The Secret Affair (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] On March 25, 2009, Sergeant Jimmy Edmonds responded to a robbery call at a house in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Georgia.

[3] Now, Edmonds thought he was just going to investigate a routine break -in, but once he stepped foot inside of that house, he discovered the most violent crime scene he'd ever witnessed in his entire law enforcement career.

[4] For the next three days, Edmonds would barely sleep, but he would eventually uncover the truth about what happened in that house of horrors.

[5] And let's just say the truth was not what anybody expected.

[6] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[7] So, if that's of interest to you, this summer, right before it gets really hot, be sure you remember.

[8] remove all of the Freon from the Follow Button's car.

[9] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[10] I'm Dan Tibersky.

[11] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[12] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[13] What's the answer?

[14] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[15] Hysterical.

[16] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[17] Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[18] On the morning of March 25th, 2009, 41 -year -old Kay Parsons woke up in her bedroom in the quiet suburb of Grovetown, Georgia.

[19] It was still dark outside, but Kay knew she had a busy morning ahead of her.

[20] So she got right out of bed and walked down the hallway to wake up her son.

[21] When she went into his room, her son, who was 12 years old, immediately began complaining that he didn't want to wake up yet, but Kay just flipped on his lights and said, come on, you got to get ready for school.

[22] Once Kay saw her son actually climb out of bed, begin to get dressed, she rushed downstairs and poured him a bowl of cereal and left it on the table and then called up to him and said, come on, come down, eat your breakfast.

[23] And then Kay rushed right back upstairs into her bedroom to get dressed.

[24] Now, normally, Kay had help with the morning routine from her husband David, but David was in Los Angeles on business.

[25] David was a career military man who had become a successful civilian contractor after retirement, which meant David worked for the military, but he was not actually a member of the military.

[26] and generally speaking, civilian contractors with the military make a lot of money.

[27] David's work at a nearby army base is what had brought the family to Georgia four years earlier and his job had allowed them to buy their beautiful two -story four -bedroom home.

[28] But the trade -off with David's financial success was that he often had to travel for work, leaving Kay to manage on her own.

[29] Most of the time, Kay was perfectly happy to take on everything at home by herself because she knew David was doing his part for the family in other ways.

[30] Kay and David had been together since they were in high school, and people who knew them said they had the kind of partnership that made other couples jealous.

[31] They seemed to function as this perfect unit, and they always knew how to help the other.

[32] But the truth was, behind the scenes, Kay and David were not perfect, and lately, they'd been going through a really rough patch.

[33] They'd been getting in these horrible fights, and then after the fights would end, they would just ignore each other for long periods of time.

[34] And so as Kay rushed around her bedroom getting dressed for the day, she couldn't help.

[35] but feel kind of resentful towards David for not being here that morning to help her.

[36] But Kay quickly told herself she was being foolish.

[37] Even though they were fighting, she knew the reason David was gone was for work.

[38] He was there to help the family, and so she couldn't really be resentful about it.

[39] Once Kay was finished getting dressed, she ran to her son's bedroom and grabbed his backpack and then went back downstairs to the kitchen.

[40] When she got there, her son said he was done eating, so Kay handed him his backpack, then she grabbed his empty cereal bowl and put it in the sink, and then she picked up her white leather handbag off the counter and took out her car keys.

[41] Then Kay stopped herself because she knew she was running around like a maniac, and she took a breath and then looked over at her son and smiled.

[42] Even when she and David were not getting along, they still made sure their son always felt like their house was filled with love and happiness.

[43] Kay's son smiled back at her, and then the two of them walked to the garage and got into Kay's car.

[44] Kay pulled out of the garage onto Hot Springs Drive, her quiet neighborhood street, and as she did, she looked over at the house next door, another beautiful brick home, strikingly similar to her own.

[45] And in many ways, Kay and her family's lives in Grovetown were directly connected with that house next door.

[46] On the day that Kay, David, and their son had moved in, their next door neighbors, Becky and Tony Sears and their five kids, had dropped by with food to welcome them to their new home.

[47] From then on, the two households became inseparable.

[48] The adults played tennis together, one of the Sears boys was on the same baseball team as Kay's son, and the two families had vacation together.

[49] Becky even got Kay a job at Healing Hands, the physical therapy clinic where she worked.

[50] And not long after Kay and Becky had begun working together, they joined Weight Watchers together.

[51] And Kay gave Becky a lot of credit for helping her meet her weight loss goals.

[52] Every day, Becky wanted to compare weights and discuss who had lost the most.

[53] It made Kay anxious, but she had to.

[54] admit, peer pressure worked.

[55] But in recent weeks, Kay had been so caught up in the problems she was having with her husband that she really hadn't even spoken to Becky.

[56] And as Kay drove past Becky's house that morning, she wished she could go back in time to when everything it seemed so perfect.

[57] After Kay dropped her son off at school, she went to a McDonald's drive -thru.

[58] Even though Kay was a part of Weight Watchers and was trying to lose weight, when she was really stressed out or rushed, she often treated herself to fast food.

[59] Kay quickly ate her McDonald's breakfast in the car as she drove back home.

[60] She was in a hurry because her handyman, Mitch Cozart, would be arriving at her house soon.

[61] Mitch was coming by to repair the back door.

[62] But as Kay drove, she was thinking about other projects she might ask him to take care of while he was already at the house.

[63] And Kay was still lost in her own thoughts about what she was going to ask him to do when she pulled back into her two -car garage at around 7 .15 a .m. Kay got out of her car and walked into the carrying a half -finished cup of McDonald's coffee and an empty fast food bag.

[64] And within seconds of stepping foot inside of her house, Kay heard a loud crashing sound in the kitchen.

[65] It sounded like something breaking.

[66] Kay had no idea how anything could be falling in her kitchen, and so she quickly rushed around the corner to see what was going on.

[67] But what she saw in the kitchen was the last thing she expected.

[68] At 8 .30 a .m., Kay's handyman, Mitch walked onto Kay's front porch and rang the doorbell.

[69] he knew Kay was expecting him so he was surprised when no one answered the door After a few moments Mitch pulled out his flip phone and called Kay but Kay didn't pick up Mitch peaked in the windows of the home but he couldn't see anyone inside the house so he walked around to the back he was there to fix the elegant French doors that were in the back of the house and so he figured he could at least take a look at the job while he was waiting for Kay but when Mitch came around the corner of the house and actually saw these French doors he froze because one of the panes of glass in the French doors was completely shattered and the French door was open.

[70] He called out for Kay from the outside, but no one answered.

[71] Mitch had seen enough cop shows to know that he did not want to go inside this house himself and potentially leave fingerprints or footprints, and so instead Mitch grabbed his phone again and he called 911 to report what appeared to be a break -in.

[72] But as Mitch was talking to the 911 operator, he noticed this young man with black hair sitting on the other side of the road on this rock just staring at Mitch and then as soon as Mitch got off the phone the young man with black hair called out to him Mitch walked across the street towards him and as he did he could see the young man looked pretty shaken up when Mitch finally reached the young man he told Mitch his name was Michael Bowers and he lived next door to Kay and he was actually Kay's friend Becky's oldest son who was from a previous marriage Mitch asked Michael if he was okay, but Michael said no. He said he'd overheard Mitch's phone calls to 911, so he knew that Kay's house had been broken into, and he told Mitch that his own house had been broken into as well.

[73] He said the house was ransacked with drawers emptied onto the floor and the whole place was a mess.

[74] Michael said he had just called his mother at work to let her know.

[75] At this point, Mitch was very worried, and he told Michael to stay right where he was and to not go back inside of his house because whoever had broken in might still be there.

[76] Then Mitch went back across the street to his truck, and he pulled out the gun he kept in the glove compartment just in case.

[77] Then he went back across the street and waited with Michael for the police to arrive.

[78] A few minutes later, Sergeant Jimmy Edmonds of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office arrived at Kay's house.

[79] His office had received two calls within minutes of each other to report break -ins in neighboring houses on Hot Springs Drive.

[80] Edmonds thought just one break -in would be very unusual for such a quiet, low -crime neighborhood, but two break -ins?

[81] Something strange was going on.

[82] Sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene soon after, and at that point, Edmonds walked around the house with them to the back door with the shattered glass.

[83] But before Edmonds even went inside the house, he saw an ominous sign.

[84] He could clearly see blood on the kitchen floor.

[85] Edmonds turned back around and looked at the deputies and made sure they saw the blood too, and they nodded, and then Edmonds led them into the house and immediately Edmonds saw the blood trail went all the way out of the kitchen and down the front hall and the blood was not just on the floor.

[86] There was also blood spattered all over the walls too.

[87] As Edmonds followed this grotesque blood trail all through the house, he passed by a spilled McDonald's coffee and a crumpled McDonald's bag and a white handbag on the floor.

[88] Then he saw a bloody handprint on the wall right beside the door to the garage and he opened up the door.

[89] And there, lying beside her car in a big pool of blood was Kay Parsons.

[90] Edmonds quickly rushed over and crouched down beside Kay and placed his fingers on the inside of her wrist.

[91] And amazingly, he found a pulse.

[92] Kay was alive.

[93] So Edmonds shouted for one of the deputies to call an ambulance.

[94] As Edmonds stayed crouched down with Kay, telling her over and over again that help was on the way, Edmonds just could not believe the amount of blood he was seeing, not just all over the house, but on Kay, on her face, her arms, her clothes.

[95] He had been investigating violent crime for years, but he'd never seen someone beaten as badly as Kay Parsons was.

[96] There was a bloody aluminum baseball bat lying beside Kay, and Edmonds was reasonably sure it had been used to bludgeon her.

[97] And then Edmonds also noticed there was a second weapon underneath the car, a bloody claw hammer.

[98] Seconds later, the ambulance finally arrived and Kay was rushed to the hospital.

[99] And as soon as she was gone, Edmonds led a room by her, room search of her house.

[100] And at first glance, it looked to Edmonds like Kay must have come home and interrupted a robbery in progress.

[101] The house was a complete mess upstairs and downstairs, as though someone had run through the entire house, searching every single drawer as quickly as possible.

[102] But the sheer brutality of the attack on Kay made Edmonds think this could be something else.

[103] I mean, what kind of burglar would suddenly begin bludgeoning someone to death with a hammer and bat just because they interrupted them?

[104] And so this just felt like a deeply personal crime to Edmonds, not just some random robbery.

[105] At some point during the room -by -room search, Edmund stepped away and performed the grim duty of calling Kay's husband, David, to tell him what happened.

[106] Now, Edmonds didn't really go into any details over the phone.

[107] He just told David that he would need to fly home from Los Angeles immediately.

[108] David could tell obviously something terrible had happened, and by the time he hung up, David was reasonably sure that his wife had been bad.

[109] injured.

[110] So he booked the first flight back to Georgia and rushed to the airport.

[111] Back at Kay's House, Edmonds knew he still had a second break in to investigate, and he was afraid he would find another victim of a vicious attack.

[112] So Edmonds rounded up a few other deputies and walked next door to the Sears' home.

[113] The back door had been broken open just like over at Kay's house, and the contents of drawers in the Sears' home had been dumped all over the place just like in Kay's house.

[114] There were also smears of blood here and there, but not nearly as much as much.

[115] much as next tour.

[116] The deputies combed the house from top to bottom, and luckily they did not find another victim.

[117] Edmonds was searching the ransack kitchen for potential evidence when Becky Sears, the mother and her 19 -year -old son, Chris, came into the backyard.

[118] Becky told Edmonds they had both been at work when her other son, Michael, had called to tell her about the break -in, so they'd rushed home as fast as they could.

[119] But Becky did not care at all about the fact that her house had been trashed and ransacked, because moments before Becky had walked into her house, a neighbor had told her that her good friend, Kay, had been taken away in an ambulance, and so all Becky wanted to know now from Edmonds was if Kay was okay.

[120] Edmonds was not really able to share any details about Kay, other than the fact that she had been alive when she was taken to the hospital.

[121] Within minutes, another neighbor appeared at the Sears' house and offered to give Becky and Chris a ride to the hospital to go check on Kay.

[122] And so Becky and Chris, They rushed out the door with that neighbor as fast as they had shown up, and Edmonds was suddenly left alone in the quiet kitchen, thinking about all these terrible things that had just unfolded in this small, seemingly safe suburban neighborhood.

[123] Edmonds figured Kay's house must have come first, and the person who broke in, killed Kay, and then they must have come over to Becky's house next, but still had Kay's blood on their hands.

[124] And so that was why there was blood in both houses, despite their only being a victim in Kay's house.

[125] But that didn't make Edmonds feel much better.

[126] He now knew he was dealing with a criminal who was cool enough and cruel enough to beat this helpless woman until they were totally covered in her blood and then casually just go next door, again covered in their blood, to rob another house.

[127] Edmonds wondered what kind of person could do something like that.

[128] Becky and some of Kay's other friends stood vigil in Kay's hospital waiting room all day long.

[129] They were desperate to get any word on Kay's condition.

[130] Every so often, Becky would ask one of the nurses if she could go in to see her friend, but they always said no, because the medical team was still trying to stabilize Kay.

[131] Eventually, another friend did make it to Kay's actual bedside, and she didn't even recognize the heavily bandaged person lying there.

[132] Kay's face was grotesquely swollen, and she was attached to all kinds of tubes and wires that were keeping her alive.

[133] The nurse wouldn't answer when the friend asked if Kay was brain dead.

[134] Finally, late in the afternoon, Kay's husband, and David arrived at the hospital straight from the airport.

[135] Sergeant Edmonds and other officers escorted David past Kay's friends to Kay's room, and they let him go in there all by himself.

[136] Seconds later, from beyond the double doors, Kay's friends heard David begin to sob.

[137] Kay had just died.

[138] Some of Kay's friends began to weep when they heard David crying, but Sergeant Edmonds had a different reaction to David.

[139] He wondered if David's loud display of grief was just a bit too much.

[140] He couldn't quite put his finger on.

[141] it, but Edmonds got the sense that David was just performing for an audience.

[142] While Edmonds was at the hospital, members of his investigative team had gone door -to -door all throughout Kay's neighborhood to try to get more information about what happened.

[143] But unfortunately, so far, they'd come up with nothing.

[144] Nobody in the neighborhood had heard or seen anything unusual between 7 and 8 .30 a .m. that morning.

[145] So, after Edmonds got back to the Sheriff's Department, he decided he would just bring in all of the people who had been at the crime scene one by one.

[146] And he started with Kay's handyman, Mitch.

[147] Once Mitch arrived at the station, Edmonds and Mitch would sit down across from each other in a small interview room.

[148] And Edmonds watched Mitch right away fight back tears as he recounted showing up at Kay's house and finding the smash glass in the back door.

[149] Edmonds was initially skeptical of Mitch's story.

[150] After all, this guy had just happened to show up at the house right after Kay had been attacked, but Mitch would show Edmonds some emails that made it clear Kay really had been expecting him at her house at 8 .30 a .m. that morning.

[151] And when Edmonds had searched Kay's house earlier, he hadn't seen any sign that Mitch ever went inside.

[152] So for the time, Edmonds decided Mitch was not a major suspect.

[153] But just when Edmonds was starting to think Mitch would have nothing useful to offer, Mitch began talking about the young man with black hair who was sitting on the other side of the street who had overheard his 911 call.

[154] The young man had told Mitch that his name was Michael and that he was Becky's oldest son.

[155] The mention of Michael made Edmonds' mind start racing.

[156] He had learned through his initial investigation that Becky's oldest son had a history of drug problems.

[157] The 22 -year -old had once been a heroin addict.

[158] And Edmonds wanted to know why Michael was sitting across the street from Kay's house, which was now a murder scene, instead of in front of his own house, which had just been looted.

[159] Because remember, Michael didn't know what was going on in Kay's house until he overheard Mitch talk about Kay's being robbed.

[160] And so Edmonds couldn't help but wonder if maybe Michael had tried to rob Kay's house to pay for his drug habit, but then Kay surprised him by coming home.

[161] She would have known Michael's face very well, and so maybe he decided to kill her so she wouldn't be able to identify him.

[162] Edmonds thanked Mitch for his help and ultimately let him go.

[163] Then he summoned Michael to the station.

[164] When Michael arrived, Edmonds led him into the small interrogation room and the two sat down on opposite sides of a table.

[165] Michael was quiet and very polite and as he sat there, he absently ran his hands through his dark black hair.

[166] Edmonds was very blunt and he asked Michael if he was still using drugs.

[167] Michael admitted that he was.

[168] He said he was still fighting his heroin addiction and in fact that day he had used methadone to try to curb his heroin cravings.

[169] Methadone is a medication that's often used to help people reduce or stop their use of heroin or other opiates.

[170] And so because Edmonds had wondered if Michael went to Kay's house to rob her to pay for drugs, Edmonds began to zero in on where Michael had been before the handyman Mitch had discovered the break -in at Kay's house.

[171] Michael stayed calm and polite.

[172] He claimed that his mother had dropped him off at 7 a .m. for a house painting job.

[173] But when Edmonds pressed Michael for details about this job, Michael's story fell apart.

[174] He couldn't say who he was working for or even where the job was.

[175] Now, Michael was starting to shift around in his seat uncomfortably.

[176] So Edmonds asked him again where he had been when Kay was attacked.

[177] Michael admitted he had been lying about the house painting job, but only because he didn't want his mother to know he was unemployed.

[178] He said he had really been watching TV at a friend's house.

[179] Edmonds was very annoyed that Michael had just lied to him, so he got up and walked out of the room.

[180] and Edmonds would keep Michael in that interrogation room for three more hours while he decided what to do with him.

[181] And in the end, Edmonds and his team, despite their suspicions, knew they really had no evidence linking Michael directly to this crime, so they couldn't just hold him indefinitely.

[182] But just before Edmonds was about to turn Michael loose, on a hunch, he asked Michael if he could look at the bottom of his sneakers.

[183] And when Michael showed him, Edmund saw that wedged into one of the of one of his shoes was a gleaming shard of glass.

[184] When Edmonds asked Michael where the glass came from, Michael had no explanation.

[185] And so, as Michael walked out the door of the sheriff's office, he didn't know it, but he had just become Sergeant Edmund's primary suspect.

[186] Not long after Michael left the sheriff's office, his 19 -year -old brother, Chris, arrived for his interview.

[187] Chris was everything that Michael was not.

[188] He had a job, he had his own house, he had respectable friends, and he was so nervous when he sat down for his interview that Edmonds had to keep reassuring him that he was not actually in trouble yet.

[189] Chris said that he had gotten up that morning at about 7 a .m. He'd barely had enough time to brush his teeth before his mother, Becky, pulled up to his house.

[190] He had agreed to go work with Becky that day at the physical therapy clinic where she was the office manager.

[191] Chris was going to help out with several odd jobs around the building, but when his brother Michael had called about the break -in, Chris and his mom had left the clinic right away.

[192] Then Edmonds got Chris talking about his brother Michael, and the conversation soon turned to Michael's drug habit.

[193] Chris confirmed that his brother was taking methadone again and struggling with his heroin addiction, and he was hanging with a very bad crowd.

[194] At this, Edmonds immediately grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, and he asked Chris to tell him the names of the people Michael was spending his time with, who in theory might commit the kind of violent crime he was investigating.

[195] Chris looked at him and he said, you might need a larger piece of paper.

[196] I'm Dan Tversky.

[197] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[198] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[199] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[200] She's like, I can't.

[201] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[202] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[203] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[204] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[205] Well, you were holding something back.

[206] Intentionally.

[207] Yeah, well, yeah.

[208] No, it's hysteria.

[209] It's all in your head.

[210] It's not physical.

[211] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[212] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[213] Or is it something else entirely?

[214] Something's wrong here.

[215] Something's not right.

[216] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[217] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[218] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[219] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early.

[220] and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[221] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good.

[222] You are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[223] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[224] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[225] And as the name suggests, it's a show about Medical Mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge and the show is awesome.

[226] In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[227] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[228] Go follow Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[229] By midday on March 26th, so 24 hours after Kay had been discovered, Sergeant Edmonds was totally exhausted because basically he hadn't slept for the last 24 hours.

[230] But he knew he had a killer loose in his town, so he had no choice but to press on.

[231] And the more he found out, the more he suspected Kay's neighbor, Michael.

[232] First, Edmonds talked to the friend who Michael said he was with at the time of the murder.

[233] In a recorded conversation at the sheriff's office, Michael's friend emphatically said that he and Michael really had been watching TV together when Kay was attacked.

[234] But the friend offered to take a polygraph test right then and there, and he failed.

[235] Then, later in the afternoon, Edmonds called the owner of the physical therapy clinic where Kay's friend Becky worked, and the owner told Edmonds that Becky's son, Michael, had once stolen a company checkbook and written about $800 in bad checks before he was caught.

[236] The owner said he had agreed not to call the police after Becky had promised him that her son, Michael, would never step foot in the clinic again.

[237] But Edmonds still wondered whether the seemingly very laid -back and low -key Michael really had it in him to commit such a totally violent crime on this woman who seemed totally defenseless, but the evidence really was increasingly against Michael.

[238] The murder was looking more and more like a robbery gone wrong, either committed by Michael or one of his friends, and very likely just to get money for drugs.

[239] That evening, Michael and Chris's mother, Becky, was leaving work at the physical therapy clinic, and as she was walking down a dark walkway towards the parking lot, she thought she heard something in the bushes behind her.

[240] Becky turned around to see what the noise was, and she was totally startled to see a man wearing black clothes with a white baseball cap standing there in the bushes.

[241] Becky froze, and the man just started shouting at her that he wanted his money.

[242] Becky said she had no idea what he was talking about, but the man clearly was not playing around because he raised a gun and started waving it right in Becky's face.

[243] But Becky really didn't know anything about any money, and so kept saying, I don't know, I don't know.

[244] Finally, the man seemed to have enough, and he lowered the gun from Becky's face to her left leg and he fired it right into her left shin.

[245] The bullet glanced off the bone and grazed Becky's right ankle.

[246] She felt a sharp pain rushing through both her legs and she collapsed to the ground.

[247] As Becky lay there stunned and bleeding, staring up waiting to get shot again, the man actually lowered the gun and said, next time he was going to shoot her right in the face.

[248] Then the man just turned and ran off into the darkness.

[249] Becky, who was totally in shock and had no idea what was going on.

[250] on, still managed to grab her phone in her pocket and she called 911.

[251] After an ambulance arrived and took Becky to the hospital, Sheriff's deputies searched the nearby woods for the shooter.

[252] They didn't find him, but all of them assumed one thing.

[253] This attack was not random.

[254] This shooting had to be connected to the break -ins on Hot Springs Drive and to Kay's murder.

[255] Becky was resting comfortably in her hospital bed when Sergeant Edmonds arrived to speak with her.

[256] Becky seemed perfectly fine to talk about what happened, and she would give Sergeant Edmonds a very detailed account of her attack.

[257] But when Edmonds asked her if there was any way her son Michael could have had something to do with this shooting, she was very quick to project it.

[258] Edmonds speculated to Becky that perhaps her son Michael owed the shooter drug money, so the shooter was taking it out on Michael's mother.

[259] But Becky would respond by saying no, her son used to owe people money, but he didn't anymore.

[260] He didn't have debts anywhere.

[261] Edmonds could see this line of questioning was likely going nowhere because Becky, despite her situation, seemed to be very set on protecting her kids, which makes sense, you know, even if her son was guilty, she's going to protect him.

[262] So Edmonds decided to try a new tactic.

[263] He asked Becky if she had any relationship troubles.

[264] Was there anyone in her personal circle who might want to hurt her?

[265] Becky didn't answer.

[266] She turned away from Edmonds and just kind of stared off into the distance.

[267] Then, without looking at him, she told him that she had a terrible secret that she had to get off her chest.

[268] Then, Becky told Edmonds she had cheated on her husband.

[269] She said her husband was a truck driver, which meant he was away a lot, and during his absences, she had turned to another man for comfort.

[270] But she insisted the affair was over, and that she and her husband were working out their issues now.

[271] Edmonds had a lot more questions, but right at that moment, nurses began coming in and out of Becky's room to check on her, so for the time being, Edmonds just kind of let the topic slide without even finding out who this other man was who Becky had been romantically involved with.

[272] The next morning, March 27th, Edmonds was hoping that his third cup of coffee might finally wake him up.

[273] His investigation was only a few days in, but Edmonds had been going nonstop.

[274] Just then, Sergeant Edmonds' phone rang, and so he picked it up, and before he could even call out a greeting, the person who was calling him said they had information about case murder that he needed to hear.

[275] Edmonds asked who the caller was, but they would only say they were close to Becky and her family.

[276] Then the caller said they knew who Becky was having an affair with.

[277] It was Kay's husband, David.

[278] The caller said the neighbors Becky and David had been having the affair for six months before the murder, writing love letters back and forth and hooking up all over town.

[279] Becky wanted both of them to leave their spouses so they could be together, but David was worried that he would lose custody of his son if he split from his wife.

[280] After the anonymous caller hung up, Edmonds desperately wanted to talk to Kay's husband, David, but he knew he would have to wait until after Kay's funeral, which was that afternoon.

[281] At Kay's funeral, David was surrounded by loving supporters who had no idea that he had been cheating on his murdered wife.

[282] But one of Kay's closest friends couldn't shake the feeling that David was acting strangely for a man at his wife's funeral.

[283] When she had given David a hug, he told her that he was sorry and that he never wanted this to happen.

[284] friend didn't understand what that meant, but she didn't think it was the right time to ask.

[285] At the end of the service, David, Becky, and all of Kay's loved ones looked on with sorrowful expressions as six pallbearers carried Kay's casket out of the church.

[286] Then the pallbearers put the casket into a hearse for the trip to the cemetery.

[287] David walked with his son to a waiting car that would follow the hearse, but Sergeant Edmonds approached and stopped them.

[288] Edmonds took David by the arm and quietly told him that they needed to talk right away.

[289] He said he understood that the family was obviously grieving, but really this couldn't wait.

[290] Edmonds asked David to come to the station right after Kay was interred.

[291] That evening, David looked emotionally raw and weary when he sat down across from Edmonds in the small interrogation room at the sheriff's station.

[292] Edmonds then told David point -blank that he was in serious trouble and that he would not be doing his son or his family any good if he lied right now to the police and ended up going to jail.

[293] David seemed to know what this was about, and he nodded in agreement.

[294] Then Edmonds asked him about the affair with Becky, and David definitely saw this coming because right away he just began confessing.

[295] David said his affair with Becky had started about six months earlier when she had flirted with him on the tennis court.

[296] They had been playing doubles against Becky's husband and Kay when Becky had made a bad shot.

[297] She had leaned in close and said to David that she was playing badly because he was distracting her.

[298] Not long after that, the two began meeting at his house, her mother's house, or in their cars like it was some kind of high school romance.

[299] David said that he and Becky had pledged their love for each other, but he was just not ready to upset his own marriage.

[300] He worried that if he got divorced, Kay would take their son far away from him and prevent him from seeing him.

[301] So David and Becky's affair remained secret.

[302] But then David said he had broken things off with Becky a month before Kay's murder.

[303] David had told Becky they couldn't be together, at least until his 12 -year -old son had graduated from college.

[304] David said that Becky was devastated, but she had accepted his decision and decided instead to focus on her own relationship with her husband.

[305] And Becky really had begun working on that relationship with a bracing dose of honesty.

[306] She admitted to her husband that she had been having an affair with their neighbor, David, and her husband did not take it well.

[307] He was shocked and furious and he immediately called Kay to ask if she knew that her husband David was having an affair with his wife Becky.

[308] Kay was totally caught off guard and said she absolutely did not know that.

[309] After that, David had had no choice but to confess to Kay about the affair and then beg for Kay's forgiveness.

[310] And to his surprise, Kay had accepted his apology and said they would work through their crisis together.

[311] But Kay had said she would not have her family living next door to Becky any longer.

[312] She wanted to sell the house immediately.

[313] Kay had also quit her job where she and Becky worked together and she vowed never to speak to her former friend again.

[314] David said he was done speaking to Becky too and that he was ready to make a fresh start.

[315] When David finished talking, Edmonds just stared at him for a second and then looked down at his notes.

[316] Edmonds had all of David's cell phone records and he knew that David had continued talking to Becky after their supposed at breakup, including a call that lasted nearly two hours on the night before K's murder.

[317] And when Edmonds brought this up to David, that clearly David had just lied to him about his real relationship with Becky, David's face turned beat red, but he pressed ahead again.

[318] He admitted he had spoken to Becky numerous times after the breakup, but it was just to see how she was holding up.

[319] But on the night before K's murder, when David was in Los Angeles on business, he admitted that that long conversation he had had with Becky had turned sexual.

[320] and on that call, they had both admitted that they still had strong feelings for each other.

[321] Edmund said that could explain the call David made the night before the murder, but David had also called Becky right around the time Kay was bludgeon to death, so Edmonds wanted to know what that call was about.

[322] David said he had only talked to Becky on the morning of the murder because at the time he'd been worried about his wife.

[323] Kay hadn't picked up when he had called her, so kind of out of desperation, he had just called Becky to see if maybe she had heard anything about Kay.

[324] Edmonds didn't say anything back to David, but inside, he wondered if the real reason David had called right at that time was to find out if his wife had been murdered yet.

[325] David seemed to know exactly what Sergeant Edmonds was thinking, so David quickly denied having anything to do with Kay's death.

[326] He said the last thing he would ever want to do was take his son's mother away from him.

[327] Before David could say anything else, Edmonds cut him off and said, you know, desperate people do desperate things.

[328] At this, David just kind of hunched over and fell silent.

[329] It was now dark outside, and the interview had gone on for three and a half hours.

[330] Edmund stood up, stretched, excused himself, and walked out of the room.

[331] Then once he was outside the room, he watched from the other side of the one -way glass as David started to cry, and as he cried, all they could hear David saying to himself was, everyone is going to blame me. Edmonds knew David had been in Los Angeles at the time of case murder.

[332] But after this meeting with David, he thought David could have been involved in some way.

[333] After all, David's wife was murdered, and the woman he'd been having an affair with was in the hospital from a gunshot wound.

[334] Later that evening, Edmonds was at his desk when he received a very strange call from an inmate at the county jail.

[335] The inmate said he knew who killed Kay Parsons.

[336] Edmonds asked why he should trust a guy who was in jail at the time when Kay had died, so how could he possibly know the truth, and the inmate just said, Edmonds really needed to trust him because before he ended up in jail, Kay's killer had asked him to help with this murder.

[337] Edmonds was reasonably convinced that this guy had real information, but the inmate made it clear to Edmonds that he wanted to give him the information in person.

[338] So Edmonds hung up and he immediately headed to the jail.

[339] And Edmonds was waiting inside of an interview room when guards escorted in a middle -aged man dressed in pink jail sweats and flip -flops.

[340] The inmate did not hold anything back when he spoke to Edmonds, and by the time Edmonds left the county jail, he had multiple new leads to follow up on, and within days those leads would pay off, and the police would finally figure out who had killed Kay.

[341] Based on information provided by that inmate, evidence found at the crime scene, and interviews conducted throughout the investigation, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Kay Parsons on the morning of March 25, 2009.

[342] At around 7 .15 a .m., the killer saw Kay's car driving down the street towards her house.

[343] So the killer quickly darted around to the back of Kay's house to those French doors.

[344] The killer had a claw hammer in their hand, and so after looking around to make sure nobody could see them, they raised that hammer and then smashed in one of the glass panes on the French doors.

[345] Then the killer reached in through the opening, unlocked the door, and stepped inside of Kay's kitchen.

[346] Now, at the same time this was happening, K actually was entering the home through the front door.

[347] And so the killer figured, Kay must have heard the glass shattering.

[348] So the killer just kind of clutched their hammer tight and waited to see what Kay would do.

[349] A few seconds later, Kay walked into the kitchen to see what was going on and she saw a person standing there carrying a hammer and so naturally she began to scream.

[350] Before Kay could turn and run though, the killer leapt at her and swung the hammer wildly.

[351] Kay immediately threw her arms up to protect her head and her face, but the killer just kept beating her arms with the hammer over and over again until she lowered them, at which point the killer began smashing Kay in the head and the torso, and blood began spraying everywhere.

[352] Kay stumbled backwards out of the kitchen, barely conscious, but somehow she managed to turn and actually run away from her killer.

[353] The killer was totally shocked that at this point Kay was still in her feet, And so for a second, the killer just stood there watching as Kay kind of stumbled down the hallway.

[354] But when Kay actually reached the door that led into the garage, the killer kind of realized what they needed to do, and they chased after Kay.

[355] And so Kay, she gets that door open and she manages to walk into the garage, but by this point she had lost so much blood, she was so badly beaten, that she just fell to the ground right by her parked car.

[356] The killer rushed into the garage after her and then stood over Kay and raised the hammer, but the hammer was so slick from all the blood on it that when they tried to bring it down, it slipped out of their hand and slid under Kay's car.

[357] In a panic, the killer looked around the garage for another weapon to finish Kay off, and their eyes fell on the aluminum bat propped up against the wall.

[358] The killer lunged for the bat and then came back over to Kay, and they stood there bludgeoning her over and over and over again until she wasn't moving.

[359] The killer, the garage, and Kay were now all covered in blood.

[360] And the killer was reasonably sure that at this point, Kay was dead.

[361] They had no idea she actually still had a pulse.

[362] The killer dropped the bat and ran back into the house.

[363] They trashed every room inside, throwing things on the ground and doing whatever they could to make it look like this was a robbery.

[364] Then, feeling satisfied, the killer crept out through the open French door, stepping on broken glass as they left.

[365] Once they were outside, the killer glanced back and forth to make sure nobody had seen them.

[366] Then they ran right next door into Becky's house and ransacked that place too.

[367] But then, after they were done, instead of leaving, the killer stripped off their bloody clothes and found a fresh set of clothes in that house to change into, and then they grabbed their phone and called their mother.

[368] It would turn out Becky's heroin addict son, Michael, who everybody assumed was involved in some way with this murderer, had nothing to do with it.

[369] Becky's other son, Chris, the so -called good son, he had been the one who murdered Kay.

[370] Chris had always been Becky's favorite child, and he would do anything to make his mom happy.

[371] Becky had told Chris things about her life that she would never tell her other son Michael.

[372] So Chris was aware of the fact that his mom was having an affair with their neighbor, David, and that she believed David was actually still in love with her.

[373] And so Chris also came to believe that his neighbor, Kay, was actually standing in the way of his mother's happiness.

[374] In fact, Becky had even said to Chris that she wanted Kay dead.

[375] And all of this information began to come to light when Sergeant Edmonds met with the inmate who had called him.

[376] It turned out the inmate was Becky's own brother.

[377] And he told Sergeant Edmonds that Becky had asked him if he knew anyone who could kill Kay and make it look like an accident.

[378] At first he had thought she was joking, but after Becky kept pressing him, he knew.

[379] she was serious.

[380] So when he learned that Kay really had been killed, he was sure his sister had something to do with it.

[381] And so that's why he reached out to Sergeant Edmonds.

[382] Now, after hearing this from the inmate, Edmonds still believed that Michael had to be involved, that maybe Becky had asked him to carry out the murder.

[383] But when Edmonds questioned Michael again, it was clear the young man had no idea about its mother's affair.

[384] So Edmonds went back to the hospital to meet with Becky, who was still recovering from her gunshot wounds.

[385] Edmonds interrogated Becky, and she finally cracked.

[386] She admitted that she had told her other son Chris all about the affair and about how much she hated Kay, but Becky didn't stop there.

[387] She told Edmonds that she had asked Chris to confront Kay on her behalf on the morning of the murder.

[388] But she said she didn't think her son would do anything violent.

[389] But after Chris had just killed Kay and then came back to his own house and staged another break -in and changed out of his bloody clothes, he had called his mother and told her, had just murdered Kay.

[390] She had driven to the house, picked Chris up, and gone with him to dispose of his bloody clothes, and then when they came back to the house, because her other son Michael had called her saying, oh my goodness, our house has been broken into.

[391] When she and Chris came back, all the police were there, and she would tell the police right away that she and Chris had been working at the clinic all that morning.

[392] And then after that, Becky and Chris had staged the shooting outside of Becky's work.

[393] Chris was the shooter who had leapt out of the bushes.

[394] Becky hoped this shooting would remove suspicion from her and her family and allow Chris to get away with Kay's murder.

[395] Even after admitting all of that, Becky still insisted that she had nothing to do with Kay's death.

[396] She told Edmonds that she had just totally messed up when she had given her son Chris the impression that she really wanted him to go do something horrible to Kay.

[397] But police and prosecutors did not believe that Becky was as innocent as she let on, and so both she and her son Chris were arrested.

[398] In the end, Becky and Chris pleaded guilty to the murder of K. Parsons in order to avoid the death penalty.

[399] Both are now serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

[400] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[410] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[411] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[412] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reid was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[413] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[414] What happens next?

[415] Depends on who you ask.

[416] Was it a crime of passion?

[417] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[418] This was clearly an intentional act.

[419] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[420] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[421] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[422] Everyone had an opinion.

[423] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[424] To end in a mistrial, it's just a, confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[425] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[426] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondry Plus.

[427] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.