188: The Murder of Margaret Abernathy

WEBVTT

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Southern for a true crime cover's cases
that are not suitable for young listeners,

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and there may also be some explicit
language used. Listener discretion as advised.

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In early spring of nineteen ninety one, the Troop County Sheriff's Department had a

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lot on their plate. In late
March, they were investigating the murder of

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a woman named Marcy. She was
seventy nine years old and someone had shot

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her in the head. Marcy's sister
and brother in law found her body.

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They became worried after they hadn't heard
from her in a while. After Marcy's

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body was found, the case was
cold almost from the beginning. There was

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no evidence of forced entry, there
were no signs that anything was stolen,

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there was no murder weapon, the
doors were locked. Everyone was baffled.

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Troop County residents were shocked because Marcy's
case was eerily similar to that of another

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Troop County homicide, one that happened
that same year, only one month earlier,

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in February of nineteen ninety one,
Just like Marcy, an older woman

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was shot in the head. No
murder weapon was found, but unlike Marcy's

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case, which went cold, the
questions surrounding this victim would be answered in

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about a week, and those answers
would bring a well respected family to its

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knees. Welcome to episode one eighty
eight, the Murder of Margaret Abernathy.

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On Monday, February fourth, nineteen
ninety one, forty year old Priscilla Matula

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went to work at about seven twenty
in the morning. Priscilla was always an

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early riser. She had to be. She owned a car dealership with her

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husband Nick in the small town of
Lagrange, Georgia, well with about twenty

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five thousand residents at that time and
thirty now. It is technically a small

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city, but it's continuously referred to
as a small town by everyone in this

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episode, the kind of place where
everyone knew everyone together. Priscilla and Nick

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were responsible for their car dealership's success
and its failure, but that was okay.

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Priscilla understood the NonStop grind that went
hand in hand with owning a car

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dealership. Her family had always been
in the car business. In fact,

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her mother and late father, Margaret
and Bill Abernathy, had owned their very

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own dealership for much of Priscilla's life, and out of Margaret and Bill's three

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children. Priscilla was always the most
interested in her parents car business, but

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she was running their dealership that had
been sold years ago. Still, Priscilla

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was considered the natural heir to the
car dealership throne. But Heavy is the

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head that wears the crown, and
so Priscilla was up and at him bright

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and early almost every day to make
sure her car business was running smoothly.

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She always walked through her dealership stores
at about eight am, and this particular

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Monday was no different. But even
though Priscilla's routine seemed identical, her demeanor

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was different. Off it felt like
nothing was going Priscilla's way. That morning,

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she had to leave the dealership to
go to the bank. That's always

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a hassle, and a few hours
later she had to run an errand to

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the post office, but when she
got there, the line was out the

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building. According to Priscilla, she
just drove around the block and then went

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straight back to work. She planned
to handle her post office to do list

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later. After returning to the dealership, Priscilla had even more to worry about.

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Every morning, her mother, Margaret
would call to check in. Sometimes

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she would even stop buy the dealership. But today Margaret had not called,

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and she had not stopped by.
Her absence was strange. When Priscilla called

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her mother to see what was wrong, Margaret didn't answer the phone. This

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caused Priscilla deep concern, and she
expressed as much to her employees. Frantic,

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she called her mother again and again, but no matter how many times

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she called, no one answered the
phone. Now she was starting to panic.

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She called friends and family who might
have heard from Margaret, but nobody

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knew anything. By about noon,
word was spreading throughout the close knit town

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of Lagrange, Georgia. Most everyone
knew Priscilla was searching for her mother,

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but still, everything was probably fine. Maybe Margaret had a wild hair and

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was taking an ice long stroll around
a park. After all, Priscilla wasn't

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her keeper, and Margaret was sixty
six years old and fit as a fidd

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She could take care of herself.
Linda Frasier worked at Priscilla's car dealership,

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and she could tell Priscilla was in
a tizzy about her mother. When she

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told Linda she was going over to
her mom's house on her lunch break to

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check on her, Linda offered to
go with her. She wanted to be

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there to support Priscilla, especially on
the off chance that something had actually happened,

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but Priscilla said no. She insisted
she would be fine going to her

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mother's house alone. She pulled into
her mother's long driveway at about twelve to

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twenty five pm and let herself into
the front door. It was a large

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home with a brick facade, four
bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a green

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yard. Right away, she noticed
the house was oddly dark. All the

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lights were off, she said.
She yelled out to her mother, but

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no one responded, so she let
herself in and began looking around, and

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that's when she saw that the house
had been ransacked. Someone had pulled drawers

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out and thrown clothes on the floor, and in the bathroom, sixty six

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year old Margaret Abernathy's still body was
lying on the floor. Blood was everywhere.

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Priscilla immediately called nine one one,
and she told the operator that her

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mother's house had been robbed and her
mother was hurt. When the medics first

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arrived on the scene, they weren't
entirely sure what was wrong with Margaret.

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There was blood everywhere, yes,
but no clear origin of that blood.

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Still, Margaret was obviously not okay. She was unconscious and unmoving. She

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made a few sounds that were described
as light snoring, but she couldn't communicate.

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The emergency responders took Margaret to the
local hospital, West Georgia Medical Center,

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and Priscilla rode with her in the
ambulance. At the hospital, doctors

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were shocked to discover that Margaret had
sustained two gunshot winds to the back of

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her head, and everyone naturally assumed
that this was a tragic case of a

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robbery gone wrong. The bullets were
still embedded in her body, that's how

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the doctors could tell. They were
very small bullets, only twenty two caliber.

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The bullets were so small that the
first one from the first gunshot hadn't

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even penetrated Margaret's skull. It was
stuck underneath her skin. On its own,

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this bullet wouldn't have been lethal.
After some healing, Margaret would have

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been fine. But the second bullet, well, that was the deadly one.

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It had perforated Margaret's brainstem, the
part of the brain that controlled Margaret's

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most important functions like her breathing,
consciousness, and motor functions, and as

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a result, Margaret was in a
coma one that the doctors believed she would

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never wake up from. She had
a consistent heartbeat but no brain activity.

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Priscilla, her friends, and numerous
family members were waiting outside of Margaret's hospital

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room upon hearing that she would die. They were just draft. At three

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fifteen on February fourth, nineteen ninety
one, Margaret Abernathy was removed from life

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support and pronounced dead. I'm sure
the officers who arrived at Margaret's home were

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expecting an open and shutcase. After
all, this was obviously a home invasion

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gone wrong. Margaret was widely known
as a very successful businesswoman. People knew

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she had money, and a lot
of it. Plus, her house was

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in shambles. A window in the
back door had been broken, presumably so

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the burglar could reach in and unlock
it, and many of Margaret's items,

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including her luxurious meat coat, appeared
to be missing too. And not long

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before this, there had been another
armed robbery on the same road that Margaret

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lived on. A man had entered
a convenience store with a handgun and demanded

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cash from the female clerk. He
even tried to force the store clerk into

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his pickup truck, but she escaped
and the man the scene. But as

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law enforcement officers began cataloging the evidence, they noticed some irregularities. For example,

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margaret stolen items they weren't actually stolen
at all. In fact, almost

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nothing was missing from Margaret's home.
Sure, some stuff had been tossed about,

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and the mink coat was gone,
but everything else it was still there.

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Whoever was in Margaret's home had gathered
up some expensive clothing, but for

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some reason they had left it behind, and the clothes weren't dropped in a

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heap on the floor as if a
startled robber had to get away fast.

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They were folded and neatly arranged.
Someone had taken great care with them.

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They certainly weren't in a hurry or
worried about being caught. Plus, there

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was a slew of expensive jewelry and
pricey electronics like TVs, radios and cameras

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laying out in the open that were
completely untouched. And then there was the

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oaken back door window. Initially,
investigators thought this was how the robber got

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into Margaret's home. Smash glass,
reach inside, unlock the door, and

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boom, you're in. But the
hole in the windows glass was small,

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so small that it would have been
impossible for someone to reach through it and

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unlock the back door from the inside. Plus most of the shattered glass was

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on the outside of the house,
not the inside, as if someone was

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standing inside Margaret's home when they broke
the window. Maybe the police began to

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wonder this wasn't a robbery, Maybe
this was something far more nefarious, and

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perhaps the final nail in the coffin
for the authority suspicion was this Only one

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item besides the mink coat, was
actually missing from Margaret's home, and that

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item was a dairringer. A darringer, if you don't know, is a

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short barreled pistol that's small enough to
fit into a woman's handbag, and this

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specific one used twenty two caliber bullets, the same kind of bullets the doctors

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had found in Margaret's body. Now
the police were left to question, if

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this wasn't a robbery gone wrong,
why was Margaret murdered? I'm going to

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pause now for a short commercial break. Margaret Christine Boyd was born on April

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twenty eighth, nineteen twenty four,
to parents William and Sally and Jackson,

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Georgia, as one of six children. Her childhood home was probably always bustling

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and moving. In fact, Margaret's
whole life seemed characterized by movement. Over

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the course of her life, she
would move from one Georgia town to the

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next, from Jackson to Cobb,
from Cobb to Fulton, from Fulton to

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Roswell. Finally, in nineteen fifty
one, Margaret settled in Lagrange, Georgia

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with her husband, and that husband
was William Alec Abernathy went by Bill.

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Bill and Margaret had married some time
in their late teens or early twenties,

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and he was a great match for
Margaret. Born on November thirteenth, nineteen

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twenty one, Bill was three years
older than Margaret, and like Margaret,

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he had five siblings. Also,
like Margaret, Bill was full of youth,

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passion, and kindness. The young
couple had so many ideas for the

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future, but first Bill was in
the army and he served in World War

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Two. In August of nineteen forty
eight, twenty four year old Margaret and

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twenty seven year old Bill had their
first child, a son named William Alec

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Abernathy Junior. He went by Alec, and then in nineteen fifty two,

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little Priscilla Christina Abernathy was born,
and eight years later, in November of

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nineteen sixty, Margaret and Bill had
their second daughter, Melody. This would

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be their third and final child.
Priscilla and her two siblings mostly grew up

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in Lagrange. There, Abernathy family
built a reputation as honest, hard working

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folks. Both Margaret and Bill attended
the East Vernon Baptist Church and Margaret was

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also involved in the Lagrange Pilot Club. Meanwhile, Bill was a member of

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the Moose and Elks Club and the
Optimus Club. Margaret and Bill owned a

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farm, a real estate company,
and of course the car dealership. Margaret

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handled the bookkeeping in business end of
things, Bill handled sales and service.

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But the Abernathys weren't just savvy business
people. They were also generous with their

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time. They went out of their
way to serve on every committee or board

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they possibly could. According to their
grandchild Christy Lumpkins, interviews with snapped,

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Margaret and Bill wanted to help their
lovely little town whenever they could, and

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they did. Christie said it was
a small town, but they were a

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part of everything, whether it was
being on the board for the local electric

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company or the board of commissioners.
Margaret It was also very much the matriarch

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of their larger family, planning Sunday
dinners, vacations, and family reunions.

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She was loved by her family and
friends as much as she was respected in

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the community. Priscilla and her siblings
in many ways had an ideal childhood.

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Since Margaret and Bill were so financially
successful, their three children hardly ever wanted

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for anything, and when Margaret's family
members spoke with Snapped, they recalled that

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she was more than happy to help
her children with money. After all,

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she and Bill had so much of
it, and Margaret wanted her children to

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achieve their dreams. She understood there
was no better tool than money to get

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her kids where they wanted to go. But the Abernathy's foremost set an example

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as hard workers and encouraged the kids
to work at the family business. Throughout

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their childhood and teenage years. Margaret
and Bill's three kids helped out at the

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car dealership off and on, and
Priscilla really took to the family car business

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far more than her older brother or
younger sister. After a while, Priscilla

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seemed like she was going to make
a great business woman. She was soft

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spoken, but she was also really
easy to get along with, and she

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knew the right questions to ask her
parents. It was clear she could probably

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make a career out of owning her
own car dealership. One day, when

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Priscilla married her first husband, it
seemed like life was going as planned.

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She was helping at her parents dealership, she had started a family with two

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children of her own. But then
her first husband unexpectedly died. Priscilla was,

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of course shaken, heartbroken, distraught. Suddenly she was a widow,

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and in addition to that, she
was the single mother of two young children.

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Priscilla leaned on her parents for support, and especially her mother, Margaret.

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Margaret was her anchor emotionally and financially, and these troubling times brought them

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closer than ever. Over time,
they spent so much time together that Scilla

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became integral to Margaret's financial dealings.
They appeared to be a dynamic business duo,

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mother and daughter, master and apprentice, mentor and protege. According to

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Margaret's granddaughter, Christy Lumpkin, they
were inseparable in the nineteen eighties. Priscilla

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was in her late twenties and early
thirties, and that's when she began dating

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a new man. His name was
Nick Matula, and he was about five

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years younger than her, and like
Priscilla, he had also spent most of

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his life in Lagrange. But unlike
Priscilla, Nick wasn't easy to get along

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with those who knew him. Told
Snapped that he was hard headed. He

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struggled to see new perspectives. But
maybe Nick wasn't like that with Priscilla,

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or maybe Priscilla saw Nick's potential,
because after a suitable courtship, they got

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married and it was then that Nick
started working at Priscilla's parents car dealership.

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In nineteen eighty nine, Priscilla's father, Bill began having severe health issues.

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His diabetes were causing congestive heart failure, and after a while, it became

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apparent that Bill didn't have long for
this world, and so the Abernathy family

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banded together in support. No one
missed Sunday night dinner to see Bill.

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Meanwhile, his health continued to decline. Their granddaughter said that Bill started having

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a hard time doing everyday tasks.
Eventually he couldn't even leave his bedroom,

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and in March nineteen ninety Bill died. He was only sixty eight years old.

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After his death, the newly widowed
Margaret decided to retire, so she

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sold the car dealership, and Priscilla
saw this as an opportunity. She wanted

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to start a car dealership of her
own, just as her parents had.

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She had been in the business forever
a decade. She could do this,

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and Priscilla would follow in her parents
footsteps by taking on the car dealership with

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her husband Nick. But Priscilla and
Nick couldn't afford to buy a dealership on

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their own, so they asked Margaret
for help, and she was happy to

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invest in her daughter's new venture.
She loaned Priscilla and Nick about one hundred

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and thirty thousand dollars in today's money
that's almost two hundred and ninety thousand,

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and Margaret also co signed many of
priscilla and next business loans. She even

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put up her own house and a
CD or Certificate of deposit up as collateral.

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Margaret was putting a huge amount of
trust in Priscilla and Nick. She

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had faith that her daughter's new dealership
would be successful, and if it wasn't

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successful, well, Margaret could lose
a lot of money and her home.

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Priscilla and Nick bought a dealership called
Economy Jeep on New Franklin Road. Luckily,

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it appeared as if everything was going
well. Priscilla ran the administrative parts

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of the business. She paid the
bills, ordered the parts, and handled

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the logistics, and Nick handled the
service side of things. Priscilla often went

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to her other for advice, and
Margaret was glad to give it. Of

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course, she had even more writing
on the investment than the matulas did.

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According to Margaret's friend Bob Cole,
who spoke with Snapped, she would stop

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by the dealership to make sure everything
was going smoothly. He said, she

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wanted to see exactly what was going
on, what was being done, who

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was doing what, and as far
as Margaret could tell, the finances were

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doing just fine. But not everything
was as it seemed. On Friday,

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February first, nineteen ninety one,
Margaret discovered something troubling. Priscilla and Nick

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had not been making their business loan
payments. Some of the dealership's customers had

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been affected, and of course the
bank wasn't too happy either. At first,

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Margaret was probably just a little trouble. Maybe she thought it was all

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a mistake, But as she continued
digging into the business finances, she became

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positively livid. She realized that Priscilla
had been forging her signature to steal money

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from her real estate company, and
this wasn't just a one time thing.

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Priscilla had been doing it for a
while. The next day, Saturday,

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February second, nineteen ninety one,
Margaret went to the bank. She was

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very upset. She said something about
her blood pressure going up as a result

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of all of this, and she
was adamant that she wanted to remove Priscilla's

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name from her real estate business checking
account, but since it was a Saturday,

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they didn't have the right people there
to help Margaret. The bank officials

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told her she would have to come
back on Monday to complete the process of

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removing Priscilla from her account. Become
Monday morning, Margaret would be dead.

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I'm going to pause now for a
short commercial break. Sixty six year old

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Margaret Abernathy's funeral was held three days
after her death at four pm on Thursday,

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February seventh. The service was held
at the East Fernon Baptist Church,

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of which Margaret had been a member
for many years. She was buried next

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to her beloved husband Bill in the
Shadow Lawn Cemetery of Lagrange, Georgia.

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Her funeral was well attended. The
people of Lagrange adored her, and much

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of Margaret's family was there too.
She was and is dearly missed. Meanwhile,

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the police were investigating Margaret's murder.
By now they knew this was no

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robbery, and the staged crime scenes
suggested that someone close to Margaret had killed

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her, someone who could easily enter
the house, knew she owned a small

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pistol and wanted her dead for personal
reasons. On Margaret's mattress and pillow was

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a large red blood stain. From
this, investigators reasoned that Margaret was first

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shot in the head while she was
asleep, and since her unmoving body was

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found in the bathroom, she must
have somehow gotten herself to the bathroom after

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the first gunshot wound. That made
sense with the medical reports about Margaret's injuries.

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The first gunshot wasn't fatal, It
hadn't even penetrated her skull. In

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the bathroom, the police found bloody
toilet paper strown everywhere. She must have

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woken up and tried to go stop
the bleeding before her killer realized she wasn't

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dead, and then she was shot
a second time in the bathroom, again

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from behind. The second bullet,
as we know, hint Margaret's brainstem,

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she would have been immediately immobilized,
and that's how she was found by Priscilla

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hours later. During Priscilla's police interviews, she was asked to walk the officers

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through how she had discovered her mother
and her answers. Priscilla was detailed,

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extremely detailed, like two detailed.
Prosecutor Anna cobb Allan said the amount of

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details she gave seemed excessive. She
had a narrative that she wanted to put

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forth. Priscilla told the investigators about
the specific highways she took, how often

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she took those highways, getting stuck
behind in school buses, having to leave

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the dealership for the bank, leaving
the dealership for the post office, driving

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around the post office's block multiple times
as she realized the line was too long.

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She went on and on and on. But Priscilla wasn't the only person

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close to Margaret acting suspicious. When
Priscilla's husband, Nixt spoke to the police,

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he shared some very interesting information about
her older brother, Alect. According

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to Nick, Alec was in deep
financial trouble and badly needed money. And

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Nick said that Alec told him he
was looking forward to inheriting his parents' money

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when they died. It would help
him clear his debt and get him out

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of the red, and this appeared
to be true. Alec was in financial

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trouble and could have been motivated to
kill Margaret for an early inheritance. Plus,

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Alec was also the financial beneficiary of
one of Margaret's insurance policies. He

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was going to get about forty thousand
dollars. That's just shy of ninety thousand

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00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:04.720
today. With this new information,
the police considered Alec a person of interest

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in his mother's murder, but lucky
for him, he had an airtight alibi.

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On the morning Margaret was shot,
Alec was helping out at Priscilla's car

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dealership. He had been there the
entire time. There was no way he

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could have gotten to Margaret's house to
kill her. And there was another suspicious

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person. His name was Diaca and
Dramalis. Diaca was a family friend and

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he had moved in with Margaret and
Bill two years earlier. When Bill's health

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first began to deteriorate, he was
a bigger guy who could help Bill get

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around the house more easily. John
Lotts, one of Margaret's grandkids, said

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Diaca was a gentle giant. After
Bill passed, Diaca remained Margaret's roommate.

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He would have known the layout of
her home, and he would have had

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a key, and he would have
known that she kept a derringer. When

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the police tried to find Diaca,
they couldn't. He also worked at a

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car dealership, but it wasn't the
one priceiloned. Upon hearing that Diaca was

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close to Margaret and would have had
access to her home, they contacted his

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workplace. They wanted to talk to
him, but on the same Monday that

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Margaret was killed, Diaca wasn't at
work. In fact, his boss had

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no idea where he was. Diaca
had been there that morning, but now

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00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:29.599
he had vanished. This seemed like
he was hiding something. Had he murdered

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Margaret and fled. The police soon
learned the answer to that question. Diaca

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hadn't really gone anywhere. He had
stepped out on his lunch break to go

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to an interview at yet another car
dealership. That was why he hadn't told

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his boss where he was. He
knew he would be fired if his supervisor

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found out he was trying to get
a new job elsewhere. Plus, when

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the authorities told Diaca about Margaret's murder, he broke down. He began crying.

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Between Diaca's emotional response to Margaret's death
and the fact that he hadn't left

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for his interview until after the time
Margaret would have been killed, the police

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believed him. Diacca had nothing to
do with Margaret's murder. As far as

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the police could tell, Margaret had
no known enemies, and everyone seemed to

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have an alibi during the time of
her murder, everyone except Priscilla. I'm

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going to pause now for a final
commercial break. Several days after the murder,

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the authorities received an anonymous tip.
The tipster worked at a local bank

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called the Bank of Troope County,
and this person told the police how two

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days before Margaret died, she had
tried to remove Priscilla from the real estate

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checking account I mentioned before. This
bank worker told the police officers that Margaret

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was distressed and inconsolable when she was
at the bank. She needed Priscilla out

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of her finances. Now. Based
on this information, the police began looking

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at Priscilla and her dealership's finances,
and as it turns out, Priscilla and

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her husband's car business was not as
successful as they had suggested. They had

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had to take out additional loans to
stay afloat. After receiving this intel from

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the anonymous bank worker, the local
police called the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for

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help, So the GBI sent a
financial expert. That expert come through Margaret's

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records and found Priscilla's schemes. They
discovered that Priscilla had been doing on a

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00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:38.920
legal practice known as check kiding to
pay the car dealership's bills. Check kiting

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is often described as robbing Peter to
pay Paul. It happens when a person

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has two or more bank accounts.
The person writes one check from bank account

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A to their other account, bank
account B. Then they go to bank

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00:27:53.519 --> 00:27:57.480
B and cash a check, and
in the time it takes for bank account

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00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:02.359
B to make sure the fun or
in bank account A, the money is

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00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:07.920
already gone. Basically, it's fraud, and Priscilla was in big trouble.

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She would write checks as large as
thirty thousand dollars sixty seven thousand in today's

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00:28:12.359 --> 00:28:17.400
money to make it appear as if
her car dealership had a positive cash flow,

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00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:22.119
but they didn't. Their cash flow
was in fact negative, and so

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at this point Priscilla became the investigator's
prime suspect. And then another witness came

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00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:33.359
forward. A woman named Page Restor
worked as a clerk at a convenience store

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very close to Margaret's home, and
she had seen Priscilla at this convenience store

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at around seven fifteen am on the
morning of Margaret's murder. She said Priscilla

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looked upset and distracted, and she
said she had known Priscilla for several years,

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so she recognized her. If you'll
remember, seven fifteen am was around

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the time Priscilla said she was going
to work. She hadn't told the police

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that she was anywhere or her mother's
house, and when she arrived at the

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car dealership, it was actually about
eight fifteen am, not eight am,

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as Priscilla had told the police earlier. Then she left the dealership for the

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post office at ten am. But
at this exact moment another witness saw Priscilla

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00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:22.640
and she wasn't circling the post office
block freaking out about long lines. This

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00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:26.960
witness just happened to be viewing a
rental property across the street from Margaret's home,

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and the witness told authorities that they
saw Priscilla's car parked in Margaret's driveway

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at ten am on the same Monday
that Margaret was killed. They also claimed

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that they heard a gunshot at around
ten am that day, and at the

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00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:47.079
time of the gun shot, the
car was still on the driveway in the

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moment, the witness did not even
think to call the police about the gun

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00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:55.119
shot. Margaret's home was in rural
Troop County, and it wasn't uncommon for

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people to use their firearms recreationally,
just for fun. This wasn't a suburban

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area where homes were packed together.
There were a lot of wide open spaces

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00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:10.000
and fields where you could target shoot
safely. Next the police were able to

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confirm that Priscilla was at the car
dealership at ten thirty am. She left

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00:30:14.680 --> 00:30:18.200
again at noon to check on Margaret, and at about twelve to twenty five

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pm, she called nine to one
one to report that her mother was injured.

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Over the course of this investigation,
Priscilla spoke to the police three times.

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Throughout those interviews, they realized that
her very detailed stories kept changing,

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and in one of her final interviews, Priscilla insisted that she hadn't done anything

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wrong, not with anything relating to
her mother, and certainly not with the

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finances of her dealership. According to
an investigator's interviews was snapped. Priscilla was

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certain that since she owned the bank
account she used when check kiding, what

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she was doing was totally illegal,
but it wasn't. On Tuesday, February

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00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:03.359
twelfth of nineteen ninety one, forty
year old Priscilla Matula was arrested for murdering

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her mother, sixty six year old
Margaret Abernathy. She was held in the

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00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:11.640
Troop County Jail until her bond of
one hundred thousand dollars was posted, and

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00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:17.359
then she was out until her trial. She continued to deny having anything to

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do with the murder, and she
also denied committing any check fraud. While

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awaiting her trial date, Priscilla actually
called the convenience store work or witness.

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She tried to convince Paderesster that she
had misremembered the day that Priscilla was in

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the store on a different day,
not Monday, February fourth. According to

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00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:42.200
the prosecuting attorney, Anna Cobb Allen, Priscilla was pushy and cage. She

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00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:49.279
wanted to adjust this witness's memory.
Not a good look for trial. Priscilla's

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00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:52.759
trial began in August of nineteen ninety
two, about a year and a half

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00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:57.200
after her mother was murdered. According
to Mike Newsom, a former Troop County

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00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:02.039
investigator, this was a tree key
case for the state prosecutors. Technically,

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00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:07.759
all of the available evidence was circumstantial. They never found the murder weapon,

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00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:13.880
and of course nobody had actually seen
Priscilla kill Margaret. But many trials come

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00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:19.079
down to circumstantial evidence, it is
still evidence. However, not finding the

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00:32:19.160 --> 00:32:24.000
murder weapon can definitely be a challenge, but still the prosecution was confident they

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00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:30.200
would succeed. They proposed that after
Margaret realized she couldn't remove Priscilla from her

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00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:35.640
bank account on Saturday, she confronted
her daughter. She told Priscilla she was

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00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:38.960
cutting her off financially, and that's
why Priscilla decided she had to kill her

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00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:45.960
mother. The situation was dire.
Without Margaret's financial support, Priscilla and Nick

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00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:50.079
would be ruined. They would have
lost everything. Priscilla knew she had to

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00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:52.279
stop her mother from going to the
bank on Monday. She could not be

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00:32:52.319 --> 00:32:59.839
removed from her mother's accounts. Prosecutor
Anna Cobb Allen said, they were in

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00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.960
the red and once she realized they
had no financial safety nut beyond missus Abernathy,

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00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:07.119
that was it. The only thing
she could do was kill her mother

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00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:12.720
so she could still have access to
her money. Then, in the early

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00:33:12.759 --> 00:33:16.319
morning hours of Monday, February fourth, Priscilla snuck into Margaret's house while she

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00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:21.599
was sleeping. Then she shot her
mother twice in the head, thinking she

401
00:33:21.720 --> 00:33:25.799
was dead or dying. Priscilla then
left and went to work. Later that

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00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:30.960
morning, Priscilla returned to her mother's
house to stage the crime scene. She

403
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:35.680
found her mother alive in the bathroom, so she shot her again, this

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00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:40.440
time mortally wounding her. Prosecutor Anna
cob Allen said the most difficult hurdle of

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00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:45.319
the case wasn't convincing the jury to
trust the evidence. It was convincing them

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00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:50.799
that a daughter could kill her own
mother. She told Snapped, a daughter

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00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:54.400
killing her mother is to me unimaginable. You have to go to a really

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00:33:54.519 --> 00:34:00.119
dark place to understand this and it
really was a cold blooded she had to

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00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:07.000
shoot her mother twice. The prosecution
was also tasked with proving that Priscilla had

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00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:10.679
committed fraud. They showed that Priscilla
had forged Margaret's name on checks and other

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00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:15.960
financial paperwork, equaling about one hundred
and ten thousand dollars that's about two hundred

412
00:34:15.960 --> 00:34:22.280
and fifty thousand today. Priscilla's defense
leaned heavily on the fact that this case

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00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:28.000
was entirely circumstantial. No one had
seen any of these actions take place.

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00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:32.960
But those arguments weren't nearly as compelling
as the prosecutions take, for example,

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00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:37.960
the eyewitness testimony of an emergency room
nurse. The nurse had seen that Priscilla

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00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:43.880
was distraught upon learning that her unresponsive
mother would die. According to the nurse,

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00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:47.199
Priscilla exclaimed, oh my God,
what have I done? And then

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00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:52.559
her husband Nick said shut your damned
face. Later, after Nick left,

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00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:57.920
the nurse again heard Priscilla repeat,
oh my God, what have I done.

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00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:04.119
A sidebar. I've always wondered about
priscilla husband, Nick Matullah's role in

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00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:07.079
this case. Did he pressure Priscilla
to kill her mother to save them from

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00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:15.079
financial ruin. When the papers reported
Priscilla's arrest on Wednesday the thirteenth, the

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00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:17.800
sheriff said that he did not rule
out the possibility of more arrests in the

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00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:22.639
case. But as far as I
can tell, Nick was never arrested for

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00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:27.840
anything related to Margaret's murder. But
weirdly enough, thirty five year old Nick

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00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:31.480
Matula and Priscilla's older brother, forty
two year old Alec, were arrested mere

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00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:38.599
days after Priscilla anyway, for a
completely unrelated crime. The crime was described

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00:35:38.719 --> 00:35:44.880
by the Ledger Inquirer as quote damage
to property and connection with the Georgia Power

429
00:35:44.920 --> 00:35:51.920
Company's electrical transformers. Nick and Alec
allegedly caused two hundred and seventy five thousand

430
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:57.199
dollars worth of damage when they used
rifles to shoot out Georgia Power's transformers.

431
00:35:57.800 --> 00:36:01.719
Lots of people lost power for about
eight hours. I'm not sure why they

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00:36:01.719 --> 00:36:06.599
would allegedly do that. Hell,
I'm not sure that the case was even

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00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:13.360
resolved. It's a weird footnote and
an already strange tangled case. Incidentally,

434
00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:16.719
Alec died young in March of nineteen
ninety five at the age of forty six,

435
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:22.599
and Melody the youngest of the Abernathy
siblings, also died fairly young,

436
00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:27.639
at age fifty six in twenty seventeen. Both are buried near their parents in

437
00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:31.880
shadow On Cemetery. As far as
I can tell, the newspapers did not

438
00:36:31.960 --> 00:36:37.719
mention Nick and Alec's crime again.
They instead focused on Priscilla's juicier story,

439
00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:43.199
and on August twenty eighth of nineteen
ninety two, the jury found forty one

440
00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:49.760
year old Priscilla Christina Matula guilty of
murder and six counts of felony forgery.

441
00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:54.320
This case shook the Lowgrange, Georgia
community. Margaret Abernathy was a high profile

442
00:36:54.400 --> 00:37:00.719
woman. Everyone knew who she was, and everyone knew that abernathis purportedly the

443
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:07.400
Matula's as happy, healthy, and
quite frankly rich. So for Margaret to

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00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:13.320
be killed by her own daughter for
money it seemed impossible. Margaret's friend Bob

445
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:16.840
Cole told Snapped, I've always thought
that for that instant, Priscilla lost her

446
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:24.880
mind. And Margaret's death deeply shook
the Abernathi clan. Granddaughter Christy Lumpkin said,

447
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:31.119
whenever Nanny was killed, our family
just died. No more family reunions

448
00:37:31.239 --> 00:37:37.519
or family vacations. They drifted apart. It wasn't just Priscilla's awful act,

449
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:42.519
it was losing Margaret. She was
the glue. She was the strong matriarch

450
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:47.400
who held everything and everyone together.
Family had meant everything to her, and

451
00:37:47.440 --> 00:37:53.000
then she was shot in cold blood
by her own daughter. Priscilla was sentenced

452
00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:58.920
to life in prison for Margaret's murder
in five years for each count of forgery.

453
00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:04.599
All sent would be served concurrently.
After a time, Priscilla would become

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00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:09.480
eligible for parole, and in May
of twenty fifteen, Priscilla Mattula was released

455
00:38:09.519 --> 00:38:15.480
from prison after serving twenty three years
for sentence. Today she is around seventy

456
00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:21.519
one years old, five years older
than her mother when she shot her to

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00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:28.880
death. Southern Frid's True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly.

458
00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:34.039
Today's episode was researched and written by
Andrea Marshbank, with additional research and writing

459
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:37.719
by myself, and of course,
all editorial opinions are my own. Southern

460
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:42.840
Frid's original music is by Rob Harrison
of Gamma Radio and the original graphic artist

461
00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:46.159
by Coli Horner. Today's episode was
edited and mixed by Brendan Shack Snyder of

462
00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:51.480
Southern Gothic and Eric ka Kelly.
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463
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464
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