The Disappearance & Murder of Emily Anderson

WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.399 --> 00:00:05.799
Southern fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

2
00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:14.519
there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. The

3
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:18.640
morning of December twenty ninth, two
thousand and five was gearing up to be

4
00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:24.399
a beautiful day in the small rural
town of Sawmills, North Carolina. When

5
00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:28.120
forty nine year old Emily Anderson got
out of bed at six point thirty that

6
00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:32.560
morning, it was about forty six
degrees out. It was chilly, but

7
00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:37.719
no rain or snow. Not that
snow is common in this area, nestled

8
00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:41.960
in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but it would have been the rainier

9
00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:47.079
part of winter on that day.
Snowfall is not common in Sawmills, but

10
00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:52.039
you may see a few light snowfalls
there each season. As a dairy farmer,

11
00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:57.079
Emily would normally be grateful for such
clear weather anyway, but as it

12
00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:00.560
was, it was shaping up to
be a nice day for running errands,

13
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:04.400
which is what she had planned.
She put on a cozy, old navy

14
00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:08.920
sweatshirt as she got ready to head
out that morning. It was supposed to

15
00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:12.480
get up to near sixty degrees later. There was no need for a jacket.

16
00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:19.000
That morning, Emily probably tossed back
some coffee fast because she was out

17
00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.920
of the house early to do list
ready. She was doing the normal errands

18
00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:29.040
and tasks necessary to run the dairy
farm she owned with her husband, Jerry.

19
00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:32.920
The only thing different about that day
was a dinner party she and Jerry

20
00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:38.120
were attending that evening friends of theirs
were hosting, and Emily was looking forward

21
00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.959
to it. She knew her husband
was chronically late, so she made a

22
00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:47.239
point of reminding him to be on
time. That was early in the day

23
00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:52.920
when she touched base with him briefly
at the farm. The plan was she

24
00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:57.040
would meet him at the dinner party
later, and when Jerry arrived at the

25
00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.200
dinner party that evening, he was
on time. In fact, he was

26
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:07.239
thirty minutes early, but Emily wasn't
there. Jerry called her to see where

27
00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:12.240
she was. Her errands shouldn't have
taken that long, but Emily didn't pick

28
00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:17.800
up. A Few hours later,
Jerry contacted the Caldwell County Sheriff's Department to

29
00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:25.639
report his wife missing. Welcome to
episode two twenty one, The Disappearance and

30
00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:35.319
Murder of Emily Anderson, Part one, Emily Young Griffith was born on July

31
00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:39.039
eighth, nineteen fifty six, in
Lexington, Kentucky, to doctor and missus

32
00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:45.479
Joseph R. Griffith. Her mother, Amanda, had been a Waterson before

33
00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:51.240
she married Emily's father. Doctor Griffith, was a World War Two veteran.

34
00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:55.560
According to government documents, he worked
for the military as a physician, and

35
00:02:55.639 --> 00:03:01.120
at one point, doctor Griffith was
a prisoner of war, but thankfully he

36
00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:06.039
made it back home in the spring
of nineteen forty five, which is when

37
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:09.520
he and Amanda married and soon began
a family. They had three kids.

38
00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:15.520
Emily was the middle child. She
had one older brother named Mike and one

39
00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:20.159
younger sister named Dee. They all
grew up in Kentucky, just like their

40
00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:24.400
parents before them. Although Emily was
born in Lexington, she spent most of

41
00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:30.439
childhood one hundred miles south in adare
County, Kentucky. The Griffiths moved to

42
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:37.479
Dareck County when doctor Griffith began working
at the local health department. The Griffiths

43
00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:42.360
lived in a historic two story brick
house in Columbia. Doctor Griffith was a

44
00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.960
beloved physician from the health department and
the whole family were strong Adair Countians with

45
00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:53.319
so many friends. Judge Anne Melton
was friends with both Griffith's sisters and became

46
00:03:53.400 --> 00:03:58.639
blood sisters, with the girls breaking
their fingers and touching them together. De

47
00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:02.800
said we were blood sisters for after
that, she said. The oldest Mike

48
00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:08.759
Griffith, was a prankster but excellent
student who grew up to be a veterinarian

49
00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:14.240
an animal lover like his sister,
d short for Adelia, became a second

50
00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:19.160
grade school teacher. The Griffiths seemed
to have lived a charmed life. In

51
00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:25.360
the nineteen seventies, Emily attended Adair
County High School. She was briefly on

52
00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:29.560
the drill team, but her friends
and classmates remembered her more for her sense

53
00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:34.959
of humor, quick smile, and
infectious laugh. Even after Emily graduated from

54
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:40.360
high school in nineteen seventy four,
her laughter would continue to be one of

55
00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:45.240
her most defining traits. In the
nineteen eighties, she lived in Corbin,

56
00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:50.079
Kentucky. There she met a woman
who had become a lifelong friend. Her

57
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:56.800
name was Patricia Thorpe. Emily and
pat worked together at an Optometrius office.

58
00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.199
Pat told the Hickory Daily Record.
The best time when she was in the

59
00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:03.920
car with me and my daughter,
and I would deliberately get them both tickled,

60
00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.000
and then you'd have two snorters in
the car. The more they snorted,

61
00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:12.839
the more they laughed. It was
hilarious. More than once I've had

62
00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:15.000
to pull off the road because I
would be laughing so hard at the two

63
00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:20.240
of them, I couldn't drive.
Emily also had a fantastic singing voice.

64
00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:26.319
Pat said Emily would call her every
year on her birthday. When she picked

65
00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.439
up the phone, Emily would sing
Happy Birthday to her sweet friend. Emily,

66
00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.079
who was a pretty devout Christian,
also sang in her church's choir,

67
00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:41.759
and she also taught Sunday School and
vacation Bible School. Those who knew Emily

68
00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:46.360
said she was a loving woman.
She cared deeply for her friends and family.

69
00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:50.439
She is described as witty and warm. In her obituary. She was

70
00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:56.560
known as Annie em to her six
nieces and nephews and four great nieces and

71
00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:01.879
nephews. I love that like Annie
em from the Wizard of Oz. Emily

72
00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:08.160
was also loved by her friends as
such a caring and compassionate woman. She

73
00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:12.000
was the kind of friend who would
draw hours to attend the funeral of the

74
00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:16.399
parent of one of her friends.
She had lost her own parents just a

75
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:21.079
year apart from each other when she
was twenty three. That's still so young.

76
00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:28.360
I am positive that colored her beautiful
empathy for the rest of her life.

77
00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:31.519
Another friend said of Emily, she
loved everyone for what she saw in

78
00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:35.319
them and made us feel as if
she was honored to be in our presence.

79
00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:41.879
Emily was also a member of the
American Red Cross. She donated blood

80
00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:46.240
regularly, and she helped clean up
the damage in the wake of the nineteen

81
00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:50.920
ninety seven tornado that ripped through Caine
Valley, Kentucky. Emily brought breakfast for

82
00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:58.600
the other volunteers. Pat described Emily
as a trusting soul who never saw the

83
00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:02.279
bad in anyone. But Emily wasn't
just kind of people. She had a

84
00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:08.399
big soft spot for animals too.
It was fairly common for Emily to take

85
00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:13.439
in strays, and she was a
huge fan of the beach. She loved

86
00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:17.560
to just sit and watch the water. She found the waves soothing. Emily

87
00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.040
married for the first time in July
of nineteen seventy three, when she was

88
00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:27.319
only seventeen years old he was nineteen, but the couple didn't last long,

89
00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:31.120
and Emily remarried in August of nineteen
seventy nine, when she was twenty three,

90
00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.639
about the time when she lost her
parents. This husband was about six

91
00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:43.959
years older than her. Emily seemed
to falter in the relationship and marriage department.

92
00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:48.480
It happens some people are just unlucky
in love, but she kept on

93
00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:54.879
trying. According to her attorney,
Emily was married two more times before she

94
00:07:54.920 --> 00:08:01.040
met Jerry Anderson, her final husband, in the late nineteen nineties. Jerry

95
00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:05.319
Lee Anderson was born in nineteen sixty. Like Emily, Jerry was also from

96
00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:11.240
Kentucky. We don't know much about
his childhood, but he was a dairy

97
00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:16.439
farmer when he and Emily met.
Around nineteen ninety six, Jerry moved to

98
00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:22.199
North Carolina. He managed a growing
dairy farm there with approximately five hundred heads

99
00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:26.959
of cattle. The dairy farm,
which was called Carolina Holstein's, was located

100
00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:33.440
in Sawmills, North Carolina. Jerry
was described by some who knew him as

101
00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.159
talkative, nice and kind, but
others said he wasn't overly friendly. I

102
00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.799
get the feeling that Jerry didn't express
a lot of emotion. He was described

103
00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:48.320
more as hard working and driven.
Some said work was his life, so

104
00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.200
a serious man. Before Emily,
Jerry had been married two other times.

105
00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:58.120
He had a son with his first
wife, named Matt, born in nineteen

106
00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:03.360
ninety three. Around the year two
thousand, Jerry and Emily got married.

107
00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:09.799
Jerry was forty and Emily was forty
four. We don't know much about their

108
00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:13.799
private life, whether it was always
the plan or not, but they never

109
00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:18.759
had children together, though Matt did
live with them some Over the years.

110
00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:24.039
With the help of some fellow investors, Jerry was able to purchase the Carolina

111
00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:31.799
Holstein's dairy farm. Now he was
the owner and operator, and after Emily

112
00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:37.759
married Jerry, she also had a
wide range of responsibilities. But she was

113
00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:43.399
especially good at handling the young calves. Diyke's wilson, whose family previously owned

114
00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:48.799
Carolina Holstein's, told the Charlotte Observer
she get out there and wrestle them cows

115
00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:54.080
and give them shots. Over the
course of about five years, Jerry and

116
00:09:54.120 --> 00:10:00.799
Emily became very involved in the local
sawmills community. They were both div Christians

117
00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:07.720
who attended draw Pins Baptist Church regularly, and they would assist in church events

118
00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:13.799
like ice cream socials. In a
small town like this, where everyone knew

119
00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:18.440
everybody, the townspeople were aware of
who Emily and Jerry were, even if

120
00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:22.679
they didn't know them personally. But
although Emily and Jerry were newer to the

121
00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.960
area than some locals, they were
still fairly well known and had made many

122
00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:31.519
friends. They made a point to
socialize in their community, and they were

123
00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:37.360
well liked. That's why when Emily
went missing, the town of Sawmills was

124
00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:43.840
shocked and rallied to try and help
find her. I'm going to pause now

125
00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:52.759
for a short commercial break. On
Wednesday, December twenty eighth, two thousand

126
00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:56.679
and five, Emily got her hair
done. She told her stylist she wanted

127
00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:01.639
colored freshly before dinner parties. She
and Jerry you were going to the next

128
00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:05.600
evening on Thursday. So on Wednesday
Emily had her roots touched up with some

129
00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:11.240
blonde highlights. Then on that Thursday, Emily's day began like any other.

130
00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:16.799
As I said in the beginning,
By six thirty am, she was up

131
00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:20.960
and ready to run errands, as
I'm sure you'd guess, like any farmer.

132
00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:24.600
Jerry was up before the sun and
ready to hit the farm by six

133
00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.559
point thirty himself. First, she
stopped by the grocery store for a couple

134
00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:33.240
items, and the clerk noticed that
Emily's hair was different, lighter, and

135
00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:39.240
also that Emily was more dressed up
than usual. Instead of her usual farm

136
00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:43.720
work clothes, she was wearing khakis, brown loafers and had tucked in her

137
00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:48.440
shirt. When the grocer asked her
why she looked so nice, Emily replied

138
00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:54.240
that she was just running errands that
day. By seven am, she had

139
00:11:54.279 --> 00:12:00.240
purchased a new pair of work gloves
from Sawmills Hardware. It was owned by

140
00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:03.200
Tim and Jenny Wilson, the couple
who were having the dinner party that evening.

141
00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:09.159
After chatting with Tim, Emily headed
out to the farm to drop off

142
00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.720
the gloves. While there, she
also spoke to Jerry. She made a

143
00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:18.639
point of fussing at Jerry to be
on time for the dinner party. After

144
00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:22.200
that, she traveled about eight miles
to Lenora, North Carolina. She got

145
00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:28.360
there at about eight fifteen am and
paid a bill at Martin Marrietta Materials.

146
00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:31.879
Then she was supposed to go to
Sam's Club in the nearby town of Hickory,

147
00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:37.799
but that's where her trail ends.
We know she never made it to

148
00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:43.320
Sam's club. By six o'clock that
evening, Jerry was at Tim and Jenny's

149
00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.279
house for the dinner party. He
had made sure he was there before six,

150
00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:52.399
since Emily had specifically warned him about
being late. He was on time,

151
00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:56.279
but Emily wasn't there, which was
strange, if not alarming. Yet.

152
00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:01.679
He called his wife's cell phone to
see what was going on, but

153
00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.759
she didn't pick up, so he
finished dinner with their friends and then he

154
00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:09.120
went home. Jenny Wilson also tried
calling Emily and left her a couple of

155
00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:16.120
messages. Now it was becoming alarming
because Emily was known to live by her

156
00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:20.600
phone. You got to remember this
was two thousand and five, and while

157
00:13:20.639 --> 00:13:24.440
people had cell phones, they weren't
the many computers we are obsessed with today.

158
00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:30.639
The first iPhone was released in two
thousand and seven. Not everyone used

159
00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:35.399
a cell phone regularly, but Emily
had her clip to her belt. You

160
00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:39.720
also got to remember she didn't just
need it for work. Her family lived

161
00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.159
in Kentucky, her best friend lived
in New Jersey, and she liked to

162
00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:48.840
talk to the people she loved often, so she was a dedicated phone chatter.

163
00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.039
By eight pm, Jerry still had
not heard from his wife, so

164
00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:58.759
he drove about eight minutes to the
nearest police station in Granite Falls. He

165
00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:03.000
asked if his wife had been reported
in an accident. He worried he needed

166
00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.000
to file a missing person's report.
The communications employee he first talked to said

167
00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:13.279
he was calm and didn't seem too
concerned. At just before ten pm,

168
00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:18.559
a Caldwell County Sheriff's deputy arrived at
Jerry's home. That's when forty nine year

169
00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:26.200
old Emily Griffith Anderson was officially reported
missing. Search for Emily began immediately.

170
00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:31.440
A bolo was issued for her truck, her description passed out, and the

171
00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:35.840
tough phone calls to friends and family
were made. She drove a white two

172
00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:39.919
thousand Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. She
had been driving it when she vanished,

173
00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.720
and it was nowhere to be found. Local authorities used helicopters to try to

174
00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:50.480
find her truck. The Dry Ponds
Baptist Church passed out more than twelve hundred

175
00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:54.320
flyers with Emily's photo on them.
They held prayer services dedicated to her safe

176
00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:00.600
return, and their church letter board
read please pray for Emily Anderson and her

177
00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:09.879
family. Emily's disappearance left Sawmills Residence
scared and confused. Reverendret Cross from Emily's

178
00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.799
church told the Charlotte Observer. I
am as mystified as anyone else. That

179
00:15:13.879 --> 00:15:20.279
doesn't happen in this area, this
small community we have, everybody trusts everybody.

180
00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.200
It's been an eye opener to people
here that this could happen here.

181
00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:30.320
But then most small town folks will
tell you that Sawmills is six point three

182
00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:35.120
square miles with a commanding view of
the Appalachian Mountains. Incorporated in nineteen eighty

183
00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:39.080
eight, it's called the biggest little
town in the Foothills, with around five

184
00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:46.399
thousand residents. The Town of Sawmills
website touts it as having safer streets as

185
00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:50.639
a bedroom community to the big cities
around it, but actually the crime rate

186
00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:56.960
is fifteen percent higher than the national
average. It has its good areas and

187
00:15:56.039 --> 00:16:00.919
it's not so good areas. I'm
not trying to crap on Sawmills, but

188
00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:04.519
just wanted to give you a fair
look. Anyway. Despite the best efforts

189
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:07.960
of those who looked for Emily,
no one had a clue where she was.

190
00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:11.720
No one knew if she had left
of her own volition, or if

191
00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:18.000
something worse had happened. For nearly
ten days, Emily's case grew colder and

192
00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:22.279
colder. Then, at twelve thirty
pm on Saturday, January seventh, two

193
00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:26.600
thousand and six, an unknown man
called a waffle house in Duncan, South

194
00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:33.480
Carolina. The anonymous caller said that
the white pickup truck in the parking lot

195
00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:37.559
of a hotel behind waffle house was
connected to a North Carolina missing Parsons case.

196
00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:42.759
The caller said that someone should check
it out, So a Duncan police

197
00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:48.639
officer arrived at the waffle house just
off Interstate eighty five and ran the truck's

198
00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:53.840
tags and realized that Caldwell County was
looking for this exact vehicle. It was

199
00:16:53.879 --> 00:17:00.480
Emily's truck. Initially, this discovery
led to more questions than it answers.

200
00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.880
The Duncan waffle house and the quality
and parking lot her truck was found in

201
00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:08.519
were more than one hundred miles away
from where Emily was last seen. It

202
00:17:08.599 --> 00:17:15.640
wasn't even the same state. Caldwell
County authorities decided to tow Emily's truck back

203
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:21.160
to North Carolina. There they searched
the vehicle. When they pried opened the

204
00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:26.880
toolbox compartment in the truck bed,
they found Emily. Her body was stuffed

205
00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:30.000
face down in the toolbox in her
own truck bed. It was clear that

206
00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:37.519
Emily had been shot to death.
Emily Griffith Anderson's funeral was four days later

207
00:17:37.640 --> 00:17:41.440
at four pm on Wednesday, January
eleventh, two thousand and six. Her

208
00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:48.119
service was held at the Dry Ponds
Baptist Church. Grissom Funeral Home held a

209
00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.359
memorial service the next day, Thursday, at three pm, at the Cane

210
00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:57.319
Valley Christian Church in Columbia, Kentucky, back in Emily's home state, in

211
00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:02.480
lieu of flowers, her family asked
for donations to be sent to the Red

212
00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:07.119
Cross or Humane Society. A private
burial ceremony for the family was held not

213
00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:14.279
long after. Emily's obituary noted that
she was survived by her husband, Jerry

214
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:18.559
steps On Matt as well as her
older brother, doctor Mike Griffith, and

215
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:23.279
younger sister d Watson. Her six
nieces and nephews were also named, as

216
00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:29.640
well as her four great nieces and
nephews. Her headstone reflects her special family

217
00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:37.480
relationship as beloved aunt. It reads
Annie m Emily Young Griffith without her married

218
00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:45.559
name. The epitaph below cherishes Emily's
memorable laughter. It reads take time to

219
00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.440
laugh. It is the music of
the soul. She was buried in the

220
00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:56.200
Cane Valley Cemetery in Kine Valley,
Kentucky. I'm going to pause nowitar a

221
00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:06.119
word from our sponsors. Unexpected expenses
can really throw off your budget. Worrying

222
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.960
about it doesn't help. Earn In
does earn In relief stress or gives you

223
00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.920
that extra boost by providing up to
one hundred dollars a day of your paycheck

224
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.920
within minutes of earning it, no
mandatory fees and no credit check. I

225
00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.559
know from experience it's always those last
minute expenses that throw us off, like

226
00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:27.440
unexpected trips to the vet. Earn
In makes these hard moments much less upsetting.

227
00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:32.599
You can focus on your pet instead
of worrying about money. Earn In

228
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:37.920
is the app that's helping millions of
Americans feel self sufficient without falling into debt

229
00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:42.559
traps. Download earn in today spelled
EA r n i in in the Google

230
00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:47.640
Play or Apple App Store. When
you download the earn in app, type

231
00:19:47.640 --> 00:19:51.359
in Southern Fried under podcast. When
you sign up, it'll really help the

232
00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:56.200
show. Southern Fried Under Podcast subject
to your available earning's location, daily MAXIMPAYPERIODMAXI

233
00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:00.160
earn in dot com slash dos for
details. Earn in a the financial technology

234
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.119
company, not a bank. Bank
products are issued by Evolve, being contrast

235
00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:08.839
member FDIC. Packing for a trip
is always so stressful for me. Beyond

236
00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:12.680
choosing what I need, I have
clothes that no longer fit or just don't

237
00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:17.480
match. But finding Quint's has been
a game changer. It's now my go

238
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:22.279
to for high quality vacation essentials.
Quint's has made packing fun again. I

239
00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:26.400
like to update my wardrobe with timeless, chic pieces that also don't break the

240
00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:30.759
bank. That's why I love Quints. They have gems like premium European linen

241
00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:34.880
dresses, blouses and shorts from thirty
dollars, washable silk tops, timeless fourteen

242
00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:38.680
carat gold jewelry, and so much
more. The best part, all Quint's

243
00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:44.640
items are priced fifty to eighty percent
less than similar brands. Quin's partners directly

244
00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:48.119
with top factories, cutting out the
middleman and passes the savings onto us.

245
00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:52.839
Nothing says chic like white linen so
I am in love with the gorgeous little

246
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.079
European white swing dress I found.
It's timeless and can be dressed up or

247
00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:02.880
down. Perfect for my vacation.
Pack your bags with high quality essentials from

248
00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:07.680
Quints. Go to quints dot com
slash sftc for free shipping and three hundred

249
00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:12.319
and sixty five day returns. That's
q u i nce dot com slash sftc

250
00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:18.319
to get free shipping and three hundred
and sixty five day returns. Breaking a

251
00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:22.880
bad habit is the worst, especially
the hand to mouthkind. But that's what's

252
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:26.839
great about Fume. It's not about
giving up, It's about switching up.

253
00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:30.359
Fume is an innovative award winning a
flavored air device that's all about helping you

254
00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:36.519
switch up. Instead of vapor,
fumeuses flavored air instead of electronics. Fume

255
00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:41.160
is completely natural and instead of harmful
chemicals, Fume uses delicious flavors. The

256
00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:45.720
cores are infused with essential oils.
Think of it like this. If vaping

257
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:49.839
is like a sticky soda, fume
is like a refreshing herbal tea. My

258
00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:55.920
new favorite flavors are sparkling grapefruit and
raspberry lemon. The design is sleek,

259
00:21:55.960 --> 00:22:00.640
and it comes with an adjustable airflow
dial with movable parts and magnets for fidgeting,

260
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.599
giving your fingers a lot to do, helping with stress and anxiety.

261
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.880
Fume has served over three hundred thousand
customers and you can be the next success

262
00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:12.279
story. For a limited time,
use my code SFTC to get a free

263
00:22:12.279 --> 00:22:17.920
gift with your journey pack. Head
to try Fume dot com. That's try

264
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.640
fum dot com and use code SFTC
to get a free gift with your order

265
00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:27.880
today. Summer is finally here.
The sun is shining and the waves are

266
00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:32.480
calling. But you gotta protect your
hair from the sun, salt, and

267
00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:37.440
even SPF. That's why I'm so
excited to start taking Neutrifol. Neutrifhil is

268
00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:44.079
the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth
supplement, with over one million people seeing

269
00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:48.480
thicker, stronger, faster growing hair
with less shedding. With drug free ingredients,

270
00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:55.079
Neutrifil supports hair growth from within,
targeting causes of thinning always changing in

271
00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:59.839
a woman's life, like stress,
nutrition, hormones, and metabolism. With

272
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:04.000
no prescription, buying online, free
shipping and automated deliveries, getting into a

273
00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:10.279
neutrofoil routine is so easy see results
in three to six months, get results

274
00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:12.759
you can run your fingers through.
For a limited time, Neutrofoil is offering

275
00:23:12.839 --> 00:23:18.079
our listeners ten dollars off your first
month subscription and free shipping when you go

276
00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:22.319
to neutrofol dot com and enter the
promo code Southern Fried. Find out why

277
00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:27.400
over four thy five hundred healthcare professionals
and stylists recommend a neutrophil for healthier hair.

278
00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:34.200
Neutrofol dot com spelled n ut rfol
dot com promo code Southern Fried.

279
00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:42.519
That's neutrofol dot com promo code Southern
Fried. Before Emily was buried, an

280
00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:48.759
autopsy was conducted as the formal investigation
into her murder got underway. The medical

281
00:23:48.759 --> 00:23:55.240
examiner confirmed that Emily had died from
two gunshot wounds. One bullet had entered

282
00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:59.880
her back to the left of her
spine. It tore through her ribs along

283
00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.680
and her heart before exiting through her
upper chest. The second bullet had entered

284
00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:08.799
the left side of Emily's abdomen.
It passed through her ribs, spleen,

285
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.400
a kidney, and her spine,
then it exited through her right lower back.

286
00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.799
Emily had also suffered multiple abrasions above
both eyes, on the bridge of

287
00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:23.599
her nose, her left cheek,
her chin, her right hand, and

288
00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:30.119
her right knee. Her old navy
sweatshirt had holes from the bullets, and

289
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.240
there was dirt and grass in the
bottom of the toolbox near Emily's face and

290
00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:40.440
hands. The items in Emily's pockets
included her damaged cell phone, thirty dollars,

291
00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:45.039
a pocket knife, and a set
of keys. Later, concerns were

292
00:24:45.119 --> 00:24:49.880
raised about why the authorities hadn't found
Emily's body before moving her truck more than

293
00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:55.880
one hundred miles back to North Carolina. After all, who knows what evidence

294
00:24:55.960 --> 00:25:00.319
was lost during that trip. Anything
can fly off at seventy plus mis miles

295
00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.759
per hour on a highway. The
lieutenant on the scene claimed that he hadn't

296
00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:08.400
seen any blood in the truck bed
when they started their journey from the waffle

297
00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:14.759
house. I'm going to go ahead
and simply question why the truck wasn't searched

298
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:18.119
in South Carolina. This was a
missing persons case, not just as still

299
00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:23.480
in vehicle case. I would think
any law enforcement officer would or should know

300
00:25:23.799 --> 00:25:30.119
the importance of blood and trace evidence
or any kind of evidence really in a

301
00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:33.359
victim's vehicle. I mean, hell, there could have been a damn ransom

302
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.160
note in the glove box anything.
But Duncan, South Carolina, is an

303
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:44.279
even smaller town than Sawmills, with
a crime rate twenty one percent lower than

304
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:48.240
the national average. So maybe local
PD just weren't accustomed to this kind of

305
00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:52.960
crime. I guess it's not surprising
that they just called Caldwell County in North

306
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.039
Carolina to deal with their own case. And I guess they lifted up to

307
00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:03.559
Caldwell County call in the FEDS if
they wanted to. Emily and her truck

308
00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:07.440
were taken across state lines. That
easily makes it a federal case, I

309
00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.240
guess, unless you believe she was
dead before she was taken over state lines.

310
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:17.920
Later, an SBI agent working with
the FBI was said to have been

311
00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:25.839
consulted. According to an investigating officer
explaining to the Charlotte Observer quote, the

312
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.119
vehicle was locked, there was no
odor coming from it. It was clean

313
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:33.759
as a whistle, though it did
have a flat front tire. But interestingly,

314
00:26:34.039 --> 00:26:40.240
by the time law enforcement arrived at
their headquarters, Emily's blood pulled underneath

315
00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:45.319
the toolbox. Later on in court, jurors could clearly see her dried blood

316
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:49.680
and crime scene photos. So I'm
calling bullshit on this clean as a whistle

317
00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:55.240
crap. I don't think they looked. Local officers ran the plates and called

318
00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:59.359
it into Caldwell, and perhaps they
wouldn't have been given clearance to search it

319
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:03.039
anyway. But I still find that
really troubling, because again, this was

320
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:07.920
a missing person's case. What if
Emily had been alive, bound and gagged

321
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.920
in that toolbox. Police show up, she hears them and thanks God,

322
00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:17.200
now she is saved, and no
one searches the truck. I mean,

323
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:21.359
I know that didn't happen, but
it could have. That's why this feels

324
00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:26.079
like such a serious mistake to me. Then Caldwell County showed up and decided

325
00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:30.039
to tow it home before searching it. That's an even bigger mistake than local

326
00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:36.440
Duncan officers made. Caldwell knew they
were investigating a missing person from their community.

327
00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:40.759
How could they not search that truck. That truck should have been treated

328
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:45.720
as a crime scene, carefully searched
for clues about Emily's whereabouts, and then

329
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:51.359
given to forensic investigators to come through
If they had done this, she would

330
00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:56.400
have been found and surely the truck
would have been investigated properly rather than towed

331
00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:00.880
back to Caldwell. But who knows, they may have still made that choice.

332
00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:07.359
Immediately after Emily's body was discovered,
law enforcement officers told the Charlotte Observer

333
00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:11.279
that the case was wide open for
suspects. They had no clear ideas about

334
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:17.079
who had killed Emily. I know
what you're thinking. Emily was a married

335
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:22.079
woman, so we know her husband, Jerry was the first suspect. But

336
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.519
when Emily was still missing, Jerry
had provided the authorities with a statement.

337
00:28:26.319 --> 00:28:32.839
That statement detailed his exact whereabouts on
Thursday December twenty ninth, the day Emily

338
00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:37.319
went missing. For the most part, Jerry's time appeared to be accounted for.

339
00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.559
Jerry claimed that he had gotten out
of bed at four thirty am,

340
00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:47.440
then he went for a walk before
getting ready for work. He arrived at

341
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:51.200
the dairy farm at about six thirty
am, right about the time that Emily

342
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:55.440
was getting out of bed. Then
Jerry said that he had a quick meeting

343
00:28:55.480 --> 00:29:00.519
with his employees. Later that morning. Jerry said he saw Emily briefly.

344
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:03.839
He said she gave him a list
of items that she needed, and then

345
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:08.160
she reminded Jerry not to be late
for their six o'clock dinner party. Then,

346
00:29:08.759 --> 00:29:14.480
he said, she loved to go
finish her errands. I do wonder

347
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:18.240
what was on the list she gave
him since she was doing errands herself.

348
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:22.359
A to do list he was the
boss at the farm, A honeydew list.

349
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:29.680
Maybe details like this bother me Anyway, As his wife went about her

350
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.839
day of errands, Jerry said,
he checked his emails and read an online

351
00:29:33.880 --> 00:29:37.119
newspaper. At eleven fifteen am,
he said that he left the farm.

352
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:41.799
After that he ran into his neighbor, Tony Ramsey. They were both at

353
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:47.839
the Hickory Home and garden store.
Tony would later verify that this was true.

354
00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:52.240
He specifically remembered their conversation. Tony
was trying to get the things he

355
00:29:52.279 --> 00:29:56.359
needed to fix his lawnmower. He
had been having ongoing issues with it.

356
00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:00.599
He remembered. Jerry said, I
guess Santa Claus didn't bring you a new

357
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:06.759
lawnmar and you have to fix the
other one. Next, Jerry said,

358
00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:11.279
he called Emily. He asked her
to pick up owl filters for their tractors.

359
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:15.400
After that he ate lunch at als
Diner at about twelve fifteen pm,

360
00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:21.759
then he went to the Granite Falls
post office. According to Jerry, he

361
00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:25.799
was back at the farm by one
fifteen PM, and he stated the farm

362
00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:30.160
for the rest of the afternoon,
Jerry said he was working on fixing a

363
00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:33.920
broken tractor. At approximately five to
fifteen pm, he said he went to

364
00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:40.079
get gas. That's when he saw
his friend Walter Moore. Walter would later

365
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:45.759
say this was accurate too. Ultimately, the only time that Jerry was unaccounted

366
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:51.160
for was for a few hours in
the afternoon, and that's when Jerry claimed

367
00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:56.359
that he was working on the dairy
farm as he usually would be. Before

368
00:30:56.400 --> 00:31:02.240
Emily's body was discovered. Jerry had
also's so taken a three question polygraph test.

369
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:06.400
The first question of the test was
did you have anything to do with

370
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:11.240
Emily's disappearance? Jerry responded no.
The second question was right now, do

371
00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:17.119
you know where Emily is? And
he said no. The last question was

372
00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:21.160
do you know for sure where Emily
is right now? And Jerry said once

373
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:26.720
more no. According to the polygraph
machine, Jerry was telling the truth when

374
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:33.160
responding to all three questions. But
keep in mind polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable.

375
00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:37.079
We all know that the results are
rarely admissible in court unless the prosecution

376
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.960
and defense both agree to allow the
results to be entered as evidence. Even

377
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:48.000
then, many courts do not allow
it. But anyway, all this is

378
00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:52.799
to say that when Emily's body was
found, Jerry wasn't necessarily a suspect,

379
00:31:52.359 --> 00:31:57.640
but I'm sure he remained a person
of interest, especially since investigators noted that

380
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:05.000
Jerry's reaction to learning about his wife's
death was odd. According to court documents,

381
00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:08.960
Jerry had shown very little emotion,
and at one point he even laughed.

382
00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:15.920
But people react to trauma differently and
grieve differently. It's impossible to predict

383
00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:20.240
how a person will react to a
horrific situation, but I'm willing to bet

384
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:25.920
most investigators either have gut feelings or
they've seen enough reactions to feel confident about

385
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:32.319
their own assessments, and others would
later testify that Jerry did cry about Emily's

386
00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:37.839
loss. These people even noted that
they distinctly remember Jerry crying because of how

387
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:45.400
rare it was. He wasn't known
to be a demonstrably emotional man. Around

388
00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:50.960
the time investigators found Emily's body.
Jerry told the Charlotte Observer, there's comfort

389
00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:53.400
that she's home now. It's not
the way I wanted her home, but

390
00:32:53.440 --> 00:33:00.319
I'm glad she's home and I'll deal
with the rest later. She's safe,

391
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:04.319
She's dead, sir, not safe. Yeah, quotes can be taken out

392
00:33:04.359 --> 00:33:07.599
of context. And I know what
he means. But would you really say

393
00:33:07.640 --> 00:33:13.279
your murdered wife was home safe.
That was just weird. But Jerry was

394
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:17.680
kind of different, very dry,
kind of all business. In some ways.

395
00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:22.400
It probably hurt how he was perceived, and others his friends said he

396
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:29.640
was the same old Jerry regardless,
it seemed that Caldwell County investigators weren't pointing

397
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:32.640
a finger at Jerry yet, or
at least they weren't in the beginning.

398
00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:38.079
Then they spoke to Emily's friends and
family, because although Emily and Jerry ran

399
00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:44.079
a thriving business together, their marriage
was not as successful as their dairy farm.

400
00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:50.599
For about three years, their relationship
had been strained, and two years

401
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:53.799
before, in two thousand and three, the Andersons had separated for about six

402
00:33:53.880 --> 00:34:00.319
weeks. During that time, Emily
stayed in Kentucky. Most of Emily Lee's

403
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:04.680
family still lived there. We're not
sure what caused Emily and Jerry to take

404
00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:09.519
this break, but her court documents
Jerry had at some unknown time found cards

405
00:34:09.559 --> 00:34:15.519
addressed to Emily from a man named
Bill and someone, though we're not sure

406
00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:21.840
who sent Emily flowers on at least
one occasion, but they evidently made up

407
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:27.800
because eventually Emily returned to her North
Carolina home with Jerry, and their merry

408
00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:32.360
life seemingly continued on as usual.
But two years later, in the fall

409
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:36.639
of two thousand and five, Emily
and Jerry were on the rocks again.

410
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:42.440
A few days before Thanksgiving that year, Emily visited her older brother Mike in

411
00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:47.760
Nicholasville, Kentucky. Emily told Mike
that she was considering leaving Jerry. She

412
00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:52.280
said that Jerry overworked and bullied her. He belittled her in front of their

413
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:58.039
employees. But Emily's brother urged her
to stay with Jerry, at least for

414
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:02.119
a little while longer. He thought
he had a good reason. Emily and

415
00:35:02.199 --> 00:35:07.320
Jerry were planning on moving to Mountain
City, Tennessee. There, they planned

416
00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:12.719
to build a new cattle feeding operation
called High Mountain Holsteins. This new farm

417
00:35:13.119 --> 00:35:15.280
was going to bring in more money
than their dairy farm in North Carolina.

418
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:21.639
And at this new farm, Emily
would be a part owner. She wouldn't

419
00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:25.760
just be working for Jerry, she
would be a partner. Mike advised Emily

420
00:35:25.800 --> 00:35:30.800
to wait until she was an owner
of this new farm to divorce Jerry.

421
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:36.559
That way, she would get a
larger settlement. According to the Charlotte Observer,

422
00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:39.559
Mike said, get as much as
you can out of it. I

423
00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:45.239
don't think Mike was particularly vindictive toward
his brother in law. He just wanted

424
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:49.639
what was best for his sister.
Though Mike would later state that he thought

425
00:35:49.639 --> 00:35:52.920
it was weird that Jerry never went
to any of Emily's family functions. He

426
00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:58.880
seemed to pretty much stay away from
his in laws. Shortly after speaking with

427
00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:04.000
her brother about a pta divorce,
Emily called her friend Pat Thorpe. I

428
00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:07.599
mentioned her earlier in the episode.
Emily and Patt met when they worked together

429
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:13.320
in Corbin, Kentucky. By this
time, Patt had moved to New Jersey.

430
00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:17.360
Despite living multiple states away, the
friends still talked on the phone regularly.

431
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:22.360
That's how Pat knew that Emily and
Jerry's relationship had been going downhill.

432
00:36:23.719 --> 00:36:30.039
According to Pat, Emily often complained
that Jerry was verbally and emotionally abusive towards

433
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:35.880
her. She told the Charlotte Observer. I talked to her many times when

434
00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.800
she was in tears because of things
he had said to her. He had

435
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:45.679
told her basically that she wasn't smart
enough to do anything really. Patt did

436
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:52.599
clarify that Emily never mentioned Jerry physically
abusing her. Still, it's clear that

437
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:58.519
Emily was very unhappy in her marriage
and felt emotionally abused by Jerry. And

438
00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:02.159
since her brother seemed to be worrying
about Emily's finances, going so far as

439
00:37:02.239 --> 00:37:06.119
advising her to wait to get out
of the marriage until she was co owner

440
00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:12.039
of their business, maybe Jerry was
financially abusive. He held the purse strings.

441
00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:15.159
Later it was found he even ran
a credit check on his wife.

442
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:20.599
He was pissy that he found a
Victoria's secret credit card that he didn't know

443
00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:27.519
about, especially since Emily was known
only to wear long John's. So the

444
00:37:27.559 --> 00:37:31.079
Saturday after that Thanksgiving, on November
twenty sixth, two thousand and five,

445
00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:37.079
Emily called Pat told her that she
had finally gotten the courage to leave in

446
00:37:37.159 --> 00:37:42.079
divorce Jerry. Pat told the Charlotte
observer. She told me she was going

447
00:37:42.119 --> 00:37:45.840
to contact a lawyer, that she
had made her mind up. She said,

448
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:50.280
I have to get out. Emily
also explained to Pat that she was

449
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:52.840
waiting to tell Jerry about the divorce. She wanted to be out of the

450
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:58.440
house before she let him know she
was leaving him. She was afraid of

451
00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:02.960
how Jerry would respond. Concerned for
her friend, Pat asked Emily, is

452
00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:07.320
it really that bad? And she
said Emily said yes, it is.

453
00:38:09.320 --> 00:38:15.480
Following this, Emily reached out to
another friend for a divorce attorney recommendation.

454
00:38:15.519 --> 00:38:22.960
She was referred to divorce lawyer Rachel
Leclair. During Emily's consultation with miss Leclair,

455
00:38:22.519 --> 00:38:27.920
she said her relationship with Jerry had
reached a tipping point. Emily said

456
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:30.440
that Jerry had a bad temper.
She claimed he would treat her like a

457
00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:37.559
child or a dog. When she
approached Jerry about his disrespectful behavior, she

458
00:38:37.639 --> 00:38:40.519
said that Jerry would ignore her.
He would even go so far as taking

459
00:38:40.559 --> 00:38:47.440
out his hearing aids Without hearing aids. Jerry was about seventy percent death and

460
00:38:47.880 --> 00:38:52.960
she said she and her husband hadn't
shared a bed since late October were early

461
00:38:52.039 --> 00:38:59.719
November of two thousand and five.
Just like Emily's brother, Miss Leclair suggested

462
00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:04.039
that Emily stayed with Jerry until they
had started their new farm in Tennessee,

463
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:08.119
but Emily was adamant that she couldn't
wait that long to end things with her

464
00:39:08.199 --> 00:39:14.239
husband, and all of this was
just a month before she went missing.

465
00:39:15.480 --> 00:39:21.599
Patt spoke to Emily one last time
on December twenty sixth. Their conversation wasn't

466
00:39:21.639 --> 00:39:25.519
long, and she said that Emily
didn't reveal any information pertinent to the investigation.

467
00:39:27.559 --> 00:39:31.840
But in an interesting turn of events, Jerry actually called Pat on January

468
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:37.800
third. This would have been while
Emily was missing, but before her body

469
00:39:37.880 --> 00:39:43.400
was found. Jerry and Patt spoke
for seventy two minutes. During their call,

470
00:39:43.920 --> 00:39:49.119
Jerry acknowledged that his marriage had not
been going well. He told Pat

471
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:52.960
he was pretty sure Emily had left
him for another man, which surprised Pat.

472
00:39:53.559 --> 00:39:58.519
While Emily had complained at length about
her marriage, she had never told

473
00:39:58.519 --> 00:40:04.639
Pat that she was having an affair. But now multiple people could confirm that

474
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:09.159
Emily Anderson wanted to leave her husband
and was making plans to just a month

475
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:15.239
before she disappeared and was found murdered. I'm going to pause now for a

476
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:27.079
final commercial break. Equipped with this
new information about Emily and Jerry's marriage,

477
00:40:27.400 --> 00:40:30.320
law enforcement held a news conference on
January ninth, two thousand and six.

478
00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:37.079
Sheriff Gary Clark said that he was
confident Emily's case was solvable. He said

479
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:42.599
it again on January fifteenth in a
phone interview with Fox News. He would

480
00:40:42.679 --> 00:40:47.480
later appear on National TV on a
Fox station. By January twentieth, the

481
00:40:47.559 --> 00:40:52.760
authorities got a search warrant for Jerry's
home and the farm. Less than a

482
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:59.480
week later, on January twenty sixth, investigator searched his properties again. Following

483
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:04.760
that second search, an investigator told
the Charlotte Observer that they had found very

484
00:41:04.760 --> 00:41:09.079
compelling evidence, but they wouldn't share
what that evidence was not yet anyway.

485
00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:15.159
That same officer later said during a
news conference, this story's only beginning as

486
00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:22.519
far as I'm concerned. Shortly after
that second search, employees from Jerry's dairy

487
00:41:22.519 --> 00:41:27.920
farm contacted the authorities. These employees
told investigators that they were scared of Jerry

488
00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:32.719
Anderson. They were worried he would
harm them. Law enforcement would not disclose

489
00:41:32.760 --> 00:41:37.159
why these employees were worried, or
even how many employees had reached out,

490
00:41:38.199 --> 00:41:44.360
but this concern caused the authorities to
move quickly to arrest Jerry, even though

491
00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:50.360
the investigation was ongoing, and they
publicly said they were still open to other

492
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:54.840
suspects. So on Friday, January
twenty seventh, forty seven year old Jerry

493
00:41:54.920 --> 00:42:01.119
Lee Anderson was arrested in his home
just after midnight. The Caldwell County Sheriff's

494
00:42:01.119 --> 00:42:07.159
Department charged Jerry with first degree murder. He was held in the Caldwell County

495
00:42:07.239 --> 00:42:13.000
Jail without bond during his arrest.
Jerry fully cooperated with the authorities, and

496
00:42:13.079 --> 00:42:17.679
he requested a court appointed defense attorney
right away. He was indicted by a

497
00:42:17.679 --> 00:42:23.039
grand jury on first degree murder two
weeks after his arrest. But a few

498
00:42:23.119 --> 00:42:29.400
days after Jerry was arrested, the
local newspapers began reporting that Jerry had taken

499
00:42:29.400 --> 00:42:34.920
out a life insurance policy on Emily. Initially, the Sheriff's department would not

500
00:42:35.039 --> 00:42:39.800
confirm how much that life insurance policy
was worth, and since the search warrants

501
00:42:39.840 --> 00:42:45.639
and affidavits related to this case were
sealed from public viewing, there was no

502
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:51.400
way for anyone to find out.
So the Charlotte Observer and the Associated Press

503
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:57.880
requested that Caldwell County unseal those documents. They had questions that they believed these

504
00:42:57.920 --> 00:43:02.679
documents could answer, like what witnesses
had the authorities talked to so far?

505
00:43:04.519 --> 00:43:09.639
And what evidence had investigators found on
Jerry's properties. The prosecuting lawyers were opposed

506
00:43:09.639 --> 00:43:15.639
to this. They argued this information, among other things, might bias the

507
00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:22.360
community of potential jurors. But the
presiding Caldwell County judge believed that the court

508
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:27.159
shouldn't put its judgment ahead of the
public ability to understand the legal system,

509
00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:31.440
he said, and on Monday February
twentieth, two thousand and six, that

510
00:43:31.559 --> 00:43:38.519
same judge unselled sixty pages of documents. The information within those pages caused an

511
00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:45.719
absolute uproar. On the morning of
December twenty ninth, the day that Emily

512
00:43:45.800 --> 00:43:50.079
went missing, several people had seen
Emily and Jerry together at the dairy farm.

513
00:43:50.760 --> 00:43:53.800
They saw the couple go into a
tree filled area behind the property.

514
00:43:54.559 --> 00:43:59.920
Jerry had driven his tractor and Emily
had followed behind him in her truck.

515
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:06.480
Shortly after, multiple witnesses heard gunshots
come from the same area where Jerry and

516
00:44:06.519 --> 00:44:15.079
Emily had gone. Then Jerry emerged
alone Afterward, Jerry asked some of his

517
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:20.639
employees to powerwash his tractor, a
task that, according to Jerry's employees,

518
00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:25.000
he had never asked them to do
before. During the authority's investigation, they

519
00:44:25.039 --> 00:44:30.719
found traces of fluid inside the tractor. Samples of this fluid were sent to

520
00:44:30.760 --> 00:44:37.599
the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation
Crime Lab for DNA analysis. While the

521
00:44:37.639 --> 00:44:40.679
crime lab was able to confirm that, yes, this fluid was blood,

522
00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:45.480
the samples were too small for DNA
testing. They couldn't even tell if it

523
00:44:45.559 --> 00:44:50.679
was human blood. It may have
come from an animal. But this didn't

524
00:44:50.679 --> 00:44:53.719
mean Jerry was in the clear.
In fact, for these court documents,

525
00:44:54.079 --> 00:45:00.920
he had exhibited even more concerning behaviors. Sometime after dis Zember twenty ninth,

526
00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:06.880
Jerry asked an employee to replace the
oil filters for some tractors. Those filters

527
00:45:06.920 --> 00:45:10.159
he had asked his wife to buy
the last day she was seen. The

528
00:45:10.199 --> 00:45:15.480
employee was supposed to write that day's
date on the oil filters, but Jerry

529
00:45:15.480 --> 00:45:19.360
told them to put down twelve twenty
nine, two thousand and five, even

530
00:45:19.440 --> 00:45:24.599
though that day had since passed.
Jerry also wanted this employee to tell anyone

531
00:45:24.599 --> 00:45:30.000
who asked that he was working with
his employees between nine am and ten am

532
00:45:30.199 --> 00:45:35.639
on December twenty ninth, and Jerry
also wanted the employee to say that they

533
00:45:35.639 --> 00:45:38.679
had both been working on changing the
oil filters between one thirty pm and three

534
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:45.760
pm that same day. Then Jerry
hid the old tractor oil filters that had

535
00:45:45.760 --> 00:45:51.559
been replaced During the two searches of
Jerry's properties, investigators found these discarded oil

536
00:45:51.639 --> 00:45:57.400
filters in a nearby drainage ditch and
miner pile. You can imagine how damning

537
00:45:57.480 --> 00:46:02.280
this information was. Jerry, whose
wife was actively seeking a divorce, was

538
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:07.159
seen going into a secluded location with
her. Then gunshots were heard coming from

539
00:46:07.159 --> 00:46:12.920
that area. Afterward, he had
allegedly asked his employees to lie about his

540
00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:17.519
whereabouts from nine am to ten am
and one thirty pm to three pm.

541
00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:23.519
Those afternoon hours were the exact same
hours that Jerry had been unaccounted for during

542
00:46:23.559 --> 00:46:30.239
that statement he had provided to the
authorities. Also, Emily's phone record showed

543
00:46:30.599 --> 00:46:35.519
that she had not used her cell
phone at all since December twenty eighth,

544
00:46:35.920 --> 00:46:40.159
the day before the last witness in
town saw her, and that's not the

545
00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:46.079
end of it. Also revealed in
these unsealed court documents, Jerry had recently

546
00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:52.239
taken out a one point five million
dollar life insurance policy on Emily. This

547
00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:58.480
newer policy was in addition to a
previously established life insurance policy for three million.

548
00:46:59.360 --> 00:47:04.519
In total, Jerry would receive approximately
four point five million in the event

549
00:47:04.559 --> 00:47:09.639
of Emily's death in twenty twenty four
dollars. That's almost seven million. And

550
00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:15.599
as if that wasn't enough, Jerry
had also obtained his passport on January fifth.

551
00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:21.239
For context, that would have been
a week after Emily went missing and

552
00:47:21.320 --> 00:47:25.519
only two days before her body was
found on January seventh. Dude, come

553
00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:30.719
on, I guess you could see
this as an innocent man with nothing to

554
00:47:30.800 --> 00:47:35.599
hide, or as a man about
to flee the country. Most people would

555
00:47:35.599 --> 00:47:42.039
think the worst. The realization that
dairy farmer Jerry Anderson might have killed his

556
00:47:42.159 --> 00:47:47.239
wife caused chaos in this rural North
Carolina community. A neighbor who lived across

557
00:47:47.239 --> 00:47:52.920
the street from Jerry's dairy farm told
the Charlotte Observer, the whole incident has

558
00:47:52.960 --> 00:47:58.159
been difficult for our entire community.
There are thousands of unanswered questions right now,

559
00:47:58.480 --> 00:48:04.039
and we're patiently waiting for them.
Answers. Some of the biggest questions

560
00:48:04.079 --> 00:48:08.320
were, had Emily truly intended to
divorce Jerry, did Jerry have time to

561
00:48:08.320 --> 00:48:14.280
get to Duncan, South Carolina that
afternoon? And why on God's green Earth

562
00:48:14.599 --> 00:48:19.199
did Jerry get a passport so soon
after Emily's disappearance. He had to have

563
00:48:19.280 --> 00:48:24.159
known how bad that would look.
Local residents were split in their opinions.

564
00:48:24.719 --> 00:48:30.000
Some stood by Jerry. They couldn't
believe that he would harm his wife.

565
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:37.159
Jerry was their friend and neighbor,
a fellow churchgoer. They couldn't fathom that

566
00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:43.480
Jerry there Jerry could do this.
One member of the Dry Pond's Baptist church

567
00:48:43.519 --> 00:48:46.840
told reporters, I believe in Jerry
until he tells me that he killed Emily,

568
00:48:47.559 --> 00:48:52.000
which wow, okay, but wouldn't
you at least want him to legally

569
00:48:52.079 --> 00:48:59.480
clear his name? And one neighbor
of Jerry's said, ninety percent of the

570
00:48:59.480 --> 00:49:04.159
people around here think he's innocent.
Anyone who knows Jerry doesn't think he did

571
00:49:04.199 --> 00:49:07.639
it, But there were plenty of
other people who thought Jerry did kill his

572
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:13.280
wife. The manager of a local
grocery store in Deli, Jean Bristol,

573
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:16.400
told the press after Jerry's arrest.
I think it's more of a sigh of

574
00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:21.719
relief. I know it is for
a lot of the women. And Another

575
00:49:21.800 --> 00:49:25.360
Dry Ponds Baptist church member said she
wasn't shocked in the slightest about the news

576
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:30.320
about Jerry. She told the Hickory
Daily Record that he never showed no tears,

577
00:49:30.400 --> 00:49:37.360
no emotions. It's a real shame. For months and months, Jerry's

578
00:49:37.400 --> 00:49:42.760
innocence or lack thereof, was a
hot button topic in the Sawmills area.

579
00:49:43.320 --> 00:49:46.920
One local told the Charlotte Observer,
if the paper comes out with an article

580
00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:51.079
about Jerry on the front of it, it will be sold out in two

581
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:54.679
minutes. If something like this happened
in Charlotte, it just be an ordinary

582
00:49:54.679 --> 00:49:59.719
thing. But when it happens in
a small community like this, it just

583
00:49:59.760 --> 00:50:05.800
threw you off center. And that
is the stopping point for Part one,

584
00:50:05.880 --> 00:50:09.440
folks. As this started as a
one episode case. Part two will come

585
00:50:09.480 --> 00:50:14.440
out pretty quickly in the next couple
of days. I appreciate your patience.

586
00:50:14.960 --> 00:50:19.840
Some cases like these drag you down
rabbit holes and you keep going and suddenly

587
00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:23.039
it's fourteen thousand words, which is
crazy. That's almost as long as a

588
00:50:23.039 --> 00:50:29.039
feature length film and I know a
lot of you love two parters. Anyway,

589
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:34.599
Jerry's trial and more details about the
investigation will be covered in the next

590
00:50:34.599 --> 00:50:39.119
episode. This case is a wild
ride with a twist I didn't see coming,

591
00:50:39.840 --> 00:50:46.440
so stick with me. It'll be
worth it. Southern Fried True Crime

592
00:50:46.519 --> 00:50:51.960
is hosted and produced by me Erica
Kelly. Today's episode was researched and written

593
00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:55.840
by me and Andrea Marshbank. As
usual, any editorial comments and opinions are

594
00:50:55.880 --> 00:51:00.199
my own. Southern Fred's original music
as by Rob Harrison of the game I'm

595
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:04.320
a Radio and the original graphic artist
by Khely Horner. Today's episode was edited

596
00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:09.000
and mixed by Sarah Wendell of VW
Sound LLC and Erica Kelly. Thank you

597
00:51:09.039 --> 00:51:14.760
to Sarah and Kristen for suggesting today's
case. If you have any case suggestions,

598
00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:17.280
please go to my website, Southernfred
True Crime dot com and click on

599
00:51:17.320 --> 00:51:23.119
the listeners suggestion tab or email SFTC
Research at gmail dot com. This is

600
00:51:23.159 --> 00:51:27.159
the best way for me to get
those little known cases. Y'all always send

601
00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:30.280
me. Please remember that I do
not accept suggestions on social media private messages,

602
00:51:30.320 --> 00:51:35.360
but please do come join our Facebook
group Southern Fried True Crime Fans discussion

603
00:51:35.400 --> 00:51:38.480
group where we swap recipes, worship
Dolly Parton, and share memes. We

604
00:51:38.519 --> 00:51:42.079
do, of course discuss true crime, not just Southern Fried, but all

605
00:51:42.159 --> 00:51:45.880
kinds, but it is still very
much a southern lifestyle group. Our group

606
00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:46.880
is a safe in fun corner of
Facebook. I'm by God, we mean

607
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:49.840
it when we say oh shit,
us is allowed. It's not just a

608
00:51:49.840 --> 00:51:52.800
motto, it's how we run the
group. If you enjoyed today's show,

609
00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:57.159
don't forget to subscribe and please tell
a friend or rate and review. I'm

610
00:51:57.199 --> 00:52:01.880
on all large platforms like iTunes,
Aheartspotify, on audible and YouTube. Until

611
00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:06.440
next time, thanks so much for
listening, y'all. Take care,