185: The Murder of Lindsey Lee

WEBVTT

1
00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.919
Southern fraud true crime covers cases they're
not suitable for young listeners, and there

2
00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:18.679
may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion as advised, a marriage

3
00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:23.039
is a promise to have and to
hold, to honor, and to cherish.

4
00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:26.120
It's a commitment made in front of
your family, your friends, and

5
00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:31.120
maybe your God, to support your
spouse no matter what trials may come your

6
00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:35.119
way. And this was true on
the day that twenty five year old Lindsey

7
00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:40.880
Nichole Pilkington married thirty one year old
Jason Dawn Lee. They held each other's

8
00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:46.799
hands meaningfully as their wedding efficiant spoke
these words, these are the hands of

9
00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:51.679
your best friend, young and strong
and full of love for you. These

10
00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:55.840
are the hands that will hold you
when fear and grief temporarily comes your way.

11
00:00:56.759 --> 00:01:03.280
But sometimes promises must be broken.
Tis our relationship suffers under the unbearable

12
00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:08.000
weight of a fear or grief,
or of course a betrayal. But sometimes

13
00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:12.040
we just drift apart. It's no
one's fault. We just aren't in love

14
00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:18.439
anymore, at least one of us
isn't. And when a promise must be

15
00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:23.200
broken, when divorce has to happen. It can be joyful in a way

16
00:01:23.719 --> 00:01:30.519
a rebirth. Usually all parties can
recover. Usually with the help of time

17
00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:34.799
and clarity, we can mend our
broken hearts and move on with our lives.

18
00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:42.840
Usually, but not always. Welcome
to Episode one eight four, The

19
00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:53.640
Murder of Lindsay Lee. Nights in
the beautiful midlands of South Carolina are cool

20
00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:57.200
during the spring months. You'll get
beautiful days in the seventies, but the

21
00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:02.239
temperature won't get much further than in
the mid forties. After dark. On

22
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:07.639
Monday, March thirteenth, twenty seventeen, thirty one year old Lindsay Nicole Lee

23
00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:13.840
was headed to her home in West
Columbia, South Carolina, a small city

24
00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:19.719
that is a suburb of Lexington County
next door to the state capital of Columbia.

25
00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.520
She had had a long day as
she headed home in the darkness at

26
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:27.240
around eight thirty pm. That morning, Lindsay had gone to her job as

27
00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:31.719
an it specialist at the Lexington County
Sheriff's Department. After that, she had

28
00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:37.080
hit the gym for her regular martial
arts class, and then she had stopped

29
00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:40.840
by Walmart to pick up some groceries. As she pulled into the driveway of

30
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:46.360
her quaint, three bedroom, two
bathroom home on Haileywood Lane. I'm sure

31
00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:50.680
she was relieved to be winding down. Finally she could kick off her shoes

32
00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:54.439
and relax, maybe throws something on
TV or read a book. But just

33
00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:59.560
as she opened her front door with
her plastic grocery bags in hand, Lindsay

34
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:04.879
was a bushed and brutally attacked.
The next day, on Tuesday, March

35
00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:08.719
fourteenth, the other employees of the
Lexington County Sheriff's Department rolled in one by

36
00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.680
one. They all knew Lindsay and
liked her a lot. She was a

37
00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:19.400
talkative, pleasant woman, and so
most of her co workers noticed that Lindsay,

38
00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:25.000
a cheerful presence in a typical humdrum
office, was absent. This was

39
00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:30.759
out of character for Lindsay. She
was their resident fitness enthusiast and an early

40
00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:34.280
bird. She always worked out in
the morning and she was always one of

41
00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:39.520
the first people in the building,
but not that day. Concerned Lindsay's co

42
00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:45.560
workers, who were also her friends, texted her cell phone. No response.

43
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.719
Next, they called, but she
didn't pick up. Slowly but surely,

44
00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:57.080
the LCSD staff members were upgrading their
status as generally concerned to really really

45
00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:02.680
worried. Where was Lindsay? Was
hey? Had something happened. They soon

46
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:06.520
called a deputy who was patrolling near
Lindsay's house and asked him to do a

47
00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:12.240
welfare check, telling themselves it was
probably nothing, but wanting to be sure.

48
00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:16.439
The deputy in question was named Shannon
Lovell. He was a friend of

49
00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:23.920
Lindsay's. He also knew lindsay soon
to be ex husband Jason, so Deputy

50
00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:27.759
Level made his way to Lindsay's house. By this time it was about ten

51
00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.120
in the morning. He knocked on
the front door, but no one answered.

52
00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:34.160
Then he went around back to Lindsay's
rear entrance, and that's when he

53
00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:40.720
saw something suspicious. The back door
was damaged. The wood was badly splintered,

54
00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.120
as if someone had forced their way
into Lindsay's home. Right away,

55
00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:49.319
Deputy Level called for backup. When
his partner arrived, the two officers carefully

56
00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:56.120
entered Lindsay's house. Later, Deputy
Level would tell Discovery Id's American Monster.

57
00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:01.240
I had no idea what I was
gonna find. Shortly after walking into Lindsay's

58
00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:06.279
house, Deputy Level heard water running
coming from upstairs. He and his partner

59
00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:11.600
took the stairs to Lindsay's bathroom,
where the shower curtain was pulled shut across

60
00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:15.600
the tub. Dreading what they would
find, they were still shocked when they

61
00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:20.279
pulled the shower curtain back, they
found their friend and colleague, Lindsay Lee.

62
00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:25.399
She was lying in the bathtub,
posed and what the police would later

63
00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:30.600
report was a coffin like manner.
She had a six inch incision across her

64
00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:36.399
throat and she was dead. I'm
going to pause now for a short commercial

65
00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:47.600
break. Lindsay Nicole Pilkington was born
in September of nineteen eighty five to her

66
00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:54.560
mother, Debbie Catherine and her father, Steve Pilkington and Arkansas. When Lindsay

67
00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:58.639
was born, it was a big
event. According to her mom, Debbie,

68
00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:01.639
she was the first grand child and
the first great grandchild for the family,

69
00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:06.560
so the entire Pilkington clan showed up
to welcome little seven pound eight ounce

70
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:13.199
Lindsay into the world. Her father
Steve told Discovery I d it was a

71
00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:18.959
family affair for sure. Everybody was
there, everybody was happy. Lindsay's paternal

72
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.240
grandpa video the delighted family members who
were present for her birth. In the

73
00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:30.120
recordings, you can see the hospital
where smiling family members hold baby Lindsay.

74
00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:35.240
Her mother Debbie gazes at her lovingly. Her father Steve is glowing with pride.

75
00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:40.639
At one point, Grandpa sumes in
on baby Lindsay's adorable face and he

76
00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:45.199
says, with pride, Ah,
she's going to be quite cute. In

77
00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.720
nineteen ninety, when Lindsay was five
years old, she gained a new family

78
00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:53.959
member, Carrista, and Caista is
the first to say that Lindsey struggled to

79
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.959
accept her as a little sister.
After all, Lindsay was used to being

80
00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:01.439
the center of attention. She was
a charmer, a performer. Even She

81
00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.439
loved smiling for the camera, showing
off her dance moves, and making her

82
00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:10.519
family laugh. She was such a
cute little girl, with a bouncy brown

83
00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:15.800
ponytail swinging in every video, and
her large blue eyes framed by smattering of

84
00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:21.480
freckles. She would keep that characteristic
ponytail most of her life. Like many

85
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:26.120
firstborns, it was hard at first
for Lindsay to share the spotlight with her

86
00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:30.800
new baby sister, but she soon
came around and the two sisters became very

87
00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:36.360
close Lindsay was always there to help
Caristo whenever she needed her, and Carista

88
00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:41.360
followed her big sister around like a
puppy dog, whether Lindsay wanted her to

89
00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:45.680
or not, but that's how siblings
are. Carista wanted to be just like

90
00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:49.399
her well spoken, magnetic big sister. She told Discovery, I D I

91
00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:54.000
always wanted to play with her.
She took up rollerblading, so I wanted

92
00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.240
to rollerblade. She learned how to
ride a bike, so I wanted to

93
00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:01.879
learn how to ride a bike.
As a dull, Chorista's admiration for her

94
00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:07.519
charismatic older sister never wavered. Lindsay
and Chorista spent their earliest years in Hebrew

95
00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.319
Springs, Arkansas, but when Steve
realized that job prospects were slim in the

96
00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.360
rural town, he joined the military. He completed his basic training in nineteen

97
00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:22.759
eighty seven, when Lindsay was two, and after that the Pilkington family moved

98
00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:28.000
around a lot for Steve's military career. First, they went to California.

99
00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:31.799
That was a big change from the
teeny tiny town of Hebrew Springs. Steve

100
00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:37.679
told Discovery, I D you couldn't
get any further away from home, which

101
00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:41.320
would become an understatement because in nineteen
ninety four, nine year old Lindsay and

102
00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:46.320
her family moved to Wiesbaden, Germany. Next was Odinton, Maryland, and

103
00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:52.919
following that the family finally settled in
South Carolina. Moving around so much forced

104
00:08:54.039 --> 00:09:00.200
Lindsay to mature quickly. She had
to understand big picture problems fast, and

105
00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:03.120
moving around so much also made Lindsay, who was friendly to begin with,

106
00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:09.240
an especially talented conversationalist. She knew
that no matter where she was in the

107
00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:13.200
world, being able to chat so
easily would help her fit in quickly.

108
00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:18.519
Lindsay was also a great student.
She got straight a's without much fuss and

109
00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:24.320
never had any behavioral struggles that her
parents worried about. Among her friends and

110
00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:28.200
family, Lindsay was known for her
quick wit, love for numbers, and

111
00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:33.679
sparkling personality. Her only struggle during
high school was one that many of us

112
00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:39.399
know and empathize with, her weight. Lindsay had a complicated relationship with food,

113
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:43.120
and in high schools specifically, she
often expressed to her mother, Debbie,

114
00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:50.279
that she was dissatisfied with her body. Throughout the process of researching this

115
00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.279
episode, I've looked at a lot
of photos of Lindsay. She was,

116
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.879
of course beautiful at all sizes,
but the reality of the world is on

117
00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:03.399
occasion many of us don't like how
we look, and that's how Lindsay felt.

118
00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:07.320
Sometimes it's normal, it's human And
I'm not bringing this up just to

119
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:13.600
give you a mental picture of Lindsay's
looks. It's relevant you'll see. In

120
00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:18.360
the early two thousands, Lindsay attended
Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina.

121
00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:22.039
She made the scholars list for her
outstanding GPA in two thousand and four.

122
00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.080
About two thousand and eight, she
was working at a bank in Lexington

123
00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.120
County. One afternoon, twenty three
year old Lindsay was at her job at

124
00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.840
the bank when a tall, blonde
haired, and blue outlock smith came in

125
00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.399
to fix a broken vault. This
was twenty nine year old Jason don Lee,

126
00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:45.360
and he, like Lindsay, was
also a charmer. The moment Lindsay

127
00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.600
and Jason spoke to each other,
there was a connection. Almost immediately,

128
00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:54.080
he asked Lindsay out on a date
and the two soon became inseparable. After

129
00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:58.000
dating for a while, Jason took
Lindsay out on a boat during sunset one

130
00:10:58.120 --> 00:11:03.159
night, Zalia watched the dolphins,
but soon he got down on one knee

131
00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:09.840
and popped the question. Lindsay elated
said yes, and her family was so

132
00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:13.600
happy for her. Her sister Chorista
told Discovery, ID, I really liked

133
00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:20.320
him, very nice, very funny
guy, and Lindsay's mother, Debbie felt

134
00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:24.120
the same. She appreciated how handy
Jason was. If Davy's car was acting

135
00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:28.240
up, she could call Jason to
take a look under the hood. He

136
00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:33.279
was stable, sweet, and he
only had eyes for Lindsay. They seemed

137
00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:35.919
to be perfect for each other.
They had the same interests and a go

138
00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:41.960
go go mentality. Lindsay and Jason
married in twenty ten. Their wedding was

139
00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.399
beautiful. As she walked down the
aisle in her stunning white dress, Jason

140
00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:52.279
cried big Bessie tears. Lindsey's family
would tease him about it for ages.

141
00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.879
Lindsay's father, Steve told Discovery,
ID it meant a lot to see that

142
00:11:56.919 --> 00:12:01.960
he really cared for her and things
were going to be good. It really

143
00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:05.240
did seem like a strong match.
Lindsay and Jason were both fun, joyful

144
00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:11.000
people. During their wedding, Jason's
best man spoke about how notoriously clumsy Jason

145
00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:16.840
was. Lindsay grinned from ear to
ear when the best man handed her a

146
00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:22.279
first aid kit as a lighthearted joke
gift. Lindsay's sister Carrista recalled that both

147
00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:26.559
Lindsay and Jason were doers. They
liked to be out and about, experiencing

148
00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:31.480
everything the world had to offer,
and they loved doing it together. But

149
00:12:31.639 --> 00:12:37.559
sometimes all of Lindsay and Jason's doing
didn't leave much time for the boring parts

150
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:41.960
of life, like cleaning, exercising, and eating healthy. For a long

151
00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.000
time, Lindsay and Jason weren't motivated
to do those things. They were doing

152
00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:50.559
what made them happy and didn't worry
about the boring stuff. But at some

153
00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:56.399
point this lifestyle became a point of
contention between Lindsay and Jason. They would

154
00:12:56.440 --> 00:13:00.559
accuse each other of being lazy.
They were spending a lot of money on

155
00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:03.279
eating out, and both of their
weights were increasing to a point which made

156
00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:09.039
them uncomfortable. Four years after Lindsay
and Jason were married in twenty fourteen,

157
00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:13.639
Jason joined a jim. He was
ready to change his ways, get in

158
00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:20.919
shape and feel better. He started
working out with a trainer named Graham Hockley.

159
00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:24.600
Jason tried to get Lindsay to go
see Graham too. According to Graham,

160
00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:30.080
Jason was worried about Lindsay's weight.
He wanted her to feel better for

161
00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:33.639
her, but also, according to
Graham, Jason wanted Lindsay to be skinnier.

162
00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:39.679
Despite what he often said, it
seems like Jason might have wanted Lindsay

163
00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.960
to start working out for him,
not for her, regardless. In twenty

164
00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.320
fifteen, about a year after Jason
started working out, Lindsay agreed to try

165
00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:52.960
a session. She had seen all
the progress Jason had made and she wanted

166
00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.639
that for herself too. So she
met Jason's trainer, Graham, and initially

167
00:13:58.679 --> 00:14:05.480
she wasn't a fan. Graham was
British, straightforward, and very pushy.

168
00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:09.080
He forced Lindsay to work hard,
and Lindsay, who was a newbie to

169
00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:15.679
fitness, didn't appreciate Graham's tough love. But over time she began getting stronger,

170
00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:20.440
the workouts weren't quite so hard anymore, and one day she discovered she

171
00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.919
didn't dislike Graham anymore either. During
their training sessions, they would talk about

172
00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:31.039
more than just working out. They
discussed their lives, their goals. Somewhere

173
00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:35.200
along the way, Graham became more
than Lindsay's trainer, he became her close

174
00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:41.919
friend. Eventually, Graham convinced Lindsay
and Jason to try martial arts, specifically

175
00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:48.960
judo, which focuses on grappling and
throwing tactics to keep your opponent off balance.

176
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.559
Lindsay and Jason began training heavily in
judo, and for Lindsay, judo

177
00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:58.919
felt like the answer to all of
her fitness goals. The sport really accessed

178
00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:05.480
her drive and determination. The cause
and effect became so clear to her.

179
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.960
Work hard at judo, follow a
healthy diet, and the results would happen.

180
00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:15.399
And results did happen for Lindsay.
In about a year, she lost

181
00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:20.440
over one hundred pounds. She looked
completely different, and I'm sure she felt

182
00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:24.080
completely different. Lindsay was no longer
reluctant to go to the gym, fitness

183
00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:30.240
classes and judo training with Graham.
Now she loved it and nothing was going

184
00:15:30.279 --> 00:15:35.399
to stop her from continuing on this
new, exciting fitness journey. Lindsay's gym

185
00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:41.480
even featured her weight loss story in
their advertisements. They proudly showed her before

186
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:46.200
and after photos. Her mother,
Debbie told Discovery ID you could see her

187
00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:50.919
self esteem just getting higher and higher. She was coming into her own and

188
00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:54.919
Lindsay's father, Steve said, you
couldn't convince her to eat or drink anything

189
00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.279
that wasn't on her diet. She
was focused. If you're listening to this

190
00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:03.120
and tempted to think, wow,
I should get into judo and change my

191
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:07.759
life, or if you're feeling bad
because this sounds awful to you, I

192
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:12.200
gently encourage you not to think that
way. This journey worked for Lindsay,

193
00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:17.120
and maybe a martial arts class would
interest you too. I don't know.

194
00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:21.120
I'm not you, and I'm not
your doctor, but this is just a

195
00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:26.559
friendly reminder that Lindsay's fitness journey doesn't
have to be yours, and more importantly,

196
00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.679
you can be happy in your body
just the way it is. After

197
00:16:30.759 --> 00:16:36.960
training with Graham, Lindsay entered several
local judo competitions and she did really well.

198
00:16:37.440 --> 00:16:40.440
She won a high ranking award in
one tournament called the Kin to My

199
00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:45.360
Memorial Judo Championship. All of this
success in judo and her health made Lindsey

200
00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:51.440
feel amazing. She was confident and
more assured in her decision making, even

201
00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:56.440
beyond fitness and health. Suddenly Lindsey
knew what she wanted from her life and

202
00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:03.200
she wasn't going to compromise. I'm
going to pause now tear a word from

203
00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:10.279
today's sponsors. This show is sponsored
by Better Help. Sometimes the path forward

204
00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:14.640
in life isn't always lit with the
answers to tough choices. Making the decision

205
00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:18.200
to change careers and my forties was
terrifying, even though in my heart I

206
00:17:18.279 --> 00:17:22.400
knew it was right. Therapy really
helped me manage my anxiety and fears,

207
00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:27.319
and Better Help can help you whether
you're dealing with decisions around career, relationships,

208
00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:32.400
or anything else. It's not just
for those experiencing trauma. It can

209
00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.079
be the roadmap you've been looking for. Therapy helps you stay connected to what

210
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:40.559
you really want while you navigate life, so you can move forward with confidence

211
00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:44.440
and excitement. If you're thinking of
starting therapy, give Better Help a try.

212
00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.680
It's entirely online, designed to be
convenient, flexible, and suited to

213
00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.599
your schedule. Just fill out a
brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed

214
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:56.839
therapist and switch therapists at any time
for no additional charge. Let therapy be

215
00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:03.599
your map with better Help Betterhelp dot
com slash Southern today to get ten percent

216
00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:10.079
off your first month. That's Better
Help Help dot com slash Southern. We

217
00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:12.160
are in the midst of wedding season, y'all, and you know what that

218
00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:15.480
means. Shapewear so you can look
and feel your best, whether you were

219
00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:19.759
the bride or a guest. Honeylove
is your answer for all things shapewear.

220
00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:23.519
I wish I'd had Honeylove when I
got married almost a decade ago, not

221
00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:26.720
just to feel better in my dress, but also because it doesn't look like

222
00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:32.640
shapewear. It looks like beautiful lingerie. Lingerie that's so comfortable I don't wind

223
00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:34.680
up ditching it in the ladies room. No one wants to worry about that

224
00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:37.720
on your big day. You just
want to look your best and still feel

225
00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:42.839
comfortable. Honeylove has revolutionized compression technology, so you no longer have to feel

226
00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:48.799
like you're suffocating while wearing effective shapewear, and Honeylove Shapewear has a convenient opening

227
00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:52.599
in the panty area for super easy
bathroom trips, no costume change required.

228
00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:57.079
Try Honeylove and you'll immediately feel and
see the difference. We have an exclusive

229
00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:02.359
offer for my listeners. Get twenty
off your entire order with our exclusive link

230
00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:07.640
Honeylove dot com slash SFTC. Treat
yourself to the best shapewear on the market

231
00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:11.880
and save twenty percent off at Honeylove
dot com slash sftc. Again, that's

232
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:22.599
Honeylove dot com slash sftc to get
twenty percent off. As Lindsay was becoming

233
00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:26.240
more secure in who she was both
physically and emotionally, Jason seemed to be

234
00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:30.480
going in the opposite direction. He
had stopped working out and he wanted Lindsay

235
00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:37.160
to stop too, and that was
in part because Jason started feeling threatened by

236
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:41.640
Lindsay and her trainer, Graham.
According to Lindsay's sister, Jason believed Lindsay

237
00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:45.519
and Graham were having an affair,
and for clarity, we'll knit that in

238
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:49.240
the bud right now. There was
no evidence that Lindsay cheated on Jason,

239
00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:55.079
but that's what Jason thought, and
once he started thinking it, it was

240
00:19:55.119 --> 00:20:00.519
probably hard for him to stop.
Lindsay was still going to Graham's fitness classes

241
00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:03.720
and training sessions, and she wasn't
going to stop. And it is true

242
00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:07.519
that Lindsay and Graham were very good
friends. Graham was practically a part of

243
00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:12.559
Lindsay's family. He would come to
holiday gatherings and her house parties. Her

244
00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:18.400
mom met Graham, they were two
peas in a pot. But Jason couldn't

245
00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:23.480
understand that that was all. They
were just friends. And to add just

246
00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:30.240
one more stressor into Lindsay and Jason's
straining relationship, Jason had changed his mind

247
00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:36.240
on a big relationship decision children.
When Lindsay and Jason were first married,

248
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:41.079
they both agreed that they didn't want
children. They both felt that kids were

249
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:45.720
not for them, and there's nothing
wrong with that unless one partner changes their

250
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:51.000
mind. Lindsay still didn't want kids, but for unknown reasons, Jason now

251
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:55.839
did. Their inability to see eye
to eye on having children became a point

252
00:20:55.839 --> 00:21:00.440
of contention for the married couple.
So, with all of these factors weighing

253
00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:03.839
on Lindsay's mind, she made the
difficult decision to ask Jason for a divorce.

254
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:08.319
They had been married for six years. Lindsay was now ready to move

255
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:15.000
on, but Jason wasn't. He
was very upset by Lindsay's decision. According

256
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:19.200
to his friend, Deputy Shannon Lovell, the one who would find Lindsay's body.

257
00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:23.839
Jason said he didn't understand where the
divorce was coming from, and honestly,

258
00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:29.759
Jason's inability to understand that Lindsay was
unhappy, given all we know about

259
00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:34.400
their relationship, was probably part of
the problem, but that's just speculation on

260
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:41.160
my part. Lindsay and Jason were
officially separated in April of twenty sixteen,

261
00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:45.839
and she moved in with her mom. Jason moved two hours away to an

262
00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:49.640
apartment in Simpsonville, South Carolina.
He had found a new locksmith job in

263
00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.680
Greenville, South Carolina, which was
only a short drive from his new apartment.

264
00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:59.680
Greenville was supposed to be a new
beginning for Jason, put some space

265
00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:04.079
between him and Lindsay and the memories
of their old town. According to Lindsay's

266
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:08.440
family and friends, she'd given them
all the impression that she and Jason were

267
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:12.880
on good terms, that the breakup
was amicable, and it seemed like their

268
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:18.359
actions showed that. For example,
Jason said he didn't want to deal with

269
00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.160
the hassle of his and Lindsay's maritle
home. He told Lindsay she could have

270
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:26.720
it. Then Lindsay decided she was
going to fix the place up and sell

271
00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:30.920
it. That was a great financial
decision for her. She was going to

272
00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.799
make somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand
dollars profit on the three bedroom, two

273
00:22:33.799 --> 00:22:40.119
bath house. At first, Jason
seemed supportive of Lindsay's decision to sell the

274
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:45.000
house. He even helped her remodel
the upstairs bathroom. Everyone thought Lindsay and

275
00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:49.920
Jason's divorce was going as well as
it possibly could have. Jason was dating

276
00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:56.119
a different woman. Lindsay's Facebook relationship
status was set to separate it, and

277
00:22:56.319 --> 00:23:02.880
around February of twenty seventeen, freshened
up her hair color and style. I'm

278
00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:06.119
not sure if she felt like it
was a rite of passage, but I'd

279
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:10.079
like to think of it that way. Many women changed their hair or appearance

280
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.440
in some way after a breakup.
She was moving on, preparing herself for

281
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:18.920
the next stage of her adventure.
Lindsay and Jason finalized the day for their

282
00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:25.920
divorce. It was going to happen
in April of twenty seventeen, so when

283
00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:30.920
Lindsay wasn't at work on Tuesday,
March fourteenth of twenty seventeen. Everyone was

284
00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:34.799
surprised, and when Deputy Shannon Lovell
found her body in the upstairs bathroom of

285
00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:41.839
her home, they were flabbergasted.
No one could have predicted this. Lindsay's

286
00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:47.200
parents were overcome with grief. This
level of violence was extremely traumatic in and

287
00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:52.240
of itself, apart from just normal
grief. Lindsay's father, Steve, said

288
00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:56.799
he had to hear the news from
his boss end quote. I just couldn't

289
00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:00.759
wrap my head around what happened and
why. Her mother, Debbie, told

290
00:24:00.759 --> 00:24:06.799
Discovery ID that upon hearing the news, she screamed and cried. She didn't

291
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:11.680
believe that her eldest daughter was actually
gone. She said, it's not okay,

292
00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:17.839
It's never going to be okay.
Since Lindsey worked the Lexington County Sheriff's

293
00:24:17.880 --> 00:24:22.400
Department, they couldn't investigate her murder. It would have been a conflict of

294
00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:27.799
interest. Lindsay's close friend, Lieutenant
Allin Sexton told Discovery ID, I couldn't

295
00:24:27.839 --> 00:24:33.640
be the best detective for her.
I couldn't help and that's hard. As

296
00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:38.480
a result, SLED took over the
case. SLED is the South Carolina Law

297
00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:44.240
Enforcement Division. It's a state level
organization that I've discussed many times on this

298
00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:49.279
show before, for better or for
worse better in this case, of course.

299
00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:52.839
The first thing SLED did was talked
to Lindsay's estranged husband, Jason.

300
00:24:53.680 --> 00:24:59.960
They found him at the locksmith store
in Greenville County. According to reporter Caroline

301
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:03.960
Hecker, Jason was stunned to see
the police right away. He asked what

302
00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:08.880
was wrong, and as he learned
of Lindsay's violent death, Jason began crying.

303
00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:15.680
After his tears subsided, Jason went
to the police station at the SLED

304
00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:21.240
agent's request, and that's when,
unprompted, he began explaining where he was

305
00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:25.839
the night Lindsay was killed. He
said he had recently suffered a fairly serious

306
00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:30.839
foot injury while on the job on
Monday night, March thirteenth. His foote

307
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:34.400
was killing him, so he said
he had taken some strong pain meds and

308
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:37.880
gone to bed. When he woke
up the next morning, he noticed his

309
00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:42.640
car was missing, but that didn't
really surprise him. Jason explained to the

310
00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:48.279
officers that he was behind on his
car payments. He just figured the vehicle

311
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:53.440
had been repossessed. But the point
of the story here was Jason was saying

312
00:25:53.480 --> 00:26:00.519
he had no way to get to
Lindsay's house. The interviewing lieutenant asked Jason

313
00:26:00.519 --> 00:26:04.039
about some scratch marks he had on
his face, but Jason had an explanation

314
00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:10.759
for that too, Apparently he had
cut himself while dry shaving. Then Jason

315
00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.160
agreed to provide a DNA sample.
Back at the crime scene, investigators were

316
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:21.319
searching Lindsay's house for any clues that
might lead to her killer, and there

317
00:26:21.319 --> 00:26:23.880
were quite a few. First off, it was clear that a struggle had

318
00:26:23.880 --> 00:26:30.039
occurred in Lindsay's fourier near her front
door. Groceries were spilled everywhere, which

319
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:33.920
makes sense since Lindsay was at Walmart
only a half hour before she arrived home.

320
00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:40.839
The investigators verified that through her time
stamped receipt, Lindsay's attacker must have

321
00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:45.920
struck just as she entered the house. Next, law enforcement agents pulled the

322
00:26:45.960 --> 00:26:49.319
security footage from Walmart. They saw
Lindsay clear as day, walking around the

323
00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:55.759
vegetables and fruit aisles with her handheld
shopping basket. She looked calm, no

324
00:26:55.880 --> 00:27:00.880
furtive glances over her shoulder or otherwise
weird behavior. But this local Walmart became

325
00:27:02.039 --> 00:27:07.839
very important because investigators received an odd
tip from a patrol officer. The day

326
00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:11.759
after Lindsey was killed, on Tuesday, March fourteenth, a man matching Jason's

327
00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:18.200
description had an altercation with this officer. The man who looked like Jason was

328
00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:22.720
upset at how close the officer was
to his car, and the patrol officer

329
00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:27.440
remembered that this angry man had a
big scratch across his cheek. Now the

330
00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:36.000
investigators were focused on Jason. When
the detectives ran this Jason's doppelganger's vehicles plates,

331
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:41.279
they discovered it was indeed registered to
Jason Lee himself. Something was clearly

332
00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:47.079
wrong. How could Jason have been
angrily shoeing a police officer away from his

333
00:27:47.160 --> 00:27:52.920
car when he had claimed it had
been repossessed recently, unless his car had

334
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.279
not been repossessed at all, and
instead he had been caught red handed lying

335
00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:00.839
to the police. As the detective
started to pull the threads of Jason's story,

336
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:06.960
they unraveled more and more. I'm
going to pause now for a final

337
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:18.240
commercial break. In light of this
new information, the SLED agents carefully come

338
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:22.079
through Walmart's parking lot security footage and
on Tuesday, March fourteenth, at five

339
00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:29.240
seventeen am, they saw Jason's vehicle
park A figure who looked like Jason exited

340
00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:33.519
the vehicle. It's dark and this
area of the parking lot isn't well lit,

341
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.799
so it's hard to be certain it's
him, but it almost certainly is

342
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:45.960
him. Additionally, other surveillance footage
and CCTV caught this Jason looking figure walking

343
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.880
in the direction of his apartment.
He crossed multiple business parking lots, so

344
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:56.319
there was a lot of video evidence. Fifty minutes later, Jason's work truck

345
00:28:56.359 --> 00:29:00.319
appeared next to his vehicle and the
Walmart parking lot, as if Jason had

346
00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:04.599
gone to a different location where he
had planted his work truck, grabbed the

347
00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:10.680
truck, and then took it to
his personal vehicle. The work truck stayed

348
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:15.000
park next to Jason's personal vehicle for
four minutes. Later, detectives would suggest

349
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.359
that this is when Jason moved the
murder weapon from his personal vehicle to his

350
00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:26.599
work vehicle, but that's never been
proven and the murder weapon was never found.

351
00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:32.599
Additionally, the security cameras inside Walmart
caught Jason buying groceries the night that

352
00:29:32.680 --> 00:29:37.039
Lindsay was killed. So let's take
stock even if we give the mysterious dark

353
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:41.960
figure that matches Jason's exact height and
weight the benefit of the doubt. Even

354
00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:47.599
if we say, hey, maybe
that's not Jason moving Jason's personal vehicle work

355
00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:52.279
vehicle and walking towards Jason's apartment along
the very route where he would have stashed

356
00:29:52.279 --> 00:29:56.680
his work truck. Well, there
was Jason, plain as day, buying

357
00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:00.200
groceries in Walmart during the exact time
he told agents he was at home,

358
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:07.160
asleep and on pain medication for his
foot. Jason had lied to the police

359
00:30:07.160 --> 00:30:11.039
twice so far. What else was
he lying about? The investigators obtained a

360
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:15.400
search warrant for his apartment, and
that's how the sled agents found damning evidence.

361
00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:22.319
Inside his apartment was a box of
blue latex gloves surgical gloves, or

362
00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:26.640
the kind you would wear to avoid
leaving fingerprints. They were stored in a

363
00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:30.640
backpack back at Lindsay's house in the
four Yer, where she had been attacked.

364
00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:37.559
The authorities had recovered three dime sized
pieces of blue latex and they were

365
00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:41.599
covered in both Lindsay and Jason's DNA. So much of Jason's DNA was on

366
00:30:41.640 --> 00:30:48.400
the gloves that an expert would later
testify that he was probably wearing them.

367
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:52.920
On March seventeenth, twenty seventeen,
three days after Lindsay's body was found,

368
00:30:52.359 --> 00:30:56.759
thirty eight year old Jason Donneley was
arrested by sled. He was charged with

369
00:30:56.839 --> 00:31:03.039
first degree murder and first degree burglary. He was held without bond at the

370
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:07.680
Alvin Eskland Detention Center in Richland County, and if convicted, Jason could have

371
00:31:07.759 --> 00:31:14.359
faced life in prison or even the
death penalty. The news of Jason's arrest

372
00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:18.359
astonished Lindsay's family. Her mother Debby, said, we did not see this

373
00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:25.240
coming. They had broken bread with
this man, exchanged Christmas presents. Jason's

374
00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:30.880
betrayal was unfathomable and unforgivable, but
he wouldn't admit his wrongdoing. He claimed

375
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:36.119
he was innocent, and he maintained
that claim all the way into his trial.

376
00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.440
Meanwhile, Lindsay's funeral was held on
Sunday, March nineteenth, at the

377
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:48.440
Kaufman Harmon Funeral Home in Lexington.
Jason Lee's trial was held in Lexington County

378
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:53.160
and took place in November of twenty
nineteen. The prosecution posited that he had

379
00:31:53.160 --> 00:31:56.799
broken into Lindsay's house. When he
knew she would be away, he broke

380
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:00.839
the back door to make sure it
looked like an assailant had to force their

381
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:07.039
way in. Then, using his
locksmithing ability or maybe his key if Lindsay

382
00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:10.079
hadn't changed the locks yet, that
was unclear, he entered her home.

383
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:15.920
As soon as Lindsay arrived from Walmart, Jason overpowered her. He slammed her

384
00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:21.480
against the front door. Then he
strangled her until she passed out, put

385
00:32:21.480 --> 00:32:25.319
her in the bathtub, and cut
her throat. However, from the deep

386
00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:30.319
defensive wounds on Lindsay's hands, it
was clear she had woken in the tub

387
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:36.559
and fought desperately for her life.
After Jason killed Lindsay, the state alleged

388
00:32:36.839 --> 00:32:39.519
that he planted a bag of marijuana
in her car. He wanted to make

389
00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:44.400
her death appear to be a drug
deal gone wrong, but according to Lindsay's

390
00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:49.480
friends and family, she was not
a drug user. The medical examiner,

391
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:53.559
doctor Janice Ross, testified and agreed
with the state's version of events. She

392
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:58.319
found bruising on Lindsey's hands, arms, neck, back, and head.

393
00:32:59.240 --> 00:33:04.480
Notably, he had fingerprint bruises on
the back of her left shoulder. When

394
00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:08.359
prompted by the prosecutor, Ross agreed
that that was consistent with someone wrapping their

395
00:33:08.440 --> 00:33:15.759
arm around Lindsay's neck and holding her
in place. According to doctor Ross's best

396
00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:21.640
assessment, Lindsay had been strangled until
she passed out, beaten and cut across

397
00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:24.480
the neck with a sharp object.
Her cause of death was blood lost due

398
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:30.799
to the six inch incision on her
throat. So why would Jason kill Lindsay,

399
00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:35.640
his almost ex wife who appeared to
be on good terms with him.

400
00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:39.160
The States suggested that Jason couldn't let
Lindsay go, that he had never wanted

401
00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:45.640
their relationship to end, and to
add insult to injury, Jason was bitter.

402
00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:50.400
Lindsay was doing well financially. She
was going to make tens of thousands

403
00:33:50.480 --> 00:33:54.279
off the sale of their marital home. Even though it was his idea,

404
00:33:54.559 --> 00:34:00.480
it was probably an idea that had
backfired on him. Meanwhile, Jason was

405
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:04.640
floundering. As I said before,
he was behind on car payments, but

406
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:08.199
that was just the beginning of his
money troubles. The state demonstrated that Jason

407
00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:12.840
had less than a hundred dollars to
his name when he was arrested. He

408
00:34:12.880 --> 00:34:15.079
had maxed out his credit card,
he was going to be evicted from his

409
00:34:15.159 --> 00:34:22.360
apartment, and he even owed Lindsay
thirteen hundred dollars. Jason had been ordered

410
00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:25.679
by the court to pay her back
by April first of twenty seventeen, less

411
00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:30.920
than a month after she was murdered, and according to Jason's co workers' court

412
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:35.039
testimony, Lindsay was going to put
Jason in jail if he didn't pay her.

413
00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:39.000
During the trial, it was revealed
that Jason had also changed Lindsay's name

414
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:45.239
in his phone to Hungry Money.
So obviously this divorce was not as amicable

415
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:50.760
as Jason had wanted people to think, and maybe Lindsay too. She hid

416
00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:53.679
the uglier parts from her family and
just kept her head down as she tried

417
00:34:53.719 --> 00:34:59.480
to get through it. Jason also
had a girlfriend around this time, and

418
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:04.000
he had complained to her at length. He had whined about how unfair it

419
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.960
was that Lindsey got the house,
never mind that he had offered Lindsey the

420
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:13.880
house. But on the day Lindsey
was murdered, Jason had suddenly changed his

421
00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:17.679
tune to his girlfriend. According to
the girlfriend's court testimony, he said that

422
00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:22.519
his financial struggles were over he was
going to get the house. The girlfriend

423
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:28.519
said she had no idea how That
night Jason had called her. He said

424
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:30.320
his foot hurt badly and that he
was going to go home, take some

425
00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:35.840
meds, and head the hay.
This seemed a little strange to the girlfriend.

426
00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:39.199
She had never seen Jason take pain
medication before. He just wasn't the

427
00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:45.079
type. But maybe Jason's foot was
in excruciating pain, so bad that he

428
00:35:45.119 --> 00:35:50.760
had to take the prescribed meds.
But according to Jason's co workers testimony,

429
00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:54.119
Jason hadn't looked like he was in
pain the Monday morning before Lindsey was murdered.

430
00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:00.880
He didn't complain, he didn't limp, He just fine. The next

431
00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:06.159
day, when Lindsay's body was found, Jason's co workers had asked him about

432
00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:09.559
his newly scratched face. Jason,
who had told the investigators that he cut

433
00:36:09.639 --> 00:36:15.280
himself shaving, told his co workers
that his cat had scratched him. SLED

434
00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:22.639
agents and other experts testified that Jason's
fitbit also held important data. Based on

435
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:28.599
the information, Jason wore his fitbit
religiously, but during the times that he

436
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:30.760
would have had to travel to and
from Lindsay's home, if he killed her,

437
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:37.320
the fitbit was mysteriously turned off.
The data from Jason's work band GPS

438
00:36:37.320 --> 00:36:42.800
also indicated that he had traveled to
and from Lindsay's home. And there's more.

439
00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:47.440
Jason had deleted his call records from
January fourteenth to March fourteenth, the

440
00:36:47.559 --> 00:36:52.599
day when Lindsay's body was discovered.
He had also deleted his web search history

441
00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:58.639
on March fifteenth, but experts were
able to recover some of his search queries.

442
00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:05.280
They included how to reset passwords,
criminal defense attorneys, an obituary website,

443
00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:09.960
and news articles related to Lindsay's death. And the day Lindsay's body was

444
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:15.320
discovered, Jason had called their tax
prep consultant that they had hired when they

445
00:37:15.320 --> 00:37:20.480
were married. He asked if their
tax refund could be transferred to his account.

446
00:37:21.239 --> 00:37:24.119
It's unclear if the police had told
Jason about Lindsay's death at the time

447
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:30.400
he had made this call, so
it's undeniably suspicious. Why else would he

448
00:37:30.440 --> 00:37:36.280
suddenly be entitled to their joint refund. Graham Hockley, the fitness trainer who

449
00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:39.760
was good friends with Lindsay, also
testified. He explained he and Lindsay were

450
00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:45.199
best friends and that he was her
personal trainer nothing more. Graham was likely

451
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:49.679
the last person to have seen Lindsay
alive, as she had worked out with

452
00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:53.679
him before going to Walmart the night
she died. Graham told the jury that

453
00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:58.880
he wished he had taught Lindsay more
self defense moves, he said tearfully,

454
00:37:59.239 --> 00:38:01.440
if I had talked her, she
might have had a chance. We talked

455
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:05.840
about it, but we didn't actually
get to it. I didn't think she

456
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:10.599
needed it, to be fair,
Jason's defense team argued that he didn't do

457
00:38:10.679 --> 00:38:15.679
it. They explained that no items
in Jason's apartment, work then, or

458
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:21.000
personal car tested positive for blood,
and the gloves that investigators founded Jason's home,

459
00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:25.800
well, those could be used for
hunting. Jason himself didn't testify,

460
00:38:27.400 --> 00:38:30.559
and his defense team didn't put anyone
else on the stand. Bluntly put,

461
00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:35.960
they didn't put on a case at
all. They just cross examined state witnesses

462
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:40.360
without calling any of their own and
so. On November twenty second, twenty

463
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:45.320
nineteen, after deliberating for a mere
sixty two minutes, the jury convicted the

464
00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:51.119
now forty year old Jason Lee of
murdering his estranged wife thirty one year old

465
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:58.440
Lindsay Nicole Lee. He was also
convicted of first degree burglary. He was

466
00:38:58.519 --> 00:39:02.360
sentenced to life in prison with out
the possibility of parole. Before Jason was

467
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:07.239
carted off to jail, he stood
and said the following. The only thing

468
00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:09.119
I have to say is I didn't
do it, and I will be appealing

469
00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:13.559
this and I will be coming back
on a bill. I did not murder

470
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:15.920
Lindsay Lee, and I'll want that
on the record. I am an innocent

471
00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:20.559
man. I did not murder her, and I will prove my innocence and

472
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:25.239
I don't care if it takes twenty
years. I will prove my innocence today.

473
00:39:25.400 --> 00:39:30.920
Lindsay's friends and family have started the
Lindsay Pilkington Memorial Foundation. Their mission

474
00:39:31.039 --> 00:39:37.159
is to empower women. They offer
scholarship opportunities, mental health services, and

475
00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:43.000
self defense training for women. Alin
Sexton as a former lieutenant for the Lexington

476
00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:46.440
County Sheriff's Department and a friend of
Lindsay's. He is now the CEO of

477
00:39:46.480 --> 00:39:53.159
the Lindsay Pilkington Memorial Foundation. He
told wis TV News she was something that

478
00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:57.840
was unstoppable and when she set her
mind to something, it was going to

479
00:39:57.880 --> 00:40:00.639
get taken care of, whether it
be wor working on computers of the Sheriff's

480
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:05.840
Department, whether it be her fitness. She was serious about those things,

481
00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:08.440
and she always put her mind to
it and took care of other people before

482
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:15.440
she would take care of herself.
Jason is currently incarcerated in the Broad River,

483
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:20.519
South Carolina Department of Corrections. As
of twenty twenty, he maintains his

484
00:40:20.639 --> 00:40:25.280
innocence, but he has yet to
appeal. When I first read about this

485
00:40:25.360 --> 00:40:30.519
case, I was worried the press
or others might have tried to blame Lindsay.

486
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:35.199
You see, I covered a case
back in early twenty nineteen that felt

487
00:40:35.199 --> 00:40:39.800
similar, episode number thirty seven,
the Heather Palumbo Jones case. She had

488
00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:44.880
gone on a weight lost journey also
and then was murdered by her jealous soon

489
00:40:44.920 --> 00:40:49.920
to be ex husband. Heather,
like Lindsay, had decided to go on

490
00:40:49.960 --> 00:40:52.920
a journey to change her life,
not just lose weight. She wanted to

491
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:58.320
feel better, not just look better. But when she was murdered, headlines

492
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:01.519
screamed that she was killed for weight
loss. Her own friends went on talk

493
00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:06.079
shows and said things like if she
hadn't lost the weight, she would still

494
00:41:06.119 --> 00:41:10.800
be alive. But thankfully Lindsay's case
was several years after Heather's and we have

495
00:41:10.880 --> 00:41:15.559
come a long way. When discussing
weight loss, no one blamed Lindsay for

496
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:21.679
wanting to get healthy and change her
life. The only problem was that changing

497
00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:25.440
her life included leaving her husband.
On the outside, they seem to be

498
00:41:25.480 --> 00:41:30.239
a happy couple, but life is
never really how it looks. What may

499
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:35.480
have seemed like a sudden decision on
Lindsay's part had actually been stewing for a

500
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:38.280
while. She was just the one
to pull off the band aid and separate

501
00:41:38.360 --> 00:41:45.039
first. If Jason was jealous,
it wasn't about Lindsay's weight, and it

502
00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:49.159
wasn't just about Graham. I wonder
if he told her she could have the

503
00:41:49.159 --> 00:41:52.360
house and sell it, hoping she
would see him as not just generous but

504
00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:58.039
independent himself. Helping her remodel seemed
to be a way to stay close to

505
00:41:58.039 --> 00:42:02.480
her without making her feel smoke,
and it would seem as though he did

506
00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:07.000
fool her, except that he borrowed
money from her, and she wasn't playing

507
00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:10.599
around about that they were getting a
divorce. He owed her the money,

508
00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:15.360
and that was that. Lindsay had
drawn clear boundaries in all aspects of their

509
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:21.760
divorce. Maybe that was the trigger
for Jason. After everything he had done

510
00:42:21.800 --> 00:42:24.400
to try on woo Lindsay back,
she had the court ordering him to repay

511
00:42:24.400 --> 00:42:30.159
a loan she had given him.
He then cruelly snuffed out her young life,

512
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.599
and he was viciously angry about it. It was a personal murder.

513
00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:38.559
He strangled and beat her before cutting
her throat. You don't murder someone with

514
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:45.920
that much violence without rage. I'm
sure jealousy and a sense of desertion played

515
00:42:45.960 --> 00:42:50.440
into Jason's savage thoughts, but in
the end it seems like all he cared

516
00:42:50.440 --> 00:42:55.719
about was the money. But that's
the second oldest reason to murder someone after

517
00:42:55.840 --> 00:43:01.960
love. Whatever his motive, Jason's
murderous jealousy is a tale as old as

518
00:43:02.039 --> 00:43:10.960
time. Southern Fraud True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly.

519
00:43:12.280 --> 00:43:16.400
Today's episode was researched and written by
Andrea Marshbank, with additional writing by myself,

520
00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:22.039
and of course, all editorial opinions
are my own. Southern Fraud's original

521
00:43:22.119 --> 00:43:24.559
music is by Rob Harrison of Gamma
Radio, and the original graphic art is

522
00:43:24.599 --> 00:43:30.199
by Klei Horner. Today's episode was
edited and mixed by Brandon Shuck Snyder of

523
00:43:30.239 --> 00:43:35.000
Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. Thank
you to Jennifer, an anonymous sender and

524
00:43:35.079 --> 00:43:38.679
others for suggesting Lindsay's case. If
you have any case suggestions, please go

525
00:43:38.760 --> 00:43:44.920
to my website and click on the
listener suggestion tab or email SFTC Research at

526
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:47.239
gmail dot com. You'll get lost
in a sea of emails if you send

527
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:51.199
it to my main address, so
this is the best way for me to

528
00:43:51.199 --> 00:43:54.320
get those little known cases. Y'all
always send me. Please remember that I

529
00:43:54.360 --> 00:43:59.519
do not accept suggestions on social media
private messages. With three platforms to manage,

530
00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:02.559
that is very overwhelming for me.
I hope you understand, but please

531
00:44:02.559 --> 00:44:07.559
come join our Facebook group, Southern
Fried True Crime Fans Discussion Group, where

532
00:44:07.559 --> 00:44:10.920
we swap recipes, worship Dolly Parton, and share memes. I much prefer

533
00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:15.639
spending my social media time in our
lovely group. We do, of course

534
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:17.760
discuss true crime, not just Southern
Fried, but all kinds, but it

535
00:44:17.880 --> 00:44:22.199
is still very much a Southern lifestyle
group. Our group is a safe and

536
00:44:22.239 --> 00:44:23.599
fun corner of Facebook, and by
god, we mean it when we say

537
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:27.199
no shit. US is allowed.
It's not just a motto, it's how

538
00:44:27.199 --> 00:44:30.960
we run the group. If you
enjoy today's show, don't forget to subscribe

539
00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:34.559
and please tell a friend or rate
and review on it tunes. I'm also

540
00:44:34.719 --> 00:44:37.880
on all large platforms like Our Hearts, Spotify, Amazon, Audible and YouTube.

541
00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:43.519
Until next time, thanks so much
for listening. You'll take care