219: The Kidnapping of Carrie Lawson, Part 2

WEBVTT

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

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

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who missed the last episode. Here's
a quick recap. On September eleventh,

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nineteen ninety one, in the small
town of Jasper, Alabama, a couple

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named Earl and Carrie Lawson were sleeping
peacefully until they were awoken by a phone

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call. It was in the darkest
hours of the night before dawn breaks,

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and those kind of calls are never
good. Earl's father had recently been ill,

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so when the woman on the phone
claimed to be a nurse from the

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local hospital, they believed her.
She said his dad, Earl Lawson Senior,

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might not even make it through the
night and they needed to rush to

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Walker Medical Hospital right away. The
couple threw on some clothes and rushed out

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the door, jumping in their Ford
Explorer in the car port. Suddenly,

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a masked man appeared with a gun. Earl Lawson realized immediately that the phone

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call from the nurse had been a
ruse. The assailant made Carrie bind Earl

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with duct tape and then forced her
back into the Explorer, and then he

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raced off into the night, abducting
twenty five year old Carrie Lawson. Earle

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managed to break free from the duct
tape, but his keys were still in

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the explore, so he kicked in
his back door and called his dad and

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nine one one. Then he called
Carrie's parents. He later said it was

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one of the hardest things he ever
had to do in his life. Their

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families were shocked to discover this was
a kidnapping for ransom. It seemed like

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something you only saw in movies,
but it was very real and they were

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terrified for Carrie. In the last
episode, I told you all about the

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parade of mistakes the FBI made in
this case. Now we're getting into the

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repercussions of those mistakes and even more
bad decisions as Carrie Lawson's life hung in

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the balance. Welcome to Episode two
nineteen, The Kidnapping of Carrie Lawson,

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Part two. In the last episode, we learned about the first failed ransom

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drop, the agonizing phone calls with
Carrie, the myriad mistakes made by the

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FBI, and finally a successful ransom
drop. Only after he got the money.

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Carrie's family and law enforcement never heard
from the kidnapper again on September twenty

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eighth. She had been missing for
seventeen days, and authorities released audio tapes

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of the calls with the kidnapper to
the public. They played on radio stations

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and TV news repeatedly in the hopes
that someone would recognize the kidnapper's voice.

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More than one hundred people called in
with tips. According to an FBI expert,

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the man had not just a North
Alabama accent, but a Jasper accent,

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and he turned out to be right. A caller recognized the voice of

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a man named Jerry Bland on the
radio station and called the tip line.

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He was certain it was Jerry Bland's
voice. Jerry Bland was born right there

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in Jasper in December nineteen forty one
to parents Albert and Loreene Bland. Jerry

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also attended Walker High School now known
as Jasper High School, the same school

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Earl Lawson Junior had graduated from,
but Jerry would have graduated around the spring

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of nineteen fifty nine, twenty four
years before Earl, so they had never

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crossed paths. Records weren't clear,
so we weren't entirely sure. Jerry Bland

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got his diploma, but we do
know he enlisted in the army after high

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school. He completed basic training at
Fort Jackson in South Carolina. After his

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military service, Jerry began working as
a stripmon operator in the late nineteen sixties,

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then working for B and D Industrial
Mining Services through the seventies and eighties.

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In nineteen eighty seven, Jerry helped
found two mining companies. One was

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called BKW Enterprises. It operated out
of Bessemer, Alabama. Jerry started the

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company with three partners, including his
brother, but Jerry was bought out two

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years later in nineteen eighty nine,
which seems to mark the beginning of his

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downward spiral. Selling out was a
terrible decision. Jerry was married to a

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woman named Sheila. They had two
daughters together. At the time of Carrie's

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kidnapping, they lived in a North
Jasper home. Around nineteen ninety, after

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Jerry sold his company, he and
Sheila moved from a very nice, expensive

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home in the same Heritage Hills subdivision
where Carrie and Earle had built their home,

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to a cheaper home in Jasper.
They were experiencing financial struggles. Jerry

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had made some poor business decisions,
but he also had an expensive substance abuse

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problem. His drug of choice was
cocaine, so by the time nineteen ninety

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one unrolled around, Jerry really needed
money badly. After investigating Jerry, finally

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the pieces were starting to come together. For the FBI. Multiple people said

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Jerry's voice matched the kidnapper's voice and
the recordings, but still a question remained.

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Who was the woman who had helped
Jerry, who had pretended to be

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a nurse when calling Earl and Carry
that night. The FBI was already looking

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at Jerry's female associates when a woman
named Karen was identified on a recording that

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the police didn't make. I'll get
to that in just a bit. The

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woman on the recording was Karen Lancaster
McPherson, Jerry's close friend and cousin by

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marriage. Karen Lancaster was born in
the fall of nineteen sixty one. She

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came from a blue collar military family. Members of Karen's family described themselves as

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dysfunctional and the working poor during her
childhood. Karen's father was a Special Forces

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serviceman. He was deployed to Vietnam
twice, and he was also an alcoholic.

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Karen's mother, Ida Cleveland, said
Karen's father would often talk down to

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her and her children, Ida explained
to Ale dot Com. He told them

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they would never be as good as
he was. Karen was the fourth of

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five children. Her family told newspapers
that Karen and most of her siblings had

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developed substance abuse issues. As an
adult, Karen was a truck driver for

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Deaton Trucking. She married young and
had one daughter before her divorce. In

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nineteen eighty eight, twenty seven year
old Karen married a thirty six year old

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truck driver named Ricky Lynn Macpherson.
Ricky had also been married before, but

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he had no children. He Karen
and her teenage daughter lived in a house

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in Coleman, Alabama. Karen was
on disability from a worker's compensation claim.

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She fell and hit the railing on
a truck. In the process, Karen

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injured her knees and legs. Due
to her on the job injury, she

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became partially disabled and lost forty five
percent of our earning ability. As a

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result, Deton had to pay her
benefits into the mid nineties. By nineteen

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ninety one, Karen was a housewife, and, as I alluded to earlier,

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she had become close with her cousin
by marriage, Jerry Bland. According

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to Karen's family, Jerry had bypassed
surgery and needed help. Karen shipped in,

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and apparently the two became pretty close
friends. Karen's family would later claim

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that Jerry preyed on Karen. Her
mother and eldest brother told reporters that Karen

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was easily manipulated. They also said
Karen had a bad habit of overlooking men's

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flaws, so Jerry, who was
said to be charismatic and charming, took

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advantage of that. There are even
rumors that Jerry threatened to harm Karen and

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her family if she didn't help him
with this subduction plot, but frankly,

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there's no hard evidence to show that's
true, just the claims of Karen's family

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members trying to mitigate complicity in Carrie's
kidnapping. Karen's oldest brother, Frank,

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told Ale dot com that he believed
Jerry was trying to approach him about the

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ransom scheme. First. Weeks before
Carrie was taken, Jerry allegedly invited Frank

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and his wife to a pool party. Frank thought that was odd. Jerry

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hardly ever invited him over he had
a business opportunity he wanted to run by

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Frank, but apparently they didn't get
to it at the party. Frank,

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who was a US Marine, soon
took an overseas assignment. He was in

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Singapore at the time of the kidnapping. Ultimately, it's unclear how Jerry convinced

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Karen to cooperate with his plan to
kidnap Carrie Lawson, but it is widely

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accepted that Jerry was the mastermind behind
the kidnapping, though, as you'll hear

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in a minute, Karen is not
without blame. I'm going to pause now

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for a short commercial break. Let's
circle back to the timeline of the investigation.

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On Saturday, September twenty eighth,
Carrie had been missing for over two

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weeks. The kidnapper slash. Jerry's
phone calls had been released and the FBI

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had tentatively identified him. Karen would
soon be identified too. That same Saturday,

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the FBI got a warrant and searched
Jerry's home and truck. Right away,

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they discovered cash in his truck.
It was eighty four one hundred dollars

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bills using serial numbers. The FBI
verified that this was in fact part of

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the ransom money. They also found
several guns in the house and all amount

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of marijuana, but the agents did
not arrest Jerry. Instead, the FBI

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secretly saveiled Jerry's house over the weekend. They saw that Jerry's wife and two

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daughters were in the home. The
mother and daughters were sleeping on a mattress

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in the living room, but at
some point they left and Jerry was all

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alone. Then that Sunday, September
twenty ninth, a child found a cassette

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tape near an apartment complex swimming pool
in Jasper. It was turned into the

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authorities as abandoned property. According to
the Birmingham Post, Harold Jerry's wife,

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Sheila, made the tape. Sheila
thought Jerry was cheating on her and she

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was trying to catch him in the
act. Instead, Sheila had inadvertently recorded

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Jerry and Karen macpherson planning to kidnap
and kill someone for money, not Carrie

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Lawson. Though initially the plan was
to abduct a lie local wealthy coal executive

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named Ellis Taylor. The Daily Mountain
reported that Karen and Jerry had also been

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considering targeting former Alabama First Lady Lisa
Taylor. Wallace. For whatever reason,

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Jerry and Karen pivoted to Carrie Lawson
instead. Carrie's family assumed Jerry knew of

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Earl Lawson Senior's successful auto parts shop. Karen McPherson's family said that Jerry told

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her he chose Carrie because he knew
Earl Lawson's daddy was rich. I don't

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think it's a big mystery. Jerry
Bland was aware of the prominent Jasper families

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and seemed to have done his research. But I reckon if he had known

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more about Carrie's background and that her
folks were millionaires, he might have asked

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for a bigger ransom. Regardless,
law enforcement knew Jerry was involved, they

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knew Karen was involved. They searched
Jerry's home and were watching it closely that

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on Monday, September thirtieth, they
searched Karen's home. There, agents found

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thousands of dollars in cash with the
serial numbers corresponding to the ransom money,

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just like they had found in Jerry's
truck. Shortly after, Karen verified to

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the authorities that she had indeed helped
Jerry kidnap Carrie Lawson. She told investigators

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that her job was to act as
the nurse who lured Carrie and Earl out

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of the house. She had also
dropped Jerry off at the Lawson home afterward.

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She was in charge of supervising Carrie
for several hours while Jerry organized the

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ransom exchange, But much to the
FBI's dismay, Karen said she didn't know

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where Carrie was now. Karen claimed
that the last time she saw Carrie was

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two days after the kidnapping, September
thirteenth. Now it was the last day

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of September, and while Karen said
car was alive the last time she saw

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her, that had been weeks ago. Anything could have happened since then.

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According to Karen, Jerry told her
that Carrie had escaped when he left her

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alone for a while, but the
authorities were pretty sure that was a lie.

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Still, investigators were feeling optimistic.
District Attorney Charles Baker told the Birmingham

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Post Harold that on Monday night he
thought they had Jerry nailed to the wall.

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At this point, Jerry knew he
was in trouble, among many other

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things. It doesn't sound like the
FBI was subtle about staking out his house.

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As a result, Jerry's family had
helped him find a lawyer, so

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Da Baker and Jerry's lawyer were negotiating
terms. The FBI wanted to dangle a

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carrot in front of Jerry so that
he would tell them where Carrie was.

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For hours on Monday night, Baker, Carrie's husband, Earl, and ten

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other lawyers discussed possible charges for Jerry. They didn't want Jerry to respond violently

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when the agents entered his home.
They also knew it was a real possibility

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that Jerry could harm himself, an
officer, or both. The group of

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lawyers decided to convene a special grand
jury at nine am that Tuesday morning,

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October first. By then, Carrie
would have been missing for three weeks,

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twenty one days, and five hundred
and four hours, countless minutes and seconds.

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For her devastated family, there was
really no hope that she was still

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alive. So the DA was going
to try to indict Jerry Bland for capital

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murder, but they waited too late
to arrest him. On Tuesday, October

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first, nineteen ninety one, at
about four thirty am, the FBI agents

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watching fifty year old Jerry Bland's house
heart a gunshot, but instead of rushing

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the house, the officers waited until
daylight to enter Jerry's home. When they

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did, they saw that Jerry had
died by a self inflicted gunshot wound.

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He had pointed a thirty caliber Winchester
rifle at his heart while sitting on the

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bed in an upstairs bedroom. The
bullet exited out of his lower back,

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hit the bedroom wall, and then
slammed into the house next door. Luckily,

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no one else was harmed. For
the record, several newspapers reported that

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Jerry shot himself in the head,
so there were conflicting reports. For some

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reason, Jerry wrote a letter before
pulling the trigger. The full contents of

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that letter have never been released,
but we do know a few facts about

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it. It was addressed to Jerry's
lawyer, Michael Shores. It was two

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pages long and handwritten, and there
was no mention of Carrie Lawson or any

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hints about her whereabouts. Instead,
Jerry wrote about two men and the town

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of Hayley. According to Michael Shores, these men and Hayleyville were somehow involved

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in a drug deal that Jerry may
have been involved in. In the note,

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Jerry claimed that the cash in his
pickup truck was from that drug deal,

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which was a lie since the cash
in his truck was a portion of

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the ransom money. The FBI had
already confirmed the serial numbers and were sure

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this drug deals story by Jerry was
never confirmed or resolved in any way.

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We have no idea what Jerry was
talking about. Some suspect that Jerry was

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trying to cover for an unknown third
party who was involved in the kidnapping,

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but there is no credible or authoritative
support for this theory. I have a

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theory about this that I'll get into
later. By the end of it all,

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approximately ninety eight percent of the ransom
money was recovered. Jerry had spent

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about eight thousand dollars on various items
around Jasper, including a TV satellite dish,

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and as you know, there was
some money in Karen's house, so

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where was the rest. Well.
Following Jerry's death, the authority searched his

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house again. This time they found
approximately two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in

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the attic. Law enforcement has suggested
that this money wasn't in Jerry's house the

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first time they searched it, though
some doubt that that is true. The

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FBI was already facing so much backlash
for this case that they may have been

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motivated to mislead the public to mitigate
the fallout. But I mean, for

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real, who was going to sneak
into Jerry's house and hide the money while

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the FBI were watching him or right
after his death? How would that work?

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It would actually make the FBI look
even worse. And let's talk about

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the FBI for a moment. As
you might imagine, Jerry Bland's death was

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devastating news to Carry's family. The
one person in the entire world who knew

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where Carry was was now gone.
His suicide was entirely avoidable, ridiculously avoidable.

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They had his voice on the ransom
tapes. They found marijuana in his

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home, he had over eight thousand
dollars of the ransom money in his truck,

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and they had found multiple guns in
his house and knew that the kidnapper

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had held the lossons at gunpoint.
Come on, police and agents did not

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00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.960
need an indictment to enter that house. I just gave you a whole list

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00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:41.759
of probable causes for an arrest or
exigent circumstances, or reasonable suspicion. Take

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00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:45.720
your pick of what to call it
beyond that if the FBI were worried about

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00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:51.359
federal charges, they could have sent
Jasper police or Walker County in on state

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00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:56.319
charges. And it's not like the
FBI didn't know all of this. Carrie's

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00:18:56.359 --> 00:19:02.039
sister, Margaret later told al dot
com. I can remember one of the

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00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:06.319
Feds saying, look, he had
marijuana in the house. Let's just arrest

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00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:10.359
him on a drug charge, get
him in jail. I remember someone saying

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00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:15.680
he could kill himself. She has
also said that even though the FBI was

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00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:21.599
in charge of the investigation, they
had been planning to send local Jasper police

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00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:26.039
officers in to arrest Jerry, And
she said that the FBI was only watching

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00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:30.680
the front of the house. The
back was wide open. I haven't found

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00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:34.279
that anywhere else as a fact.
But I also don't believe she was lying

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00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:38.119
about it. Why in the world
would she. Someone had to have told

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00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:42.680
her that. But stories have a
way of changing over the years, of

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00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:48.480
becoming more exaggerated, especially when we're
talking about the colossal failures of something as

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00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:53.839
big as the FBI. By the
end of it all, Margaret believed the

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00:19:53.880 --> 00:20:00.240
situation was poorly handled, which all
things considered, was a pretty nice way

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00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.640
of saying it. I'm going to
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Bank and Trust member FDIC. Carrie's
sister, Margaret also seems to have been

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00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:37.319
drawn into some of the conspiracy theories. She said, I still don't know

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00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.400
why they didn't arrest him. The
whole Jerry Bland suicide is very suspicious and

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00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:48.519
it's very possible somebody else killed him. It's hard to blame her. She

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00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.920
and her family were left with so
few answers. I personally think it's doubtful

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00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:59.519
that someone else killed Jerry Bland with
police watching his house, but I do

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00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:06.480
understand the suspicions. Carrie's father,
David Smith said to the Birmingham Post,

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00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:10.759
Harold, this is not one of
the FBI's better cases, and I'm sure

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00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:15.160
no one knows that better than they
do. The FBI rarely speaks about cases

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00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:21.240
to the public, but this time
public perception of their work was so bad

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00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:26.960
that they did comment. FBI representatives
claimed that since Jerry had not crossed state

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00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:33.680
lines while kidnapping Carry, this was
not technically a federal crime. The federal

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00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:38.400
agents were supposedly waiting to arrest Jerry
after the state had charged him, but

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00:24:38.519 --> 00:24:44.519
reports from the Birmingham Post Harold suggest
that the FBI wasn't waiting on anything of

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00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:49.519
the sort. These BPH articles suggest
that federal agents thought Jerry was going to

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00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:55.400
exit his house and lead them to
carry, but obviously Jerry didn't do that.

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00:24:56.759 --> 00:25:00.720
It should be noted that the BPH
articles do not directly quote an FBI

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00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:07.400
representative or agent, even as an
unnamed source, but it certainly makes sense

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00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:14.640
they were just sitting and watching.
It's unclear what exactly happened. It probably

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00:25:14.680 --> 00:25:21.359
always will be. However, the
criticisms of the FBI's decision making throughout Carrie's

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00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:26.759
case are incredibly far reaching. In
nineteen ninety three, Washington Post reporter Ron

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00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:33.039
Kessler wrote a book entitled the FBI
Inside the World's Most Powerful law enforcement Agency.

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00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:38.200
In this book, Kessler claimed that
Carrie Lawson's case was one of the

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00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:45.200
agency's biggest failures. The FBI agent
in charge of Carrie's case, Alan P.

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00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:49.359
Whittaker, said, in direct response
to Kessler's book, It's obvious we're

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00:25:49.400 --> 00:25:53.759
not happy with the result of the
kidnapping investigation. Do I think it was

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00:25:53.799 --> 00:25:57.920
one of the agency's biggest failures.
No, I don't, but it wasn't

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00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:03.960
one of our shining sexsesses. But
Agent Whittaker retired in May of nineteen ninety

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00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:10.079
three, just eight months after Jerry
Blend's death by suicide in October of ninety

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00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:15.559
two. Before retiring, Agent Whittaker
had served twenty eight years with the Bureau,

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00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:22.480
and Kessler wrote in his book that
it's likely FBI Director William Baker pushed

305
00:26:22.519 --> 00:26:29.400
Whittaker into retirement due in part to
the mishandling of Carrie's case. Agent Whittaker

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00:26:29.599 --> 00:26:33.559
denied those claims. In interviews with
the Birmingham Post Harold He said he retired

307
00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:40.319
for unrelated reasons. Earl Lawson seemed
to be the only one who really defended

308
00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:45.200
the FBI. He told al dot
com that for sure, mistakes were made,

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00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:49.039
but quote, those guys gave two
hundred percent every day, every minute

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00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:55.000
they cried with us. If mistakes
were made, it wasn't because of a

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00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:59.720
lack of effort. They cared and
tried their very hardest. It was personal

312
00:26:59.759 --> 00:27:07.200
to them now. Carrie's husband directed
his ire at Jerry Bland. He said,

313
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:11.000
I couldn't help but think that anybody
would tell or leave a note about

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00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.079
where she was. The fact that
Bland killed himself without doing anything is incomprehensible

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00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:22.759
to me. Following Bland's death,
the search for Carrie Lawson was renewed.

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00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:30.720
Law enforcement and volunteers focused on locations
where Jerry was familiar and had worked,

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00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:36.720
especially places related to the coal mining
business, since coal mining had basically always

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00:27:36.759 --> 00:27:42.359
been Jerry Bland's career. They also
scoured the areas near various pathons that Jerry

319
00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:48.240
and Carrie had used. In the
end, nothing was discovered that led to

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00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:53.119
the recovery of Carrie's body, but
it wasn't for lack of trying. Searchers

321
00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:59.880
used horses, pickup trucks, and
ATVs to sweep miles and miles of land.

322
00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:06.319
Divers comed through rivers, people walked
through overgrown, snake filled rural areas

323
00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:11.599
of Alabama. The University of Alabama, ore OTC, and the National Guard

324
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:18.519
joined the search in early October.
For about six weeks, thousands of people

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00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:23.559
tried to find Carrie. According to
those present, multiple bodies were discovered in

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00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:29.400
the search process. The names of
those poor souls were never released in the

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00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:36.200
sources we found, But the searchers
never found Carrie. Her whereabouts or her

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00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:41.640
remains were etched into the top of
everyone's minds, especially her families. Her

329
00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:47.599
mother, Harriet Smith said to the
Birmingham Post, Harold, there's not a

330
00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:52.079
single minute when we are not thinking
about this situation. She also told the

331
00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:56.519
BPH that when her other daughter,
Margaret, got married a year after Carrie

332
00:28:56.599 --> 00:29:02.240
was abducted, she couldn't help but
look for her daughter's face and the bridesmaids

333
00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:07.400
as they walked down the aisle.
I knew better, she said, but

334
00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:11.960
these things cross your mind. That's
why this thing needs closure, because we

335
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:18.680
can't stop. We can't quit until
we know. I don't think anyone can

336
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:23.960
understand the deep sorrow and never ending
ache felt by parents who cannot lay their

337
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:30.319
children to rest, except for other
parents who have lived through this horror.

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00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:36.680
By October twenty second, nineteen ninety
one, the search for Carrie had officially

339
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:41.599
ended. The FBI was closing the
investigation, but over the years there were

340
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:48.759
additional targeted searches. In early November
of ninety one, about fifty people conducted

341
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:53.960
a shoulder to shoulder search in the
deer Lick Creek area of Tuscaloosa County.

342
00:29:55.039 --> 00:30:00.079
They wanted to ensure that Mitchell Neely
mindes were clear. Jerry knew these minds

343
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:04.000
had traveled to them before for business
and had been near there during some of

344
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:10.359
the phone calls he made while he
was holding Carrie. That is an incredible

345
00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:17.880
lead, which led to heartbreaking frustration
when searchers found nothing. Then five years

346
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:22.359
later, in nineteen ninety six,
a construction crew emptied a pool at a

347
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:27.519
different closed surface mine in Tuscaloosa County. They used an excavator to rip up

348
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:33.720
the bottom of the pool, but
searchers were again disappointed, as if Carrie's

349
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:37.920
family did not have enough to endure. In March of nineteen ninety two,

350
00:30:38.359 --> 00:30:45.200
a man named Perry Jerome Black pled
guilty in federal court for extorting Carrie's family.

351
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.279
Harry, who lived in northern Alabama, had called and sent letters to

352
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:56.319
Carrie's husband and her parents. He
claimed that he had information about where Carrie

353
00:30:56.359 --> 00:31:00.839
was, but he demanded money to
tell them that information. Harry was sentenced

354
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:06.839
to seventy months in prison and three
years of probation, so he got almost

355
00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:14.640
six years. This was only one
of several extortion attempts the Lawson and Smith

356
00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:19.400
families were forced to navigate. Details
of these other attempts were not provided in

357
00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:26.319
the papers, but Margaret, Carrie's
sister, also confirmed there were several attempts

358
00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:33.440
and that it was agonizing for her
parents. Eight months after Carrie was kidnapped,

359
00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:37.119
her husband, Earle, moved away
from Jasper. Earle said that it

360
00:31:37.160 --> 00:31:41.920
was difficult to try and live a
normal life when every person in town always

361
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:48.480
wanted to talk about Carrie's abduction.
He remarried and had three children. By

362
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:53.279
his own admission, Earle doesn't talk
about Carrie's case often, but he will

363
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:59.759
always remember how kind people were to
him and Carrie's family throughout the ordeal.

364
00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:06.480
He recalled to al dot com how
many people who didn't know Carrie, or

365
00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:10.720
the Losses or the Smiths at all
still took the time to help look for

366
00:32:10.759 --> 00:32:17.079
her. Unfortunately, there are other
people who still whisper that Earl had something

367
00:32:17.119 --> 00:32:22.279
to do with his young wife's kidnapping. They whispered it at the time,

368
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:28.640
and even more when he moved away
from Jasper and remarried. I can't imagine

369
00:32:28.759 --> 00:32:34.799
living that way. I completely understand
why he moved. It doesn't mean he

370
00:32:34.839 --> 00:32:40.039
didn't love her Like everyone else,
he believed she was dead and he needed

371
00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:45.319
to be able to get up and
go to work every day without being consumed

372
00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:49.160
by this tragedy. He had to
try and move on with his life.

373
00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:53.200
That's not a crime. He tries
not to think about it, but told

374
00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:59.880
a reporter that the continued rumors have
always hurt him. Of course it bothered

375
00:32:59.880 --> 00:33:02.880
me, he said. It still
bothers me, and it bothers me that

376
00:33:02.960 --> 00:33:08.599
my kids have to read stuff like
that. I have already mentioned some of

377
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:15.200
the comments of Carrie's sister, Margaret
Smith Cubson. Some were made to a

378
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:21.640
podcaster that show has since pod faded, not putting out any episodes since twenty

379
00:33:21.720 --> 00:33:25.960
twenty, but the host said some
concerning things on her show, including calling

380
00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:32.160
Carey's husband Earle shady mc shaterson,
which I think is very problematic. But

381
00:33:32.279 --> 00:33:37.000
to be fair, Margaret herself refused
to outright say her ex brother in law

382
00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:44.119
was not involved in Carrie's abduction.
She said no comment when asked, but

383
00:33:44.279 --> 00:33:50.880
she did allude to suspicious things about
Earl's law firm. David Smith, Carrie's

384
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:55.640
father, also hinted around about this
conspiracy, though he never outright accused the

385
00:33:55.720 --> 00:34:02.160
Lawsons or the firm Earl worked for. There has never been any proof that

386
00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:07.119
Earl Lawson had anything to do with
his wife's subduction, and I honestly think

387
00:34:07.159 --> 00:34:12.760
we need to let that particular conspiracy
theory die. I mean, really,

388
00:34:13.360 --> 00:34:17.800
what would his motive be. Margaret
said that Carrie had a life insurance policy,

389
00:34:19.280 --> 00:34:22.079
but that their father, David was
the beneficiary, and he wound up

390
00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:28.599
putting all of that money into private
investigators and other resources trying to find his

391
00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:32.880
daughter. Earl Lawson Junior came from
a rich family. He had a great

392
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:37.960
career at a prosperous law firm.
For that matter, why would his firm

393
00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:44.599
be involved in this, as has
also been hinted at. I understand the

394
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:50.000
pain of Carrie's family and their need
to cling to certain theories, but I

395
00:34:50.039 --> 00:34:53.840
think the whispers about Earl are very
unfair and hurtful, and I want to

396
00:34:53.840 --> 00:35:00.400
make sure that's clear on this show. I'm going to pause now offer a

397
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:10.760
short commercial break. I should also
briefly discuss that there's a lot of stuff

398
00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:16.559
on the internet about corruption in Walker
County and nefarious goings on. You can

399
00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:21.639
even find Reddit threads about the county, and I told you the urban myth

400
00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:27.039
about Walker County being the place to
find a hit man. Frankly, most

401
00:35:27.039 --> 00:35:30.800
of this stuff comes from the comments
section, and we all know how reliable

402
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:35.360
those can be. But Carrie's case
is mentioned a lot in these forums.

403
00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:39.320
Even though the FBI was far from
perfect in this case, it's ridiculous to

404
00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:45.800
believe they actually conspired with local authorities
to cover up the truth about Carrie's abduction.

405
00:35:46.599 --> 00:35:52.639
Everyone wanted to bring Carrie Lawson home. Her sister Margaret even went out

406
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:57.079
of her way to praise the Jasper
Police Department, even though she was rightly

407
00:35:57.159 --> 00:36:02.239
critical of the FBI. Two years
after the abduction, in September of ninety

408
00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:08.000
three, Carrie Smith Lawson was officially
declared dead. Her grave is in the

409
00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:15.199
Saint Luke's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cleveland, Tennessee. Her father was buried in

410
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:19.599
the same location when he passed away
at the age of eighty three in twenty

411
00:36:19.719 --> 00:36:24.400
seventeen. Her mother, Harriet,
passed away at the age of seventy two

412
00:36:24.440 --> 00:36:30.800
in two thousand eight. Margaret told
al dot com how not finding Carrie quote

413
00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:38.000
devastated my parents. I honestly believe
the trauma exacerbated my mother's Alzheimer's and it

414
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:45.400
certainly broke all of our hearts.
Margaret also said that her father had spent

415
00:36:45.559 --> 00:36:50.519
hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to
find Carrie. She said it was hurtful

416
00:36:50.920 --> 00:36:54.320
that her father had to worry about
money in his final years after putting almost

417
00:36:54.360 --> 00:37:00.440
everything he had into trying to find
his lost daughter. She made up clear

418
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:05.079
that he was not destitute, but
he certainly didn't enjoy the kind of retirement

419
00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:10.320
he deserved. For more than a
decade, Carrie's family hired more than seven

420
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:16.480
private investigators to look for her.
One in particular, named Woodrow Wilson's self,

421
00:37:16.760 --> 00:37:22.639
who went by Red, became very
close with the Smith family. He

422
00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:29.519
was a former Birmingham police officer and
District Attorney's Office investigator. Red continued searching

423
00:37:29.559 --> 00:37:32.679
for Carrie until the day he died
at the age of ninety one in two

424
00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:38.559
thousand and nine. Using information that
Red found, Carrie's family tried to get

425
00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:44.440
the FBI to reopen the case in
the year two thousand. They were unsuccessful

426
00:37:45.239 --> 00:37:49.159
However, in two thousand and two, a tip led the authorities to look

427
00:37:49.159 --> 00:37:55.039
near a Tuscaloosa County community called Samantha. Crews used tobacco to look for Carrie's

428
00:37:55.079 --> 00:38:02.360
remains, but still she was never
found. Although Jerry Bland is dead and

429
00:38:02.400 --> 00:38:08.039
gone, perhaps slamming shut the door
of ever finding Carrey's remains, there is

430
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:15.079
one person that family friends in the
community can focus on. Back in November

431
00:38:15.079 --> 00:38:21.079
of nineteen ninety one, thirty year
old Karen Lancaster Macpherson, Jerry's cousin,

432
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:25.320
and the fake nurse, led guilty
to first degree kidnapping. In doing so,

433
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:32.079
Karen avoided the possibility of facing the
death penalty for capital murder. Instead,

434
00:38:32.559 --> 00:38:38.559
she received life in prison with the
possibility of parole, but the presiding

435
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:44.960
judge, James C. Brotherton,
explicitly stated that he did not want Karen

436
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:51.280
to ever receive parole. He said
the court permanently objects to it. District

437
00:38:51.360 --> 00:38:58.199
Attorney Charles Baker told reporters that the
judge's statement reflected the community's feelings. Baker

438
00:38:58.280 --> 00:39:02.519
basically said that when j Mary died, everyone redirected their anger at Karen.

439
00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:09.880
Karen's family would later say this was
unfair. Karen was not the mastermind of

440
00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:16.159
the kidnapping plot. Jerry was.
Karen's defense attorney stated that nobody questions she

441
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:22.199
didn't want to harm anybody, but
Carrie's family believed and still believes, that

442
00:39:22.280 --> 00:39:30.199
Karen should take responsibility for her actions. Karen spent hours with Carrie without Jerry.

443
00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:35.760
What was stopping her from helping carry
escape? If Karen was truly blackmailed

444
00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:39.280
into kidnapping Carrie, as her family
has suggested, she could have gone to

445
00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:44.480
the authorities after Jerry let her leave
and he took back control of Carrie.

446
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:50.480
Instead, Karen took whatever her cut
of the ransom money was and she kept

447
00:39:50.599 --> 00:39:55.039
quiet. This amount was not disclosed, but based on quick math, it

448
00:39:55.119 --> 00:40:00.079
was likely around forty thousand dollars.
I'm just thinking that Jerry had about two

449
00:40:00.119 --> 00:40:06.000
hundred and sixty thousand accounted for in
his home, truck and what we know

450
00:40:06.239 --> 00:40:12.000
he had already spent, but this
is just a guess. Within a year

451
00:40:12.079 --> 00:40:15.800
after Carrie's abduction, her family made
a legal agreement with Karen. If she

452
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:22.119
would provide one hundred percent of the
information she knew about Carrie, the Smiths

453
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:27.280
and the Lawsons would not oppose her
parole after she served ten years in prison.

454
00:40:28.440 --> 00:40:32.280
Her the agreement, Karen had to
take a polygraph test, undergo hypnosis,

455
00:40:32.679 --> 00:40:37.840
and be analyzed by a voice expert
to determine if she was lying.

456
00:40:38.039 --> 00:40:43.039
Karen agreed and met with Carrie's father, David, to tell him all she

457
00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:49.239
knew. David Smith expressed to al
dot com how difficult the four and a

458
00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:52.639
half hour long meeting was for him. He said, I had to just

459
00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:57.280
sit there and listen to her.
I couldn't grab her and choke her or

460
00:40:57.320 --> 00:41:02.000
anything like that. Ultimately, this
was all for naught. A voice analyst

461
00:41:02.280 --> 00:41:07.480
listened to an audio of the meeting
and believed Karen was lying. That same

462
00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:13.920
night, Karen's lawyers called the Smiths
and lawsons she wanted to recant everything Karen

463
00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:21.480
had said. Nothing she told David
was true. Since Karen's initial incarceration in

464
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:24.719
nineteen ninety one, she has tried
to withdraw her guilty plea and seek a

465
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:30.599
retrial. She has been denied.
Karen has sought parole four times. She

466
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:37.239
has been denied all four times.
One or more members of Carrie's family have

467
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:42.920
been present at every parole hearing.
As of twenty sixteen, Earl Lawson Junior

468
00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:45.639
has not yet attended any of the
hearings, but he did write letters to

469
00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:51.920
the court opposing Karen's release. Earl
said to AL dot com she could have

470
00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:54.679
released her. She could have done
a million different things, and she chose

471
00:41:54.760 --> 00:42:00.000
not to. I don't know how
a human being does that. Today.

472
00:42:00.519 --> 00:42:05.920
Karen is about sixty three years old. She continues to serve her life sentence

473
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:10.440
in a Birmingham prison her the Alabama
Department of Corrections. She has served almost

474
00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:15.320
thirty three years so far. Her
last bid for parole was denied in twenty

475
00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:21.599
twenty two, and her next parole
hearing is March first of twenty twenty seven.

476
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:27.679
In twenty sixteen, her brother,
Frank Lancaster told AL dot com,

477
00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:31.159
I don't disagree that my sister deserved
to be punished. Twenty five years of

478
00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:36.199
her life are gone. The man
who killed Carrie himself is dead. My

479
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:39.079
sister had a minor role in this. I know my sister, and if

480
00:42:39.079 --> 00:42:44.119
she had any inclination that there was
going to be harmed unto Carrie, she

481
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:47.639
wouldn't have done this. He went
on, what more can she give?

482
00:42:49.199 --> 00:42:52.079
They've had their eye for an eye, their pound of flesh. This is

483
00:42:52.159 --> 00:42:59.480
no longer about justice, It's about
vengeance. I have to admit that's a

484
00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:07.039
powerful argument. I couldn't find any
petitions opposing Karen's release online, or for

485
00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:12.159
that matter, supporting her release.
But I'm sure if you wanted to set

486
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:15.159
a reminder to write a letter to
the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles,

487
00:43:15.639 --> 00:43:22.599
Carrie or Karen's family would appreciate it
if that's how you feel. I feel

488
00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:28.880
conflicted about Karen. She certainly deserved
prison time for her actions. If you

489
00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:32.639
are involved in a felony conspiracy,
you are charged with murder right along with

490
00:43:32.760 --> 00:43:37.920
the actual killer. So it's not
like her sentence is all that unusual.

491
00:43:37.639 --> 00:43:43.840
Margaret, who is a lawyer herself, points that out. The difference here

492
00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:51.960
is parole. Everyone but Karen's family
opposes her release beyond her own actions,

493
00:43:52.199 --> 00:43:57.360
which are indeed very murky. Lying
to a grieving father's face is cold blooded.

494
00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.679
I can see why Carrie's family wants
to just throw away the key.

495
00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:07.000
I would too if this was my
sister. But after thirty three years,

496
00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:10.760
I really believe that if Karen did
know where Carrie's body was, she would

497
00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:15.840
have told the truth by now,
she's already in prison for life and can't

498
00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:20.760
be tried for capital murder because of
her plea deal. Maybe she was more

499
00:44:20.800 --> 00:44:24.559
complicit in Carrie's murder and just can't
admit it to herself or anyone else,

500
00:44:25.840 --> 00:44:30.800
and we only have her word and
the note of a dead murderer to pen

501
00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:36.400
her innocence on. I also can't
help but put it in perspective with the

502
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:40.639
last case I covered, the murder
of Charlotte Childs. That killer admitted to

503
00:44:40.760 --> 00:44:45.639
viciously beating his ex girlfriend to death, and after twenty seven years, he

504
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:51.840
is a free man. I hated
that deal, even though I understood and

505
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:58.320
respected the family's decision. If Karen
McPherson had told the truth and tried to

506
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:01.719
bring Carrie home so her family could
lay her to rest, she also would

507
00:45:01.719 --> 00:45:07.400
be walking free today. She would
have left prison at forty years old with

508
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:12.719
plenty of life left to live ahead
of her. That was Carrie's family's decision,

509
00:45:13.960 --> 00:45:17.239
But Karen lied and recanted. She
had her chance to do the right

510
00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:22.320
thing, so we can never know
what really happened. If Karen does know

511
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:27.639
anything about what happened to Carrie,
she's obviously taken it to her grave.

512
00:45:29.800 --> 00:45:40.079
I'm going to pause now for a
final commercial break. Many, including some

513
00:45:40.119 --> 00:45:45.679
of Carrie's close family, believe that
Carrie's remains are buried in a coal mine

514
00:45:45.719 --> 00:45:51.199
somewhere. Some also believe that there
were more people involved in the kidnapping than

515
00:45:51.320 --> 00:45:55.800
just Jerry and Karen. Why did
Jerry refer to they when talking about who

516
00:45:55.840 --> 00:46:00.800
was holding Carrie? Why did he
write about two un known men and his

517
00:46:00.880 --> 00:46:06.920
suicide note? In nineteen ninety two, Carrie's father David told the Birmingham Post

518
00:46:06.920 --> 00:46:10.440
Harold, there's more people involved.
There's some stuff I can't talk about now,

519
00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:15.679
but one day it's going to come
out. However, to date,

520
00:46:15.360 --> 00:46:21.400
nothing has ever come out, and
any rumors of additional suspects have not been

521
00:46:21.519 --> 00:46:25.920
verified by authorities. In short,
based on the evidence available to the public,

522
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:31.400
it appears that only Jerry and Karen
were at fault. Maybe the Smith

523
00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:37.360
family or their private investigators know something
we don't. I just feel like something

524
00:46:37.360 --> 00:46:43.840
would have come out by now.
And I know Ogham's razor is a trope,

525
00:46:44.199 --> 00:46:49.719
but it is a useful one.
The simplest explanation is that Jerry Bland

526
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:53.679
needed money. He was born and
raised in Jasper and knew the prominent loss

527
00:46:53.679 --> 00:46:59.400
and family had money. He had
also worked in coal min's his entire adult

528
00:46:59.440 --> 00:47:04.800
life. He knew where stripmans were
all over Walker County and surrounding areas.

529
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:08.000
I bet a guy like that knew
a lot of places to hide a body,

530
00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:15.159
and maybe he never meant for Carrie
to die. Frankly, everything about

531
00:47:15.159 --> 00:47:20.559
the ransom that could go wrong did
go wrong. It wasn't an easy one

532
00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:23.800
night deal like he had planned.
He spent time with her, having to

533
00:47:23.840 --> 00:47:29.280
take her to paythones and hold her
until he got the money and she had

534
00:47:29.320 --> 00:47:34.320
seen his face. We don't know
everything that was in his suicide note,

535
00:47:34.719 --> 00:47:37.679
except that it would seem he didn't
want Karen blamed, and if anything,

536
00:47:38.360 --> 00:47:43.840
I believe shame was a big factor
for the rest of it. It was

537
00:47:43.960 --> 00:47:47.639
easier to blame it on random drug
dealers than admit to what he did to

538
00:47:47.719 --> 00:47:53.719
carry I think that's why he didn't
tell where he hid her body. I

539
00:47:53.760 --> 00:48:00.039
think if police released the entire contents
of Bland's suicide note, the pub the

540
00:48:00.039 --> 00:48:05.440
book might be able to see the
ramblings of an ashamed guilty man. Or

541
00:48:05.480 --> 00:48:09.159
maybe they could decide for themselves if
any of the rumors are true at this

542
00:48:09.320 --> 00:48:15.199
point, why hold it back?
If anything, Things like this are why

543
00:48:15.239 --> 00:48:21.039
folks whisper about corruption in Walker County. There's a lack of transparency here that

544
00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:28.480
fuels the ongoing suspicions that Margaret and
others still have. That is my theory

545
00:48:28.519 --> 00:48:32.440
that I mentioned about the possibility of
a third party or more being involved in

546
00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:37.039
Carrie's abduction and getting away with it. I don't believe there is a third

547
00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:43.159
party. I think the third party
here is the guilt and shame of Jerry

548
00:48:43.199 --> 00:48:50.360
Bland and so now, regardless of
any conspiracy theories, the actual search for

549
00:48:50.440 --> 00:48:54.679
Carrie continues. If you have any
information that could lead to Carry's whereabouts,

550
00:48:55.039 --> 00:49:02.480
contact the Birmingham FBI office or head
to to do FBI dot gov. As

551
00:49:02.519 --> 00:49:08.000
of twenty sixteen, Carrie's family continued
to offer a one hundred thousand dollars reward

552
00:49:08.320 --> 00:49:15.000
for any information leading to Carrie.
I'm not sure if the reward is still

553
00:49:15.079 --> 00:49:19.880
active in twenty twenty four, but
reward or not, if you know something,

554
00:49:20.239 --> 00:49:24.519
say something, do the right thing. People in this case refused to

555
00:49:24.599 --> 00:49:30.360
do the right thing and a family
suffered greatly for it. Carrie's Alma mater

556
00:49:30.719 --> 00:49:36.840
Cleveland High School has a Carrie Smith
Lawson Scholarship Fund. The members of her

557
00:49:36.920 --> 00:49:42.400
nineteen eighty four graduating class put this
together to award a female senior two thousand

558
00:49:42.480 --> 00:49:47.480
dollars. The winner of this scholarship
must demonstrate the same positive traits that Carrie

559
00:49:47.480 --> 00:49:57.119
embodied sterling character, a determination to
excel, and a caring disposition. It's

560
00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:01.320
been thirty three years. Carrie's parents
grieved for her for the rest of their

561
00:50:01.360 --> 00:50:07.039
lives. Her sister, Margaret,
continues to miss Carrie every day, but

562
00:50:07.119 --> 00:50:10.079
she does stress that life must go
on. She must continue to get out

563
00:50:10.079 --> 00:50:14.679
of bed every day and try to
put carry out of her mind as she

564
00:50:14.719 --> 00:50:19.400
takes care of her children and goes
to work and church and just lives her

565
00:50:19.440 --> 00:50:24.280
life. She has to, she
told al dot Com in twenty sixteen.

566
00:50:25.280 --> 00:50:30.639
What has been taken from me personally
is immeasurable. I have four sisters in

567
00:50:30.719 --> 00:50:35.960
law, and I'm close with them, but missing a sister is so difficult.

568
00:50:36.599 --> 00:50:39.639
That is the only person who shares
your story. You lose your future

569
00:50:40.199 --> 00:50:46.119
and also your connection to the past. It was difficult for me to even

570
00:50:46.159 --> 00:50:51.519
read that quote. I have a
sister, She's my only sibling. I

571
00:50:51.559 --> 00:50:55.960
cannot even imagine Margaret's grief. I
have a lot of admiration for Margaret.

572
00:50:57.320 --> 00:51:00.519
It's hard to get up every day
and go on with your life after such

573
00:51:00.519 --> 00:51:06.000
a tragedy, especially one with no
real closure. But she is strong and

574
00:51:06.079 --> 00:51:10.000
I love how she chooses to remember
her sister as just a regular human being.

575
00:51:10.760 --> 00:51:15.599
She said, her legacy is kindness
and how you make an impact on

576
00:51:15.679 --> 00:51:22.320
people just by being thoughtful. She
wasn't a spectacular student, she wasn't a

577
00:51:22.360 --> 00:51:27.400
beauty queen. She wasn't someone who
leaves their mark by being famous. But

578
00:51:27.559 --> 00:51:31.039
everyone that knew her felt like they
were loved by her, and that was

579
00:51:31.079 --> 00:51:43.000
extraordinary. Southern Fried True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly.

580
00:51:43.280 --> 00:51:47.159
Today's episode was researched by me and
Andrea Marshbank. As usual, any editorial

581
00:51:47.199 --> 00:51:52.360
comments and opinions are my own.
Southern Frid's original music is by Rob Harrison

582
00:51:52.360 --> 00:51:55.360
of Gamma Radio and the original graphic
artist by Holy Horner. Today's episode was

583
00:51:55.480 --> 00:52:00.840
edited and mixed by Brandon scheck Schneider
of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. Thank

584
00:52:00.880 --> 00:52:05.960
you to listeners. Nocturnal Druid Reagan
Williams and Amanda for suggesting Carrie's case.

585
00:52:06.440 --> 00:52:10.239
I honestly was surprised it isn't more
famous. Carrie's story needed to be told.

586
00:52:10.639 --> 00:52:15.639
If you have any suggestions, please
go to my website, Southernfred Truecrime

587
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:22.079
dot com and click on the listener's
suggestion tab or email SFTC Research at gmail

588
00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:24.639
dot com. This is the best
way for me to get those little known

589
00:52:24.679 --> 00:52:30.079
cases. Y'all always send me.
Please remember that I do not accept suggestions

590
00:52:30.079 --> 00:52:34.440
on social media private messages, but
please come join our Facebook group, Southern

591
00:52:34.440 --> 00:52:37.159
Fred Truecrime Fans Discussion Group, where
we swap recipes, worship Dolly Parton,

592
00:52:37.559 --> 00:52:40.719
and share memes. We do,
of course discuss true crime, not just

593
00:52:40.760 --> 00:52:45.159
Southern Fried, but all kinds,
but it is still very much a Southern

594
00:52:45.239 --> 00:52:47.440
lifestyle group. Our group is a
saving fond corner of Facebook, and by

595
00:52:47.480 --> 00:52:50.880
God, we mean it when we
say no shout as is allowed. It's

596
00:52:50.920 --> 00:52:52.760
not just a motto, it's how
we run the group. If you enjoyed

597
00:52:52.760 --> 00:52:57.760
today's show, don't forget to subscribe
and please tell a friend or rate and

598
00:52:57.840 --> 00:53:01.280
review. I'm on all large platforms
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599
00:53:01.320 --> 00:53:08.159
Audible and YouTube until next time.
Thanks so much for listening. You'll take care