drinking.

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00:21:10.039 --> 00:21:15.480
Soon after, Sam became angry.
While still in the restaurant, Sam threatened

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00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:21.079
Teresa. He told her he would
handcuff himself to her, kill himself,

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00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:26.039
and force her to drag his dead
body around forever. Sam also threatened to

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00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:30.519
kill her. Teresa was, of
course upset. She left the restaurant.

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Sam followed and they got in their
vehicle. As he pulled out of the

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parking lot, he pulled out his
gun and fired it multiple times out the

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car window. Immediately, bystanders called
the police. When the officers showed up,

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they could see that Teresa was crying
and visibly shaken, but Sam didn't

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care. He continued to demean Teresa
and the officer's presence. He also denied

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00:21:56.920 --> 00:22:00.839
firing a gun. He told the
officers he didn't even have a weapon on

250
00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.839
him, but when the police searched
Sam and his vehicle. They found not

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00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:10.799
only one gun, but two,
and one of the guns had obviously been

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00:22:10.839 --> 00:22:17.480
recently fired. The police officers were
concerned for Teresa, but also for Sam.

253
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His suggestion that he would complete suicide
was troubling. As a result of

254
00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:29.119
this statement, Sam was involuntarily admitted
to a Florida mental health facility for a

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00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:34.680
seventy two hour observation and psychological evaluation. As the officers drove Sam to the

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facility, he chatted with them.
He bragged to them that because he was

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00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.920
a cop, he could hide a
body where no one would find it.

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00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.400
And this wasn't the first time that
Sam had made that joke. In fact,

259
00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:53.160
it wasn't the second time or the
third. Sam told a lot of

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00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:59.640
people that he could successfully hide a
body. Usually he said it in reference

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00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:03.599
to Teresa's body. And you know
what, I get the joke. I

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00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:07.839
really do think about my job.
I'm a true crime podcast host. Do

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00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:11.359
you know how many times my husband
has joked that if I killed him,

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00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:17.319
they would never find the body.
But Sam's joke was different, constant.

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00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:21.920
He told nearly everyone in his life
how easy it would be to get rid

266
00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:26.640
of a body, especially in the
thick woods of Lafayette, Georgia, Sam's

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00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:30.640
hometown, where he knew those forests
like the back of his hand. Sam

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00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:34.640
was certain he could just toss a
body and one of Lafayette's mini pawns.

269
00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:40.799
No one would find it, and
eventually the turtles would eat the corpse.

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00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:45.599
And sometimes when Sam joked that he
could kill someone and hide their body,

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00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:52.400
it didn't feel like a joke,
It felt downright serious. Before Teresa,

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00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:57.319
Sam and his second wife, Keila
Beard were married for four years, and

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00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:03.519
Kila's account is similar to Teresa's family's
account. Sam was known to drink too

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00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:08.240
much and too often, and once
Sam was drunk, Sam was angry.

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00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:12.720
Once Sam was drunk at home with
Keila there, it wasn't long before he

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00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:18.160
threw a glass of water in a
rage. Glass shattered all over the floor.

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00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.599
Then Sam grabbed Keila by the hair
and dragged her through the broken glass.

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00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:27.440
He handcuffed Keila, who was bleeding, to the bedpost. Sam only

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00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:32.559
set Keila free when he had to
go to work. After this, Keila

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00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:37.920
ended her relationship with Sam for good, but a few months later Sam broke

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00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:41.640
into Keila's home he attacked her accused
her of trying to sleep with other men

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00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:48.839
and strangled her. Then Sam held
his service gunder her head and threatened to

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00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:55.160
blow her brains out. Following this
incident, Sam made Keila swear to secrecy.

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00:24:55.240 --> 00:24:59.400
If she didn't keep quiet, Sam
would kill her. Keila told forty

285
00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:02.720
eight hours. He said, you
can believe me that I know how to

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00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:07.400
do it without getting caught, and
they will never find your body. Teresa's

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00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:11.640
former sister in law, Tabitha,
also said that Sam Wants threatened to kill

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00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:15.640
her, her husband, and her
children. He made it explicitly clear that

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00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:19.839
he could hide their bodies where no
one would find them, and Teresa's mother,

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00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:25.839
Claire, had a similar experience with
Sam. Sam threatened Claire and her

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00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:30.119
boyfriend, saying that if they ever
came onto his property, he would kill

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00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:34.079
them and hide their bodies where say
it with me, no one would find

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00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:41.119
them. All of this is to
say three Georgia law enforcement agencies weren't pursuing

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00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:45.279
Teresa's missing person case out of the
kindness of their hearts or because she was

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00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:52.079
one of their own, at least
not entirely. They wanted to find Teresa

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00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:56.680
because they already suspected who was responsible
for harming her fifty two year old Sam

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00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.400
Parker, and since Sam was on
their own as a current Lafayette Police sergeant,

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00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:07.960
the ship was about to hit the
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00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:14.519
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com slash Southern. In late March
of two thousand and seven, Lafayet residents

348
00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:03.440
were distraught over Teresa's disappear. This
was a quiet town, a great place

349
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:07.440
to raise a family. Your kids
could play outside well after the sun had

350
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:11.759
said. You waved at a four
way stop. People didn't go missing,

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00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:17.640
respected cops weren't accused of foul play. Those things just didn't happen here.

352
00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:22.319
And Teresa's family were out of their
minds, wondering where Teresa, their sister,

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00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:27.920
daughter, and aunt was. Teresa's
sister, Christina told forty eight hours

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00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:32.720
every morning when I opened my eyes, I think about her. You know,

355
00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:33.960
at night, when I lay my
head down to go to sleep,

356
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:41.680
I think about her. Teresa,
where could you be Sam was also upset

357
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:47.359
about his almost ex wife's disappearance,
but for different reasons. Sam told his

358
00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:52.119
brother Kenneth that Teresa probably ran off. According to Sam, this was all

359
00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:57.559
an elaborate ploy so that Teresa could
avoid a divorce. That was a weird

360
00:30:57.680 --> 00:31:03.480
rationale for many reasons, but also
since it was Teresa who had requested the

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00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.599
divorce. If anyone was going to
avoid it, it wasn't her, it

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00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:12.880
would be Sam. Hundreds of Lafayette
residents volunteered to help search for Teresa.

363
00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:18.359
The authorities brought in professional scuba divers
to scour bodies of water. When a

364
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:25.119
ponds underwater foliage was so thick that
the divers couldn't see anything, they drained

365
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:32.799
the pond and they searched everywhere the
local landfill, underwater caves, swimming holes.

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00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:37.160
They used robotic cameras to get too
hard to reach places. They reviewed

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00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:44.200
hours of surveillance tape recorded by nearby
businesses. They put up missing persons posters,

368
00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:48.000
billboards, and started a phone line
for tips. This was truly no

369
00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:56.279
stone left unturned police work. In
total, law enforcement officers and volunteers covered

370
00:31:56.279 --> 00:32:00.920
about one hundred and seventy five square
miles While looking for Teresa, everyone was

371
00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:07.119
determined to find her. Special Agent
Visi said, I don't believe that she

372
00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:09.799
would have just vanished off the face
of the earth. In other words,

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00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:15.519
Teresa was somewhere. They just had
to fined her. One of the most

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00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:21.920
challenging aspects of Teresa's case was the
area. The Lafayette terrain was easy to

375
00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:25.599
hide things in, but hard to
search. Woods near Sam's home went for

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00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:31.640
miles and miles. There was mountains
which were treacherous to climb. Plus there

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00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:37.000
was a thick carpet of knee high
plants covering the ground. Wherever you went.

378
00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:40.680
You could be standing right next to
Teresa's prone body and not know it.

379
00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:47.640
Federal agents were also concerned about the
hundreds of old wells literally rural Lafayette

380
00:32:47.799 --> 00:32:52.440
and Walker County. The old wells
would be a convenient spot to dump a

381
00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:59.559
body and let it decompose in the
water, and investigators knew that since Sam

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00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:02.359
grew up in the area, he'd
have a good understanding of the nearby wells.

383
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:06.920
He would know which ones were out
in the open, and he'd know

384
00:33:06.960 --> 00:33:12.759
which ones were hidden. Investigators hit
the ground running. They interviewed everyone in

385
00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:17.440
Teresa's life, friends, family,
neighbors, and colleagues. Within seven days,

386
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:22.799
the police had spoken with over one
hundred people. During those interviews,

387
00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:30.960
detectives learned that there were two distinctive
narratives circulating around Sam and Teresa's relationship and

388
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:36.960
Sam's alleged abuse. According to Teresa's
family, Sam was a vicious drunk,

389
00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:40.480
and not only was he an angry
drunk, but he was a jealous one.

390
00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:45.880
When Sam had one too many,
he would start accusing Teresa of cheating

391
00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:51.799
on him, and then he'd start
swinging. For years, Teresa's family begged

392
00:33:51.799 --> 00:33:55.880
her to leave Sam, but she
refused. She loved Sam so much.

393
00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:00.079
According to her sister, Christina,
Teresa did not want to give up on

394
00:34:00.119 --> 00:34:07.160
the relationship. But every day Teresa
would call her family. She'd hop on

395
00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:10.760
the phone with her mom or her
sisters, and every day they would probably

396
00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:16.800
wonder if Sam was working on his
temper, but he wasn't. Teresa didn't

397
00:34:16.840 --> 00:34:22.239
talk about Sam's anger and how bad
the abuse was. She didn't report it

398
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:28.239
to the police. Teresa's sister Christina
told forty eight Hours, I think she

399
00:34:28.360 --> 00:34:31.880
hit it very well, and I
think she hid it from everybody. When

400
00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:37.400
Teresa finally decided to leave Sam in
March of two thousand and seven. Her

401
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:44.559
family was relieved finally she would be
safe. The Chattanooga Times reported that Teresa's

402
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:47.599
niece said she knew she was making
the right decision. It was just a

403
00:34:47.599 --> 00:34:53.440
matter of getting away from him.
She was so close. But Sam's family

404
00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:59.119
had a different impression of his drinking. His brother Kenneth said it wasn't a

405
00:34:59.119 --> 00:35:02.920
problem. Sam was a fun and
happy drunk, and according to Sam's sister

406
00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:08.920
Caroline, she had never seen Sam
hurt anybody while drunk. Sam himself said

407
00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:13.880
that his drinking was blown way out
of proportion. He liked to drink,

408
00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:16.559
but he didn't have a problem.
It didn't affect his job or anything.

409
00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:23.480
That's just called being a functioning alcoholic. There, big guy. Sam's family

410
00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:30.280
also had a different perspective on his
and Teresa's relationship. Sure, Sam and

411
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:34.719
Teresa fault and yes they got loud, and maybe the two adults were a

412
00:35:34.760 --> 00:35:39.800
little toxic, but Sam wasn't abusive
by any means. His brother Kenneth said

413
00:35:39.800 --> 00:35:45.119
that Sam and Teresa liked to play
mind games. Kenneth attributed most of their

414
00:35:45.159 --> 00:35:51.840
fights to Teresa, not Sam.
He told forty eight hours quote. She

415
00:35:51.960 --> 00:35:55.239
knew exactly what button to push if
she wanted to fight. And after all,

416
00:35:55.639 --> 00:36:00.119
Teresa had never followed any police charges
against Sam, so she must have

417
00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:07.119
been safe. Right wrong, very
very wrong. Let's look at the facts.

418
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:12.079
Sam's ex wife said he was abusive. Teresa said he was abusive.

419
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:15.960
On two separate occasions. The cops
were called during Sam and Teresa's arguments.

420
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:21.920
Both times, the officers could tell
that Sam, not Teresa, was the

421
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:27.559
aggressor. Teresa had told several of
her friends and family members that she feared

422
00:36:27.639 --> 00:36:32.519
Sam. And we don't even need
to include Sam's NonStop joking about killing Teresa

423
00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:37.880
and hiding her body where no one
would find it. This was an abusive

424
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:42.559
relationship. Sam was an abuser,
and that's really all there is to it.

425
00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:46.679
Luckily, the investigators caught on to
that pretty quickly. You know,

426
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:52.679
it's one thing to defend your family
over small things, but every family knows

427
00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:55.840
who the mean drunk is in the
clan. And when a woman is dead,

428
00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:02.039
how could you still blame her?
It's dis gusting. On Friday March

429
00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:07.960
twenty third, two days after anyone
had laid eyes on Teresa, Sam called

430
00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:13.760
her sister Christina. During this phone
call, Christina thought that Sam sounded strange.

431
00:37:14.280 --> 00:37:17.239
He was talking very quickly and kept
clearing his throat as if he had

432
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:22.960
a cold. But maybe he was
just anxious. After all, his wife

433
00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:27.039
was missing, and Sam did offer
to help look for Teresa after he got

434
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:31.360
off work the next morning, but
when Christina asked Sam if he had seen

435
00:37:31.519 --> 00:37:37.760
Teresa recently, he said no,
he couldn't have. Sam was out fishing

436
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:42.400
with a buddy early Thursday morning.
According to Sam, when he left the

437
00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:45.920
house at the crack of dawn,
Christina's vehicle was where it always was in

438
00:37:45.960 --> 00:37:52.599
the garage. But of course we
know this is a lie. Teresa's car

439
00:37:52.679 --> 00:37:57.800
wasn't in the garage when Sam said
it was. Lafayette Police officer Shane Green

440
00:37:58.039 --> 00:38:01.880
verified that at six thirty am on
Thursday morning, with other officers with him

441
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:07.480
to witness it. Detectives also spotted
this lie in Sam's story. On Sunday,

442
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:13.440
March twenty fifth, four days after
Teresa went missing, the GBI questioned

443
00:38:13.519 --> 00:38:17.840
Sam Parker. At this point,
he wasn't an official suspect. The special

444
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:24.039
agents just wanted to understand Sam's timeline
around the hours that Teresa went missing,

445
00:38:24.679 --> 00:38:30.079
but it was a huge red flag
when Sam's timeline did not match the evidence.

446
00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:35.960
Sam told the police that the last
time he saw Teresa was at seven

447
00:38:36.079 --> 00:38:39.960
thirty am on Wednesday morning, Teresa
was moving her things to her new apartment.

448
00:38:40.679 --> 00:38:44.840
Then, he claimed he was out
of the house all Wednesday night through

449
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:49.000
Thursday morning. First, he had
had a date with a woman named Christie

450
00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:52.880
Bellflower. After that, he went
fishing with his buddy in the morning.

451
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:57.440
According to Sam, he hadn't been
home at all, and he had been

452
00:38:57.519 --> 00:39:01.679
driving his pickup truck the entire time. So why did Officer Shane Green and

453
00:39:01.719 --> 00:39:07.800
Sam's neighbors say Sam's pickup truck was
parked outside his home on Thursday morning.

454
00:39:07.639 --> 00:39:13.519
A special agent working the case told
forty eight Hours, I couldn't understand why

455
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:16.719
he would lie about something that's small, At least I thought it was small

456
00:39:16.760 --> 00:39:22.320
at the time, and then the
agents caught Sam in yet another lie.

457
00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:27.960
He insisted he had not tried to
contact Teresa since Wednesday, but Sam's phone

458
00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:31.679
records showed that he had called Teresa
two times early on Thursday morning, the

459
00:39:31.800 --> 00:39:37.760
same morning she was discovered missing.
The same morning, Teresa's colleague Ronde got

460
00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:44.239
that unusual phone call from Teresa.
Sam was adamant that he hadn't made any

461
00:39:44.280 --> 00:39:49.360
calls to Teresa, and the GBI
agents thought this was bizarre. It standard

462
00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:55.119
operating procedure to check phone records and
Sam would know that. Sam seemed baffled

463
00:39:55.159 --> 00:40:00.960
that the GBI was so interested in
him. He told forty eight hours their

464
00:40:00.039 --> 00:40:05.000
drawing conclusions that she may have been
harmed and she may be possibly dead.

465
00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:08.440
Me personally, I'm not going to
let that enter my mind until i have

466
00:40:08.639 --> 00:40:15.119
to. Sam explained to the authorities
that Teresa was fine, and he shared

467
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:19.719
with them his theory that Teresa had
run away to Mexico with a guy named

468
00:40:19.719 --> 00:40:24.119
Elvis. Yeah, you can't make
this shut up. Not long before Teresa

469
00:40:24.159 --> 00:40:29.920
disappeared, she took a vacation to
Mexico with her nieces. They stated a

470
00:40:29.960 --> 00:40:34.920
Cancoon resort, and according to Sam, Teresa had a local man who worked

471
00:40:34.920 --> 00:40:39.840
as a resort entertainer. His name
was Elvis. Sam said that Teresa and

472
00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:46.559
Elvis really hit it off. He
was really selling this Elvis bs But investigators

473
00:40:46.559 --> 00:40:52.559
had to pursue this lead and flew
to Cancoon. The special agents showed Teresa's

474
00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:58.559
photo to numerous Cancoon resorts. Ultimately, they determined that this theory was unreasonable.

475
00:40:59.199 --> 00:41:05.320
Teresa and of Us were not hiding
away somewhere in Mexico. Shocker Back

476
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:10.199
in Lafayette, special agent James Harris
reached Teresa's new apartment, which was clearly

477
00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:16.840
unoccupied. The home supplast door lows
had tried to deliver Teresa her newly purchased

478
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:22.159
washer and dryer, but no one
was there to accept the order. The

479
00:41:22.239 --> 00:41:27.320
delivery people had left a flier on
her doorknob. Agent Harris found normal items

480
00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:32.280
in Teresa's apartment clothes, shoes,
and a work uniform. Nothing to indicate

481
00:41:32.320 --> 00:41:36.760
that she had left on a trip
to Mexico, though, and nothing to

482
00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:42.280
indicate where she had gone. On
the weekend of Saturday, March thirty first,

483
00:41:42.480 --> 00:41:46.159
over a week after Teresa went missing, the GBI told the Chattanooga Times

484
00:41:46.199 --> 00:41:52.360
Free Press that Sam Parker was officially
a person of interest. Local investigators and

485
00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:59.519
the GBI searched Sam's home. Over
the course of this investigation, they had

486
00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:04.440
searched his home five times. Authorities
didn't share with the public what they found

487
00:42:04.440 --> 00:42:08.800
in Sam's home, but they did
confiscate Sam's collection of old guns and rifles.

488
00:42:10.039 --> 00:42:15.920
These searches upset Sam. According to
him, the investigators didn't look through

489
00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:21.440
Teresa's stuff at his house. Sam
told local reporters that he was being framed

490
00:42:21.440 --> 00:42:25.880
for Teresa's disappearance. He said,
everything I've ever said has been swept under

491
00:42:25.880 --> 00:42:30.800
the carpet and made me the bad
guy. He was critical that the police

492
00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:35.039
dropped all other leads to focus on
him, but according to the police,

493
00:42:35.480 --> 00:42:39.400
all leads kept taking them straight back
to Sam. On the Monday following his

494
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:46.199
house being searched, Sam continued to
deny any involvement in Teresa's disappearance. The

495
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:51.639
next day, on Tuesday, April
third, one of Sam's police co workers

496
00:42:51.880 --> 00:42:58.199
named Ben Chaffin, was arrested.
Apparently Ben had made false statements related to

497
00:42:58.360 --> 00:43:04.119
Teresa's investigation, but the detectives never
released what those statements were or how they

498
00:43:04.159 --> 00:43:08.760
affected Teresa's case. If you're confused
as to who Ben Chaffin is or how

499
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:14.079
he was involved in all this,
you're not alone. Everyone was confused.

500
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:17.840
Back in April of two thousand seven
two, Teresa's family thought Sam would be

501
00:43:17.920 --> 00:43:23.000
arrested, so they were surprised to
see yet another Lafayet police officer was somehow

502
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:29.880
involved. Ben was charged with violation
of oath by a public officer, tampering

503
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:35.320
with evidence, and computer invasion of
privacy. None of Ben's involvement was ever

504
00:43:35.400 --> 00:43:40.199
explained, but the county sheriff assured
the general public that the arrest indicated progress

505
00:43:40.239 --> 00:43:46.079
for Teresa's case. Meanwhile, Sam
was fired from the Lafayette p D after

506
00:43:46.159 --> 00:43:52.039
twenty five years of service. He'd
never been allowed to return after his supervisors

507
00:43:52.039 --> 00:43:57.559
put him on leave for Teresa's investigation. When the Lafayette p D conducted their

508
00:43:57.599 --> 00:44:02.559
own internal investigation on Sam, they
discovered he had explosives in his work walker.

509
00:44:04.599 --> 00:44:07.840
It's not clear what type of explosives
Sam had or why they were in

510
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:12.679
his locker, but if I had
to guess, the La Fayette PD was

511
00:44:12.760 --> 00:44:15.920
looking to distance themselves from Sam.
They could see the writing on the wall,

512
00:44:16.280 --> 00:44:21.480
and the explosives thing was probably an
easy way to do it. It

513
00:44:21.519 --> 00:44:27.000
could have just been firecrackers for all
we know. I'm going to pause now

514
00:44:27.079 --> 00:44:34.920
for a short commercial break. Teresa's
investigation and the search for her body continued

515
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:43.119
for months until finally detectives found something
promising and Teresa's Toyota Forerunner remember the one

516
00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:47.480
that went missing on Thursday morning,
only to mysteriously appear in Sam's garage on

517
00:44:47.599 --> 00:44:54.000
Thursday afternoon. Investigators noticed that someone
had cleaned the suv. There were visible

518
00:44:54.079 --> 00:44:58.719
vacuum marks on the carpet in the
back of the vehicle, and a rubber

519
00:44:58.760 --> 00:45:02.280
floor mat that was usually in the
trunk area was missing. And this is

520
00:45:02.280 --> 00:45:08.599
where detectives made perhaps their most important
discovery. Teresa's blood was on the SUV's

521
00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:14.960
bumper and Sam's DNA was in the
same location. Although it took a long

522
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:21.480
time to definitively identify these samples as
Teresa's blood and Sam's DNA, once they

523
00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:27.079
had the verification, well, this
was their smoking gun. Finally, the

524
00:45:27.119 --> 00:45:34.239
police had enough evidence to arrest Sam
Parker. Before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

525
00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:40.400
arrested Sam, they consulted with an
FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit professional. They were

526
00:45:40.519 --> 00:45:46.840
uneasy about Sam's history of violence and
experience as a law enforcement officer. How

527
00:45:46.840 --> 00:45:52.039
would he react to being arrested for
a murder he maintains he didn't commit.

528
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:59.559
The last thing they wanted was a
standoff. The FBI behavioral analysis expert instructed

529
00:45:59.599 --> 00:46:04.800
the GBI agents to approach Sam in
a very low key manner, no swat

530
00:46:04.840 --> 00:46:08.639
team, no sirens. They didn't
want Sam to kick into his fight or

531
00:46:08.679 --> 00:46:15.159
flight mode because he probably would choose
to fight. So on the morning of

532
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:20.159
Monday, February fourth, two thousand
and eight, almost a year after Teresa's

533
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:24.880
disappearance, two GBI agents knocked on
Sam's door. Sam knew the agents well,

534
00:46:25.639 --> 00:46:30.159
after all, they had searched his
house five times by this point.

535
00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:35.039
He opened the door and was arrested
for Teresa's murder on his front porch.

536
00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:39.719
He went without a fight, only
asking agent Vezy to turn off his coffee

537
00:46:39.719 --> 00:46:45.639
pot. The next day, Sam
was indicted for malice, murder, false

538
00:46:45.679 --> 00:46:51.239
statements, computer invasion of privacy,
and violation of oath by a public officer.

539
00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:57.480
He was held without bond. Teresa's
body was still missing, naturally,

540
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:04.320
probably confident she wouldn't be found.
Sam still maintained his innocence and his family

541
00:47:04.360 --> 00:47:09.440
believed him. Around this time,
Sam's sister Caroline released a statement saying that

542
00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:15.639
Sam had nothing to do with harming
Teresa. Sam's brother Kenneth told reporters that

543
00:47:15.679 --> 00:47:22.440
he still thought Teresa had run off
to Mexico or maybe California. He felt

544
00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:27.880
that the police had targeted Sam out
of desperation. Kenneth reasoned that Sam had

545
00:47:27.880 --> 00:47:30.760
already been divorced twice, so why
would he murder his soon to be ex

546
00:47:30.800 --> 00:47:37.440
wife now. But Teresa's family disagreed
with Kenneth and Carolyne. Fox News reported

547
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:43.360
that Teresa's sister Christina said the following, I can honestly say that I do

548
00:47:43.440 --> 00:47:45.960
believe he is involved. That's what
I feel, That's what I know in

549
00:47:46.039 --> 00:47:50.920
my heart. I know of an
incident last year where she was really scared.

550
00:47:51.320 --> 00:47:53.639
She was really afraid, and she
looked me in the eyes and told

551
00:47:53.679 --> 00:48:00.159
me she was afraid that she was
going to die. Sam's arrest was or

552
00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:04.960
sweet for Teresa's family. They were
glad that there was forward momentum for Teresa's

553
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:08.519
case, but Sam was like family
to them, so it really hurt.

554
00:48:09.239 --> 00:48:14.239
For over a decade, he had
been Teresa's husband. They had gone to

555
00:48:14.280 --> 00:48:19.719
family member's birthday parties together, bought
each other Christmas gifts. If Sam killed

556
00:48:19.800 --> 00:48:24.320
Teresa, his crime didn't just impact
Teresa's life, he had betrayed her entire

557
00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:30.239
family too. The GBI knew from
the get go that Teresa's case would go

558
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:36.880
to trial nobody cases always do,
and Teresa's body was nowhere to be found.

559
00:48:37.639 --> 00:48:43.000
It's really difficult to convict a murderer
without a body because the prosecution has

560
00:48:43.039 --> 00:48:47.559
to win two arguments, number one
that Teresa was a victim of a crime,

561
00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:53.480
and number two that Sam perpetuated that
crime. Long story short, it

562
00:48:53.519 --> 00:48:58.960
didn't benefit Sam to plead guilty.
At this time, the state of Georgia

563
00:48:59.280 --> 00:49:04.159
had only ever convicted a handful of
killers without the victim's body, so the

564
00:49:04.239 --> 00:49:09.119
odds were in Sam's favor. Sam's
trial began on Monday, August seventeenth,

565
00:49:09.280 --> 00:49:14.159
two thousand and nine. It was
held in the Walker County Superior Court.

566
00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:19.880
The jury consisted of six men and
six women. Sam would be represented by

567
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:25.519
the public defender David Dunn. Da
Lee Patterson painted a picture of Sam as

568
00:49:25.559 --> 00:49:31.280
an obsessive, wife beating asshole.
He was controlling, he was manipulative,

569
00:49:31.760 --> 00:49:38.199
and it was completely possible that he
killed Teresa. This was the prosecution's interpretation

570
00:49:38.719 --> 00:49:45.119
of that fateful night. After Teresa
left her sister's house on Wednesday evening,

571
00:49:45.559 --> 00:49:50.840
she went to her new apartment.
Teresa left a little after midnight, drove

572
00:49:50.880 --> 00:49:54.960
to Sam's house and went inside.
Teresa thought Sam would be fast asleep,

573
00:49:55.400 --> 00:50:00.559
but he wasn't. He was waiting
for her. Between twelve thirty and one

574
00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:05.960
thirty a m. On March twenty
second of two thousand and seven, Sam

575
00:50:06.039 --> 00:50:09.760
murdered Teresa. Then he put her
body in the back of her own suv,

576
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:15.760
and then he went to work establishing
his alibi. He drove to his

577
00:50:15.840 --> 00:50:21.480
friend Christie Bellflower's house for a booty
call. They called at a date in

578
00:50:21.519 --> 00:50:24.320
the court documents, but it was
two a m. This wasn't a date.

579
00:50:25.480 --> 00:50:30.039
In court, Christie testified that Sam
was indeed at her house in the

580
00:50:30.119 --> 00:50:36.320
late night and early morning. Sam
brought his signature water bottle of vodka and

581
00:50:36.400 --> 00:50:39.360
he left around five a m.
Sometime between five thirty a m. And

582
00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:45.079
seven thirty a m. Sam took
Teresa's suv, dumped her body, and

583
00:50:45.199 --> 00:50:52.320
returned her suv back to his garage. The prosecution brought witnesses who testified to

584
00:50:52.440 --> 00:50:58.760
Sam's animosity towards Teresa. One of
Teresa's nieces said that any time she would

585
00:50:58.800 --> 00:51:01.440
turn her back, he would flip
her off and cuss behind her back.

586
00:51:02.639 --> 00:51:08.719
Sam's second wife, Keila Beard,
testified to Sam's abuse and his continuous reminders

587
00:51:09.079 --> 00:51:15.119
that he would kill her and hide
her body. And then Ben Chaffin testified,

588
00:51:15.519 --> 00:51:21.000
the mysterious police officer who was arrested
in relation to Teresa's case. Ben

589
00:51:21.039 --> 00:51:23.400
told the court that he and Sam
were so close that they were like brothers.

590
00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:28.920
So Ben knew that Teresa and Sam
were on the rocks, and on

591
00:51:28.960 --> 00:51:34.719
the night Teresa vanished, Sam called
Ben at four am. Ben explained he

592
00:51:34.800 --> 00:51:37.360
said something that he'd really done it
this time, or he's really gonna do

593
00:51:37.440 --> 00:51:40.239
it this time. He said that
he had a place that was going to

594
00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:45.119
be hard to find her, they
would never find her, and that he

595
00:51:45.159 --> 00:51:50.039
had shot Teresa through the head.
Then Sam hung up, but he called

596
00:51:50.079 --> 00:51:53.519
back only a few minutes later.
During this second phone call, Sam told

597
00:51:53.559 --> 00:51:59.719
Ben to keep quiet. If Ben
told anyone about this conversation, Sam would

598
00:51:59.800 --> 00:52:06.159
kill him. This seems groundbreaking for
the prosecution, but Ben's testimony didn't actually

599
00:52:06.199 --> 00:52:12.159
have much weight. In fact,
jurors later confirmed that they ignored every word

600
00:52:12.159 --> 00:52:15.760
that came out of Ben's mouth.
First of all, where was Ben a

601
00:52:15.800 --> 00:52:20.920
year ago when Teresa went missing?
When Sam's attorney asked Ben why he didn't

602
00:52:20.920 --> 00:52:25.239
say all this sooner? Ben said
he forgot and apparently Ben had given the

603
00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:30.599
authorities five different stories about that night, and he had been arrested for hacking

604
00:52:30.760 --> 00:52:36.480
Teresa's computer, although it was never
explained how, when, or why he

605
00:52:36.599 --> 00:52:40.199
did that, and the jurors also
thought Ben might be trying to get out

606
00:52:40.199 --> 00:52:45.679
of a jam. He had received
full immunity for testifying on behalf of the

607
00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:51.280
prosecution. He could have said anything. Sam's defense attorney said Ben was the

608
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:57.199
most unbelievable witness I had seen in
twenty six years of practicing law. Luckily,

609
00:52:57.519 --> 00:53:01.159
the da Leigh Patterson had a few
other cards of her sleeves. When

610
00:53:01.159 --> 00:53:06.760
the search for Teresa began, Sam
had bruises on his arm. They were

611
00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:12.280
in the shape of fingertips. She
argued that these bruises were when he held

612
00:53:12.360 --> 00:53:16.400
Teresa and a chokehold. She would
have pressed hard on his arm while fighting

613
00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:23.079
back. This is how the state
believed Sam murdered Teresa. The prosecution did

614
00:53:23.079 --> 00:53:30.440
a dramatic in court demonstration of the
choke hold. A male GBS special agent

615
00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:37.360
put his arm around Lee Patterson's neck, miming the attack. At this there

616
00:53:37.400 --> 00:53:43.440
was an audible gasp in the courtroom. Onlookers were shocked that the female attorney's

617
00:53:43.480 --> 00:53:49.760
hands were placed in the exact location
where Sam's bruises were. Sam's defense attorney

618
00:53:49.800 --> 00:53:57.199
called this argument an absolute fabrication.
He said Sam's bruises were insignificant. The

619
00:53:57.320 --> 00:54:01.280
prosecution also explained how Sam had gone
to the hospital a few days after Teresa

620
00:54:01.320 --> 00:54:07.800
went missing. He had scratches on
his legs and had dislocated his artificial hip.

621
00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:14.480
The prosecution argued that Sam hurt himself
while fighting Teresa and moving her body,

622
00:54:15.039 --> 00:54:19.400
but Sam said he sustained those injuries
in the woods while looking for his

623
00:54:19.519 --> 00:54:23.639
dead wife, which is an odd
way to describe your wife, who you

624
00:54:23.719 --> 00:54:29.039
said ran away to Mexico with Elvis, unless you knew she hadn't run away

625
00:54:29.079 --> 00:54:32.719
at all. And then there was
Teresa's blood in the back of her suv.

626
00:54:34.679 --> 00:54:38.280
Investigators had only found a few drops, which was probably because someone had

627
00:54:38.280 --> 00:54:45.119
clearly cleaned the suv before the police
got their hands on it. But Sam's

628
00:54:45.159 --> 00:54:49.480
attorney said that Teresa had dropped a
snow globe while she was moving out.

629
00:54:50.360 --> 00:54:54.119
The glass broke and cut her,
thus leaving the blood droplets. They also

630
00:54:54.239 --> 00:54:59.440
suggested that maybe the blood was from
a long time ago. There really was

631
00:54:59.480 --> 00:55:06.079
no way to tell. Additionally,
the prosecution revealed that Sam had something disturbing

632
00:55:06.119 --> 00:55:10.440
in his old police locker, and
I'm not talking about the explosives. Sam

633
00:55:10.480 --> 00:55:15.440
had a poster of a woman who
was badly bruised, with a crude caption

634
00:55:15.519 --> 00:55:20.519
underneath. The court documents didn't say
what the caption said, but it sounds

635
00:55:20.519 --> 00:55:23.840
like it was a bad joke about
domestic violence. I'm going to make a

636
00:55:23.920 --> 00:55:29.559
guess that it's that old. I
had to tell her twice, joke disgusting.

637
00:55:30.800 --> 00:55:34.360
Sam's defense tried to blow it off. Sam put the poster in his

638
00:55:34.440 --> 00:55:38.800
locker instead of the trash. He
didn't mean anything misogynistic by it. The

639
00:55:38.920 --> 00:55:44.639
prosecuting attorney responded by saying he was
the guy who thought this was funny.

640
00:55:45.199 --> 00:55:50.559
Ladies and gentlemen, Teresa Parker almost
made it out. She almost made it

641
00:55:50.599 --> 00:55:57.559
to her new life. Find him
accountable, Find him guilty. The defense's

642
00:55:57.800 --> 00:56:04.119
entire case centered on the fact that
the prosecution had only circumstantial evidence. They

643
00:56:04.159 --> 00:56:09.639
said this was trial by character assassination. Sam's defense attorney told forty eight Hours

644
00:56:10.119 --> 00:56:15.800
murder is a messy business. It's
virtually impossible to do this kind of thing,

645
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:21.079
and leave no traces, no indications, no evidence. Well maybe not

646
00:56:21.199 --> 00:56:23.599
if you're a police officer and you
know what you're doing. He and Sam

647
00:56:23.639 --> 00:56:28.800
also claimed that Teresa was cheating on
Sam, that she might have been seeing

648
00:56:28.880 --> 00:56:36.239
someone else, which isn't the greatest
defense. It's just more motive. I'm

649
00:56:36.280 --> 00:56:43.320
going to pause now for a final
commercial break. A week before forty one

650
00:56:43.400 --> 00:56:47.039
year old Teresa Parker disappeared, she
took a three day vacation to Gatlinburg,

651
00:56:47.119 --> 00:56:52.440
Tennessee. She stayed in a cozy
cabin and the smokey mountains called the Honeybee

652
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:58.199
Hideaway. Sam knew of his soon
to be ex wife's trip. He had

653
00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:01.159
even given her some money for shopping, probably trying to butter her up.

654
00:57:02.760 --> 00:57:08.079
Teresa's sister, Christina, also knew
of the trip. Christina later said she

655
00:57:08.199 --> 00:57:12.880
called me her first morning there and
was like, I'm having coffee outside.

656
00:57:13.320 --> 00:57:16.840
It's just beautiful. Teresa says she
wanted to get away to clear her mind.

657
00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:22.000
She just wanted to distress for a
weekend alone, or at least that's

658
00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:28.199
what she told everyone. Despite pretending
to be okay with the trip, Sam

659
00:57:28.360 --> 00:57:32.519
wasn't. He was suspicious that Teresa
was cheating on him, So Sam did

660
00:57:32.559 --> 00:57:38.840
what his defense lawyers described as investigating. Others might describe it as stalking.

661
00:57:39.800 --> 00:57:45.000
Either way, Sam contacted the cabin's
owners. He found out that Teresa had

662
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:51.119
booked the cabin under a fake name. She registered under Barker, not Parker

663
00:57:51.440 --> 00:57:54.480
with a Bee, and the cabin
was booked for two people, not one.

664
00:57:55.480 --> 00:58:00.320
But Sam clearly knew where to call, so it doesn't sound that creative.

665
00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:04.719
Why would she use a fake name? And who went with Teresa to

666
00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:08.960
this cabin? Well, Sam suspected
that it was his fellow police officer and

667
00:58:09.119 --> 00:58:15.480
Teresa's friend, Shane Green. You
might remember Shane's name. He was the

668
00:58:15.519 --> 00:58:19.719
one who checked out Sam's house the
morning that Teresa went missing, peeking in

669
00:58:19.840 --> 00:58:24.559
the garage windows. In court,
it was confirmed that Teresa had invited Shane

670
00:58:24.599 --> 00:58:29.679
to the cabin that weekend, but
Shane said he didn't go and his cell

671
00:58:29.719 --> 00:58:35.360
phone activity placed him far away from
the Honeybee hideaway that weekend. But Sam's

672
00:58:35.400 --> 00:58:42.159
brother, Kenneth asserted that Shane and
Teresa were definitely romantically involved. Shane said

673
00:58:42.159 --> 00:58:47.320
that was blatantly false and come on, perhaps Teresa's cabin wasn't as illicit as

674
00:58:47.400 --> 00:58:53.719
it sounds maybe the cabin administrator misheard
Parker for Barker. Maybe you could only

675
00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:58.119
get the King bed if you booked
for two people, like I said.

676
00:58:58.480 --> 00:59:02.079
Sam knew who the owners were.
And it's not like Teresa didn't have cause

677
00:59:02.159 --> 00:59:07.199
to need a small vacation to clear
her mind. She was ending a thirteen

678
00:59:07.280 --> 00:59:15.000
year marriage. She was a thoughtful
woman who didn't make capricious decisions. Honestly,

679
00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:20.239
it doesn't really matter. Even if
Teresa was cheating on Sam, her

680
00:59:20.320 --> 00:59:25.159
secretly abusive husband, she didn't deserve
to die for it. Sam's defense wanted

681
00:59:25.159 --> 00:59:30.840
to establish that Teresa was cheating so
they could say she was still alive,

682
00:59:30.519 --> 00:59:36.159
frolicking somewhere with a new man.
But do you really think a woman like

683
00:59:36.400 --> 00:59:39.639
Teresa, who was so close to
her family would run off with a man

684
00:59:39.760 --> 00:59:45.440
and not contact them for over two
years, not to mention, she had

685
00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:50.639
a career she loved and I must
stay here when you are planning on leaving

686
00:59:50.639 --> 00:59:53.800
your husband. It's not really cheating. It's not like she could be open

687
00:59:53.840 --> 00:59:59.480
about her plans to this man with
such a violent, hair trigger temper.

688
01:00:00.719 --> 01:00:06.360
At trial, since Teresa's body was
missing, the prosecution was forced to spend

689
01:00:06.400 --> 01:00:10.880
a lot of time explaining that Teresa
was dead. They showed the jurors that

690
01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:17.519
Teresa's bank accounts and phone records had
been dormant since her disappearance that month.

691
01:00:17.679 --> 01:00:23.159
In August of two thousand and nine, a QVC package addressed to Teresa arrived

692
01:00:23.199 --> 01:00:29.440
at her old home with Sam,
But it was widely accepted that QVC just

693
01:00:29.559 --> 01:00:32.679
made some sort of error and sent
Teresa a package two and a half years

694
01:00:32.760 --> 01:00:39.320
late. Still, Sam's defense persisted. His attorney said, nobody knows that

695
01:00:39.400 --> 01:00:45.000
she was killed. There's no physical
evidence, there's no forensic evidence. There's

696
01:00:45.079 --> 01:00:49.920
nothing to show that she was killed. All in all, the trial lasted

697
01:00:49.920 --> 01:00:55.079
two weeks. The prosecution presented seventy
one witnesses and two hundred pieces of evidence.

698
01:00:55.679 --> 01:01:00.559
The defense had six witnesses. Sam
did not take the stand in his

699
01:01:00.639 --> 01:01:07.360
own defense. After three days of
deliberating, the jury was almost deadlocked.

700
01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:10.360
If they couldn't come to a decision, there would have been a retrial.

701
01:01:12.119 --> 01:01:15.880
The split was eight to four.
The judge spoke with a jury and urged

702
01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:22.599
them to make a decision using a
court procedure called an Alan charge. In

703
01:01:22.760 --> 01:01:28.000
eighteen ninety six and Alan versus the
United states, the Supreme Court rule of

704
01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:34.679
approving the use of a jury instruction
intended to prevent a hung jury by encouraging

705
01:01:34.760 --> 01:01:39.880
jurors in the minority to reconsider.
So, the jurors took another look at

706
01:01:39.920 --> 01:01:45.960
Sam's cell phone records. They indicated
that Sam was lying about his location during

707
01:01:45.960 --> 01:01:52.119
the hours when Teresa went missing,
and so on Thursday, December third,

708
01:01:52.199 --> 01:01:55.199
two thousand and nine, after four
days of deliberation and two and a half

709
01:01:55.320 --> 01:02:02.199
years after Teresa went missing, Sam
Parker found guilty of murdering Teresa. He

710
01:02:02.280 --> 01:02:07.119
was also found guilty of making false
statements and violating his oath as a public

711
01:02:07.199 --> 01:02:14.039
officer. He was acquitted of the
charge of computer invasion of privacy. Sam

712
01:02:14.159 --> 01:02:17.599
was sentenced to life in prison plus
five years for the non murder charges.

713
01:02:19.599 --> 01:02:24.280
Teresa's family, watching in the courtroom, cried in relief. To this day,

714
01:02:24.440 --> 01:02:30.159
Sam maintains he never hurt Teresa.
After he was convicted, he spoke

715
01:02:30.199 --> 01:02:34.679
with forty eight hours about Teresa's case. He said, I never caused her,

716
01:02:35.039 --> 01:02:39.920
you know bad times, or you
never once hurt her. But Teresa's

717
01:02:39.960 --> 01:02:45.840
family knew that her killer had been
locked away. All they wanted now was

718
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:51.079
to find her body. Teresa's sister, Christina said, you want to find

719
01:02:51.159 --> 01:02:54.559
her, bring her home, lay
her to rest. That's what she deserves.

720
01:02:54.599 --> 01:02:59.039
You know, She's not a piece
of trash, and that's how I

721
01:02:59.079 --> 01:03:02.719
feel he treated her. Wherever she
is out there, she doesn't deserve to

722
01:03:02.760 --> 01:03:08.400
be there. Convicting Teresa's murderer meant
a lot to a lot of people.

723
01:03:09.159 --> 01:03:14.000
The town of Lafayette, as well
as the police force and nine one one

724
01:03:14.079 --> 01:03:17.960
Center, where Teresa was a much
beloved colleague. The GBA, who had

725
01:03:19.000 --> 01:03:22.039
worked so hard to solve her case, and the DA's office were also very

726
01:03:22.119 --> 01:03:28.199
much relieved. DA Lee Patterson,
who came from Floyd County to try the

727
01:03:28.239 --> 01:03:31.360
case, said she had missed her
home, family, and church for the

728
01:03:31.400 --> 01:03:37.400
two months the investigation and trial took
for her, but she found encouragement at

729
01:03:37.400 --> 01:03:44.199
the nearby Chickamauga Baptist Church. It's
just another testament to the wonderful community in

730
01:03:44.280 --> 01:03:47.960
and around the small town of Lafayette
and Walker County that extends into Chickamauga and

731
01:03:49.119 --> 01:03:53.400
into Tennessee with Chattanooga being so close. And I love that it was a

732
01:03:53.440 --> 01:04:00.679
female day to put Sam's misogynistic gas
away. Samar Parker immediately requested a new

733
01:04:00.719 --> 01:04:05.480
trial, but was denied. He
appealed that decision, and on November seventeenth,

734
01:04:05.559 --> 01:04:11.000
twenty fourteen, the Supreme Court of
Georgia denied him. It was a

735
01:04:11.320 --> 01:04:18.119
unanimous decision and it was heavily influenced
by one very important development. They had

736
01:04:18.159 --> 01:04:25.400
found Teresa's body three and a half
years after Teresa disappeared. On Monday,

737
01:04:25.440 --> 01:04:30.239
September twentieth, twenty ten, two
farmers were working their cornfield near the Chattooga

738
01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:35.400
River in Chattooga County, Georgia.
There had been floods recently, so they

739
01:04:35.400 --> 01:04:40.960
were clearing out the driftwood and one
of the farmers bumped his foot against something

740
01:04:41.039 --> 01:04:46.440
strange. Not driftwood, but a
human jawbone. It would be identified as

741
01:04:46.599 --> 01:04:53.639
Teresa Parker's jawbone. For two days, authorities recovered as much of Teresa's skeleton

742
01:04:53.719 --> 01:04:59.920
as they could find. GBI forensic
technicians used dental records to verify the remain

743
01:05:00.639 --> 01:05:05.480
as Teresa's. Medical experts said Teresa
was a victim of homicide, but they

744
01:05:05.480 --> 01:05:10.719
couldn't determine Teresa's cause of death.
They found a hole in her skull,

745
01:05:11.159 --> 01:05:15.800
but experts determined it wasn't from a
bullet, but they couldn't figure out much

746
01:05:15.800 --> 01:05:18.280
else. The body had been out
in the woods for far too long.

747
01:05:19.800 --> 01:05:26.719
Still, finding Teresa's body was a
miracle. This farmer literally stumbled over her.

748
01:05:27.599 --> 01:05:32.079
Although Sam never confessed to murdering Teresa, the jurors from Teresa's case felt

749
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:35.719
in their hearts that they had made
the right decision. Now they knew for

750
01:05:35.800 --> 01:05:45.559
sure because Teresa's bones were found twelve
miles from Sam's father's house. Sam had

751
01:05:45.559 --> 01:05:48.400
been staying at his dad's place a
lot as he and Teresa went through their

752
01:05:48.440 --> 01:05:54.800
divorce, and Sam's cell phone data
showed him moving in that exact direction the

753
01:05:54.960 --> 01:06:00.519
night that Teresa vanished. Teresa's family
was relieved that she had and found,

754
01:06:00.119 --> 01:06:04.559
but they were still upset. A
law enforcement officer on the case said it

755
01:06:04.679 --> 01:06:10.119
best. It's a great day and
it's a terrible day. It's great we

756
01:06:10.199 --> 01:06:15.559
have answers. Unfortunately it's not the
answers we wanted. You know, even

757
01:06:15.599 --> 01:06:20.519
in cases like this, families can't
help but hang on to shreds of hope.

758
01:06:21.320 --> 01:06:27.280
Da Lee Patterson told the Northwest Georgia
News, it justified what we did.

759
01:06:27.840 --> 01:06:30.679
She didn't have any enemies. We
only had one person with a motive,

760
01:06:31.039 --> 01:06:36.280
Sam Parker. It validated everything.
It was the hardest case I ever

761
01:06:36.360 --> 01:06:43.159
tried in my life. Sam continued
to deny everything. He said he was

762
01:06:43.199 --> 01:06:47.559
nowhere near where the police and his
cell phone records indicated he was. In

763
01:06:47.639 --> 01:06:53.920
an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free
Press, Sam said they had to paint

764
01:06:53.960 --> 01:06:57.639
me to look like a horrible person
so the jury would hate me. And

765
01:06:57.800 --> 01:07:01.000
that's what they did. They destroyed
my character in front of twelve people that

766
01:07:01.119 --> 01:07:05.159
don't know me. Well, then
why didn't you get up there and testify

767
01:07:05.239 --> 01:07:11.000
in your own defense? Sam?
Now, Sam Parker is serving his life

768
01:07:11.000 --> 01:07:15.559
sentence and long state prison in southern
Georgia. He's told reporters that he knows

769
01:07:15.559 --> 01:07:20.880
who Teresa's real killer is, but
he wouldn't share any names. I love

770
01:07:20.920 --> 01:07:26.880
these kind of killers as if you
would hold on to the real killer's name.

771
01:07:27.719 --> 01:07:31.239
And Sam swears that even if he
was executed, he'd maintain that he

772
01:07:31.360 --> 01:07:36.960
never harmed Teresa. It's just more
hyperbole from a man who seemed to have

773
01:07:38.039 --> 01:07:42.639
planned carefully when he killed his soon
to be ex wife. If you ask

774
01:07:42.760 --> 01:07:46.800
me, a man who had the
bad taste to have a joke photo about

775
01:07:46.840 --> 01:07:53.760
domestic violence, hanging in his police
locker for crying out loud, A man

776
01:07:53.840 --> 01:07:59.159
who had the offensive manners to joke
often about hiding her body when he killed

777
01:07:59.159 --> 01:08:03.639
her. A man who one day
proved he wasn't joking when it literally took

778
01:08:03.719 --> 01:08:11.559
years to find her body. But
this case is still a powerful reminder of

779
01:08:11.599 --> 01:08:18.520
the kindness of people. Despite Sam's
despicable act, Teresa's family was surrounded by

780
01:08:18.560 --> 01:08:25.239
a community that rallied around them,
not just the police in GBI, but

781
01:08:25.439 --> 01:08:31.000
everyone. Their love, prayers,
and hard work also turned into donations when

782
01:08:31.039 --> 01:08:35.920
a fund was later set up in
Teresa's name to help fight domestic violence.

783
01:08:42.680 --> 01:08:46.560
Southern Fried True Crime is hosted and
produced by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode

784
01:08:46.600 --> 01:08:51.399
was researched and written by Andrea Marshbank, and of course all editorial opinions are

785
01:08:51.479 --> 01:08:56.640
my own. Southern Frid's original music
is by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio and

786
01:08:56.680 --> 01:09:00.239
the original graphic art is by Coly
Horner. Today's episode was edited and mixed

787
01:09:00.239 --> 01:09:04.720
by Brendan shack Snyder of Southern Gothic
and Erica Kelly. If you have any

788
01:09:04.760 --> 01:09:09.920
case suggestions, please go to my
website and click on the listener suggestion tab

789
01:09:10.279 --> 01:09:15.079
or email SFTC Research at gmail dot
com. You'll get lost in a sea

790
01:09:15.079 --> 01:09:18.239
of emails if you send it to
my main address, So this is the

791
01:09:18.279 --> 01:09:23.119
best way for me to get those
little known cases. Y'all always send me.

792
01:09:23.319 --> 01:09:27.560
Please remember that I do not accept
suggestions on social media private messages.

793
01:09:27.760 --> 01:09:30.800
With three platforms to manage, that
is very overwhelming for me. I hope

794
01:09:30.840 --> 01:09:35.239
you understand, but please come join
our Facebook group Southern Fraud True Crime Fans

795
01:09:35.279 --> 01:09:40.920
Discussion group where we swap recipes,
worship Dolly Parton, and share means.

796
01:09:41.199 --> 01:09:45.720
I much prefer spending my social media
time and our lovely group. We do,

797
01:09:45.840 --> 01:09:48.079
of course discuss true crime, not
just Southern fraud, but all kinds,

798
01:09:48.279 --> 01:09:53.119
but it is still very much a
Southern lifestyle group. Our group is

799
01:09:53.159 --> 01:09:55.920
a safe and fun corner of Facebook, and by God, we mean it

800
01:09:55.960 --> 01:09:59.319
when we say no shut us is
allowed. It's not just a motto,

801
01:09:59.399 --> 01:10:01.760
it's how we run the group.
If you enjoy today's show, don't forget

802
01:10:01.800 --> 01:10:05.840
to subscribe and please tell a friend
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803
01:10:05.880 --> 01:10:12.000
also on all large platforms like aheart, Stitcher, Spotify and now Amazon and

804
01:10:12.199 --> 01:10:16.479
Audible until next time, Thanks so
much for listening, y'all take care,