Rural Crimes | “48 Hours" Full Episodes | Forensic Files

Whoever went into this house, they went in there with one motive to execute the people that were inside.
There were three victims shot >> each with single shotgun blast. The shooter comes to carry first fires.
>> He was a wonderful husband. He was a wonderful father and he was just a good man.
My name is Robin Height and my husband Carrie Height was murdered and it's been really, really hard.
>> The shooter leaves Carrie, proceeds to the parents' bedroom. The second shot was to Philillip.
>> Carrie and Mr. Phillip were very, very close and they saw each other every day.
>> Linda was the mother. She's coming out of the bathroom to see what's going on
cuz she doesn't have a clue. >> I opened the bathroom door and went in and said, "Phillip."
And then I saw the blast as the gun was turned on me. >> The left side of her face was
extensively damaged and then the shot continued through her right shoulder. >> I remember waking up and I was on the
floor and I prayed. I remember very distinctly saying, "God, if we're going to do this, I need your strength because
I have none of my own." >> Effingham 911. >> Shot. >> You're shot. >> Get James 10:18. Hurry up.
>> Stay with me, ma'am. Keep talking to me. >> God took over. He was showing me what to
do and telling me what to do. Whoever shot Linda meant to kill her. So, I was very concerned for her safety,
>> but everybody here feels like Robin had something to do with it. And what part
does she play in this? >> I think she was the catalyst that caused all of this to happen.
>> What is your view on Robin's role, if any, in this whole awful thing? >> I really would rather not comment on
that. And I don't really worry about what people say. >> Does she or doesn't she know?
>> I had a secret and once that secret was exposed, hell broke loose. Family affair. Tonight's 48 hours
mystery. August 25th, 2008, hours before dawn. >> James 1018. >> Sheriff Jimmy McDuffy was called to a
house on Springfield, Egypt Road. He braced himself for what lay ahead. >> Somebody had been killed, at least two.
I did not know who it was. They just gave us an address on the page. At some point, and I don't remember where that
was at. It was like, "Oh my god, that's got to be Philip's house." Philillip was Philip Height, a man to be
reckoned with in Effingham County, Georgia, and a pal of McDuffy's. >> I knew Philillip ever since I came to
the county back in probably 87, 88. Height was a successful real estate developer who'd made millions in the
sprawling county, which is about an hour north of Savannah. Patriarch of a close-knit family, he'd
been married to wife Linda for 42 years. We met at the county fair in Savannah, and he stole my heart right away.
And um things weren't always easy, but you know, there was love. The couple had three sons, Craig, Chris, and Carrie.
>> Good men, fine men, churchgoing men. They had values and they believed in each other.
>> We all got along well. >> Chris Height was the middle son. >> Uh we were families. Nobody was perfect,
but we we grew up uh very close together. Each of us had our own personalities. Were the brothers very different?
>> They're all three pretty different. Yeah. Um Chris and Craig are the most alike. They both like to hunt outdoors,
things like that. And Carrie was the baby of the family. >> It was Carrie who followed his dad into
real estate, becoming his business partner. And he and wife Robin had three kids of their own.
>> Carrie and I met in high school our senior year in English class. >> You got a big smile when you said that.
>> Yeah. Um, we were really good friends in the beginning and realized that I was in
love with Carrie and not long after high school we got married. >> When he asked you to marry him then this
just seemed like this was meant to be. >> It was definitely meant to be. Yes. The height clan was turning out just as
its patriarch had hoped. >> Philip wanted the family to be perfect. Good Christian family, good folks. Uh,
Philip was just he was a man of the house. >> Popular. >> Popular. Extremely. >> Murder just didn't fit with the
seemingly perfect family the sheriff knew so well. Too well for him to oversee the case. He decided. So that
first day, he turned it over to the GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. >> I arrived at the scene at approximately
8:45 that morning. In charge was agent Eugene Howard, who quickly realized that the crime scene was not what it seemed.
The scene was staged to look like it was a burglary. >> The killer had cut the phone lines and
smashed a pane of glass in a door. >> There was nothing of note taken. Jury was still present. Nothing was rummaged
through. There was money left out. No impression that anything was taken from the residence.
>> So you think that's just because the person panicked and fled before they had
a chance to take anything or >> No, robbery wasn't the motive. Murder was the motive.
>> Both of the men had similar injury wounds. That is shotgun wound to the face.
>> Based on those injuries and the pellets found at the scene, medical examiner Dr.
James D says the shooter used a 12 gauge shotgun. up close and personal. >> How close roughly are we talking about
here? >> Based on what I see at the the scene, looking at the photographs, my estimate
was something like 2 feet. You're 2 feet away. My goodness, you don't really need to aim. You just kind
of point and shoot. To get an idea of the damage a 12 gauge shotgun does at such close range, we
asked the sheriff's firearms instructor, Ed Mrick, to demonstrate. >> What exactly do we have here?
>> This is the uh Remington 870. This is their most popular shotgun. >> The gun is similar to the one used by
the killer. Loaded with the same type of 3-in shells and the same type of buckshot.
>> If you're going to fire that at someone, it's a deadly force incident. Jeez. Oh my god.
>> Given the close range, Linda too probably would have died instantly had she not turned her head at the moment of
impact. >> It's amazing that she did survive because basically it looks like she was
left for dead. >> But almost as if the power of those shotgun blasts wasn't enough, the gunman
next drenched the entire house in gasoline. A lot of gasoline, >> gas fumes out by the road was just
horrific. >> You could even smell it from the road. >> You could smell it from the road.
>> I wrote down in my journal that I knew what hell smelled like. >> What hell smelled like?
>> Gasoline and gunpowder. >> Wow. >> I remember smelling the gas. Yes. >> You had gasoline on your clothes?
>> Yeah. Well, I was sitting on the floor, so I knew they were wet. >> But the killer never set the gas ablaze.
perhaps panicking when he heard Linda's desperate call to 911. >> Where are you, ma'am?
>> Where are >> news of the murders spread quickly in this rural southern community and so did
fear. >> They must have thought a killer was out on the loose. >> They did. >> Investigators checked the alibi of a
local drug dealer but quickly ruled him out. They next turned their attention to
the Heights real estate dealings. >> Every time Philip had had an argument with somebody, you know, we had to go
and investigate and talk to those folks, see what was going on with it. >> They found no motive and no suspect. But
then McDuffy recalled an unsettling conversation he'd had with Carrie Height only a month earlier.
>> He knew that his wife was running around on him. Oh. But he did not tell me who
it was with. >> That must have been something of a shock. >> It was because every time you saw them
together, it was just like the the perfect family. >> Hardly. As the whole county soon would
learn, not only was Robin having an affair, it was with none other than Craig Height, her husband's own brother.
>> I am definitely a woman in the center of a storm. Only hours into the height murder
investigation, as Linda Height fought for her life, the whispers began. Rumors that this
seemingly perfect southern family was anything but. It's not something that I'm proud of,
but it's a mistake that anyone could make. Robin Height's mistake was having an affair. That happens, but with your
husband's brother. Robin admits she made the first move on her brother-in-law, Craig.
>> I told him that I had feelings for him that were more than, you know, brother
and sister-in-law feelings. and he said that he shared the same feelings. It just took off from there.
>> Craig Height, self-described black sheep of the family, was divorced, owed child
support, was unemployed, and lived off disability checks. And Robin found him irresistible.
>> What? You were head over heels in love? >> I was infatuated, not love. >> You still loved your husband?
>> I did. Where did you think this was going to go? >> I wasn't really sure. I was really
confused and I told Carrie about it two weeks into the affair. >> Was he prepared for this?
>> No, he wasn't prepared and Craig did not want me to tell Carrie. >> Why did you?
>> I just couldn't hide it from him. He knew that something was wrong with me and that I wasn't acting like myself.
But telling her husband about the affair didn't stop Robin from pursuing it. Never mind that brother-in-law thing.
Never mind her three children who at that point were 10, seven, and three years old.
>> I definitely wasn't thinking about my children when I did it. How it would affect them.
>> The relationship got more intense with Robin and Craig often sneaking off to this isolated hunting cabin.
Whenever people hear about these situations, they say, "This is why there's divorce." You know, people just
sometimes these things happen and people get divorced. >> It was very complicated because Carrie
was very dead set against a divorce. >> Sickness. >> He told me when we got married that he
that we were going to be married for life. Her husband was distraught, but he was no fool. A few weeks before he died,
Carrie Height changed his $3.5 million life insurance policy, removing Robin as the beneficiary.
>> I did not find out until after Carrie passed away that he had the life insurance money put into a trust fund
for our three children. >> And his father, Philip, told Craig flat out, "Knock it off with your brother's
wife or lose your entire inheritance." There was a lot of tension. Very heated conversations.
Several very heated conversations. I got to tell you, Robin, this is a mess. It was a very much mess.
The weekend before the murders, August 2008. Once again, Robin was at Craig's cabin.
>> So, I had a few drinks there and ended up staying that night. She and Craig get a rude awakening the
next morning. >> We heard a helicopter that sounded like it was very low. >> Philillip had tracked them down,
enlisting a friend with a helicopter to take photos to get hard evidence of Robin's infidelity.
>> I looked at Craig and I said, "That helicopter is here watching us." >> And what was Craig's reaction to this?
>> Very angry. and that Carrie and Philip better watch out or he was going to play
old school on them. >> Which means what? >> I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what that
meant. >> She then went home where she and husband Carrie had a nasty argument. And how did
this end? >> Him leaving and he said, "I'm going to go stay with mom and dad tonight."
>> Had he ever done that before? >> No. Everyone was very upset, very on pins and needles, not knowing what to say or
what to do or how they could help. >> And how did you expect this was going to be resolved? I thought that Carrie and
Robin would probably divorce and then if the situation between Craig and Robin still worked out that they
would be together. Later that Sunday, Robin called her lover Craig. >> I told him that Carrie had left and he
asked me where he had gone and I said that he had gone to um his parents and he said, "Okay."
>> It was the night of the murders. >> When did you find out what had happened? >> Um around 5:00 in the morning on Monday
morning. I was asleep and um I heard knocking on the door. >> Detectives gave Robin the news.
>> I'm just kidding. >> And the detective asked me if I knew of anyone that would have wanted to hurt
Carrie and Phillip. And I just said, I can't I mean, I just can't think of anything right now. I
just I was just in shock. >> Craig doesn't just instantly occur to you. >> No. >> As many fights as they'd had and as much
bad blood as there was at this point. >> It did not. It did not come in my mind right away.
>> But she confronted her lover that afternoon. >> I walked right up to him and I said,
"Did you do this?" And he said, "I can't believe you would ask me that." I said, "I need a yes or no. Did you do
this?" And he said, "No." >> And you believed him. >> I did cuz the Craig Height that I know
couldn't commit such an act. >> Investigators weren't so sure. As Linda Height slowly recovered, they all
wondered the same thing. >> She's the only surviving witness of the crime. Could she identify the killer?
>> Crime scene investigators have yet to leave the scene of the Heights home on Springfield Egypt Road. Philip
>> By noon the day of the murders, Robin Height had admitted to investigators that the shocking rumors were true. Yes,
she was having an affair with her brother-in-law, Craig. Why are we getting indication that you
had sexual relations with Robin? >> But Craig was having none of it. >> I am not having sex with Robin.
>> He says flat out, "No affair." >> He denied that there wasn't an affair at all.
>> I know that it looks bad, but I'm going to tell you something. I couldn't do that to my brother.
>> How'd that make you feel? >> I can't even describe how it made me feel sick. Over the next few days, when talking
with police at the crime scene, Craig made several more startling statements. >> He pointed out to the officer that was
present that was doing security that his shotgun was missing. >> Had the officer asked about his shotgun?
>> No. He later said that his boots were missing. >> Hadn't asked about that either.
>> Hadn't asked. And through conversation with both Craig and his brother, they said at one point that they thought a
gas can was missing. A shotgun, boots, a gas can. All missing. All possibly related to the crime and all tied to
Craig Height. >> Did he have an alibi for that night? >> No. Actually, he was the only one that
did not have an alibi. >> Prosecutor Michael Muldrew. >> He lied about things that he didn't even
need to lie about. It's just his character. >> I swear to you my mama's life. >> He lied, says Moldrew. even when taking
a lie detector test. What questions did he fail? >> It was something to the effect of, were
you holding a shotgun when your parents were killed? I believe >> that's a pretty significant question.
>> Yeah. >> And when agent Howard asked Craig directly had he killed his father and
brother and shot his mother in the face, Craig said he didn't know >> if he did it. He had no recollection of
it. >> He actually said that >> basically. Yes. >> Do suspects often say this? >> No. And we commonly call that in law
enforcement just the wrong answer. >> But the answer investigators most wanted was from the grievously wounded Linda
Height. Could she identify the killer, though improving in a Savannah hospital, she was still unable to talk? And then
one day, an officer guarding Linda saw something that set off alarm bells. Craig had entered the room, put his hand
on his mother's and said, "Mom, this is Craig." And her blood pressure went from, I believe was 98 and skyrocketed
to about 140. Her eyes got really wide, and it appeared that she had been shaking as if she was afraid.
>> James Dingle was on duty that day. >> What did you take from that? >> I took that she she was scared for a
reason. >> Linda Height says that is ridiculous. >> How do you interpret that? What do you
think was going on? >> I don't know. Maybe it was from hearing talk that was going on around me.
>> Not a fear response. >> No, not a fear response. >> Weeks later, investigators finally were
able to interview Linda. >> Could you identify the person? >> I didn't see a face or anything. I did
not see Craig in that room. I did not see anyone in there. The blast was what I saw. Can you be absolutely certain
that it was not Craig? >> Yes, I can. I know my child. I know the man he is. I know the heart he has. He
does not have a coldblooded heart. And I can be certain that Craig did not do this to our family.
>> Have you ever looked him in the eye and said, "Craig, son, did you do this?" >> Yes, I have. And he's looked me right
straight in the eye and said, "No, mama. I did not do this. I couldn't do this. >> But investigators zeroed in on Craig
Height early on and their case got stronger when agent Howard followed up on a colleagueu's hunch.
>> Investigator John Bradley with the sheriff's department mentioned, "I wonder how his arm looks."
>> Now, why would he say that? >> Typically, that type of ammo shot from that weapon will leave a bruise.
>> You'll get a big kickback. >> Yes. So Howard asked Craig to take off his shirt.
>> There was two bruises on his right bicep and one on his left. There were three shots at the home that
night. One that killed Carrie, one that killed Philillip, and the one that wounded Linda. So those bruises were
significant. >> So even an experienced hunter >> Mhm. >> would be bruised using anything that
big, >> I would think. This one right here is about 48 to 50 lbs of pressure on your
shoulder of recoil. >> So that a giant wallup. >> It is. Yes. >> Wow. >> There's no question you'd be bruised. Is
there any way to avoid it? >> I don't see how. No. >> But Craig insisted the bruises came not
from a shotgun, but from a freak fall, a misstep in the shower that sent him headirst over the toilet.
>> It was laughable. Not only was it laughable, it was scientifically and physically impossible.
>> The bruises, the affair, the lies, the missing items, all were circumstantial,
and investigators wanted a stronger case. So, the GBI just kept watching Craig Height and Robin. And so did
everyone else in town. >> It was very, very difficult. He was being, you know, basically treated as
the murderer and me as a conspirator right there along with him. And then four months after the murders,
Craig Height moved in with his brother's widow and their three kids. >> What did you think when you heard this?
>> I think the most of the community thought it was like a slap in the face. >> It didn't do anything for Craig. his
appearance of innocence for him to be staying there. >> It was not smart. It was definitely not
smart. And my family was telling me, you know, do you know how this looks? I mean, then I was like, I don't really
care what people think. I believe that he's innocent. >> But now prosecutors had their motive.
Craig wanted not just his brother's wife, but his brother's life and had killed to get it. He is living
in his dead brother's house, sleeping in his dead brother's bed next to his dead
brother's wife, is taking his dead brother's children to school, and he's driving his dead brother's truck. He has
become, for all practical purposes, Carrie Hike. Nine months after the Height family
murders came bombshell news. Craig Height was about to marry Robin, his dead brother's wife.
>> You were going to get married to Craig, take the kids, get out of Effingham. That was the plan, the future plans.
>> The community had some questions. Why aren't y'all putting him in jail? I had
one lady even call me and tell me I need to go see the governor and make the governor make GBI make an arrest.
>> Finally, in May 2009, the GBI made its move, arresting Craig Height for the murder of his brother.
>> Did that shake your faith in him? >> No. I was convinced he was innocent and that he was being treated unfairly.
Craig also was charged with killing his father, Philillip, and attempting to kill his mother, Linda.
But she is convinced that her oldest son is innocent, denying suspicions that she
secretly knows otherwise. As a mother, I could not sacrifice the son that was killed and my husband that
was killed to protect another son if I really thought that that son did that. >> And brother Chris is just as sure.
>> It took a coward to walk in 3:00 in the morning into a dark home and do what they did uh to our family. That's not
Craig. Craig's not a murderer. But prosecutors think a jury will decide that's exactly what he is. On December
1st, 2010, the murder trial of Craig Height begins here in the Effingham County Courthouse.
>> We're here today in the case of the state of Georgia versus Craig Height. >> When you sit down and dispassionately
look at the evidence, it couldn't be anybody but him. District Attorney Michael Moldrew argues
that the shooting made perfect sense if you thought about it as Craig did. >> The only way I'm going to have Robin
Height and have peace is mama, daddy, and Carrie have to be eliminated from the equation. He wanted the big house.
He wanted the kids that adored him. He wanted to drive around in the nice truck to live the life of leisure of a
southern gentleman, so to speak. Craig's lawyer, Dao Bonds, says the public perception that Craig somehow was
trying to become his brother is completely distorted. >> The first thing I noticed about Craig
when I first met him is what a genuine person he was and what a gentleman he was.
>> Almost entirely circumstantial, conjecture, speculation, theory. >> What shocked me was just a clear lack of
physical evidence linking him to the murders. There was no DNA. There was no fingerprints. There were no
eyewitnesses. There were no confessions. >> Perhaps the prosecution's strongest physical evidence are the bruises on
Craig's arms. >> I was specifically asked to look at injuries to the right arm. >> To the medical examiner, Dr. DS, the
explanation is obvious. >> I think they're very consistent with someone who had fired a shotgun.
I stepped out of this tub like this right here. >> But Craig sticks to his story that he
got the bruises in that bizarre bathroom tumble onto the toilet. >> It fell like that right there and landed
on a commode like that right there. >> An event he recreated with himself in the starring role.
>> Craig, are you okay? What in the world happened? Well, here I am naked, you know. And I said, "No, don't come. No,
nobody come in here." The video was made before Craig Height had a lawyer. >> If I had been representing him at that
time, I would have said, you know, don't re a reenactment is not a good idea. >> So, you hit right up in here.
>> I guess I mean, I know that whenever I wound up, >> if you look at what Craig was thinking
at the time he did that, he was trying to assist them in their investigation. He was cooperating with them.
>> It just all happened so fast. That's just how I wound up, you know. Prosecutor Moldru shows the video in
court, telling the jury Craig could not possibly have gotten those bruises falling on a toilet.
>> To have happened like that is truly impossible. >> They started calling me tidy bowl man.
>> Most people that saw it literally laughed at this reenact when he did. >> They laughed.
>> They laughed. It was silly. >> Brother Chris Height was not laughing then or now. The position of the bruises
on Craig's body were actually impossible to make from a shotgun. >> Chris says a shotgun would have to be
held at a ridiculous angle to get those bruises, and Craig knew better, but in the heat of murder,
>> it can come off this way. >> Firearms expert Mrick thinks a shotgun easily could slip.
>> And if it does, it's going to get more on my arm, which is going to leave more
bruising and it's going to hurt me more. So, in an ideal world, if you were shooting, the bruising would be here.
>> Correct. >> But if you're maneuvering around something or in a hurry or whatever, you
can also suffer bruises on more toward the outside of your arm. >> Exactly. If this gun slips at all, it
will fall towards your arm and it will definitely tear you alive. >> What do you believe Craig Height did
that night? >> It's not really a matter what I believe it is. That's what I know he did.
>> For Maldru, the key to the case against Craig is quite literally a key. >> He knew something that very few people
knew, and that is the location and presence of another key, an outside key, which people commonly have.
>> The prosecutor thinks Craig smashed the pane of glass to fake a burglary, when
in reality, he simply opened the door with that spare key. He knew where that key would have been
located. He took that key, opened the door, went in. >> The cops later found that key
in the door. Once inside, according to Muldrew, Craig methodically went room to room, shooting
his brother, his father, and his mother. All for the love of Robin. Do you think their affair had anything
whatsoever to do with the murders? >> She's definitely responsible for Carrie being in the home that night, 100%. If
Carrie was living happily at his house, he'd have never been at my mother and father's that night.
>> His mother and brother stand by him. >> Let's hide, if you would please come to
witness stand. But if Craig Height thinks his former lover and sister-in-law is still with him, he's
about to get a nasty shock. >> When I looked at him, I just felt disgust. Disgusted at the affair.
Disgust at just him, period. Let's hide, if you would please come to the witness stand.
>> Only seven months after she planned to walk down the aisle to marry Craig Height, Robin Height instead walked to
the witness box to testify against him. >> You got? >> Yes, I do. >> Murder charges will do that.
>> I wasn't comfortable with the relationship anymore. After some soularching, Robin says she realized the
man she'd once loved just might be a murderer. >> And I would finally allow things to come
into my mind and in my heart. You know, this there is, you know, there is this chance that that he could have done
this. >> She knew he was lying to her. She says, especially when he said he and Carrie
had patched things up before the shootings. The only things coming out of Car's mouth about Craig were negative.
>> But the jurors apparently were getting that same negative vibe about everything
Robin said. >> The way she threw him under the bus just I mean that told you right there. She
just used him. >> And these jurors weren't ready to throw Craig Height under the bus without
something anything that directly linked him to the murder scene. blood, fingerprints, uh, DNA. Where's
the gun? Nobody wanted to put a man away for life, you know, without it. >> That was precisely the message defense
attorney Dow Bonds wanted to get across. >> In every single critical bit of evidence, they want you to make a leap
of faith. This is a court of law. This is not a time to take leaps of faith on another man's life here. But the defense
had no qualms about appealing to the jury's emotions. >> Please look at this letter. Do you
recognize the handwriting on that letter? >> Yes, it's Phillips. >> Asking Linda to read a letter her
husband had written two weeks before the murders. Proof. Bond said that Craig had
made peace with his dad and had no reason to kill him. >> Son, I appreciate everything you do.
Remember, family is important and we will always be there for each other. Love, Dad.
>> Prosecutors pointed out the letter never was sent. >> This man desperately wanted his son to
start behaving correctly. >> And although certainly heart-wrenching, they called it irrelevant.
>> I'm sure at the time he wrote the letter, he hoped that this might somehow resolve itself so that the family had
torn apart. Craig Height never took the stand. And on day eight of the trial, the case went
to the jury. >> The first vote, I voted not guilty. >> I was leaning toward a guilty vote, but
you know, I guess I wanted to make sure that we we looked at everything as closely as we possibly could.
>> Initially, the jury split 8 to four, not guilty. >> Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the
courts informed that you breached the verdict. But after just six hours, that changed.
>> We the jury found the defendant Craig Height guilty. >> The verdict was guilty. The jury
convicting Craig Height on all 11 counts of murder, battery, burglary, and attempted arson.
>> Assault with a deadly weapon. >> What went through your mind when you heard those words?
>> Oh my lord. No way. This can't be happening. I've got to see if I can see Craig tonight.
So, I did. I went to the jail and saw him. >> And how was he? >> Very emotional.
>> So, what made the jury convict? >> Once I seen the bruises, that was like, yeah, he's guilty.
>> It was his gun missing. And to me, that was the hardest evidence. Well, >> was the constant lying about everything
and, you know, telling things before they were even asked. Craig and his family were devastated and
frustrated, insisting he didn't get a fair trial. >> In my opinion, and in a lot of the
community's opinion, the trial should have never taken place in Effingham County.
>> The judge sentenced him to the maximum, two life terms plus 85 years, making parole almost impossible.
So, how did you find out the verdict? >> A friend of mine told me >> and the sentence.
>> I felt like it was fair. >> Two life terms plus 85 years. >> Mhm. >> You felt like that was fair.
I mean, there has to be a part of you that was heartbroken over this. >> Well, I'm not rejoicing,
but I feel like they have the right person. >> But do authorities have all the right
people? Even today, some jurors aren't sure. >> Robin Height was a manipulative person
who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. >> I think Robin played him like a fiddle.
>> Is there any real evidence to link Robin to the crimes? Where along the spectrum
do you think her actions fall? I have to go by the evidence and based upon her testimony she gave against him or did
not appear at the time that she was participating in any plan >> and you believe her.
>> I didn't say that. I said we have we have to go by the evidence. >> Today, life in Effingham County has
returned to normal or as near normal as it can be in a small community where so many suspicions linger.
>> Do you see much of Robin these days? Seems like we run into her quite often around the county.
>> And how would you describe the community's take on her right now? >> That the community still wants to know
when we're going to arrest her. >> Well, are you going to arrest her? >> If we find evidence that she's done
something wrong, by all means. >> Robin says that never will happen because there is no evidence to find.
>> I know I didn't do anything. I didn't conspire with Craig. I didn't wish any harm on Carrie or Mr.
Phillip or Miss Linda. >> You've forgiven yourself. >> I have and I know that God's forgiven
me. >> Do you think the family has forgiven you? >> The height family? >> I'm not really sure. You'd have to ask
them. >> What is your view on Robin's role, if any, in this whole awful thing? >> I really would rather not comment on
that. For Linda Height, healing has been a much slower process. >> When you look at the future now, and I
assume you're doing your best to look ahead, um, what do you see for the Height family?
>> I see life. I see hope. I see love. I see truth. I see justice. And one day, peace.
This has been a Hampton County story. This has been a Hampton County scandal. >> A jury found the disgraced South
Carolina attorney guilty of murdering his wife and his youngest son. This has been the downfall of a family dynasty.
>> Today is not the end. It's the next step in a long road to justice for every person who has been victimized by Alex
Murdoch. >> Justice for Steven Smith. Alex, >> Steven Smith was another body in this
orbit of the Murd family. Steven was a gay young man in the low country of South Carolina. That is courageous in
and of itself. I can't imagine the terror he was in that night. >> In the early morning hours of July 8,
2015, 19-year-old Steven Smith was found dead in the middle of a rural road. >> There was an autopsy that basically said
it's a hit and run. >> There was no vehicle debris, no broken headlight, paint scrapes or or anything.
>> You never believed it? >> No, not at all. He never would have been walking in that
road. Not voluntarily. >> Do you believe Steven was murdered? >> I do. >> An investigation of some sort took place
that led nowhere. >> And then it went cold. >> I wanted a second opinion. >> Sandy Smith is unique in this whole
story. She doesn't know who killed her son. She doesn't know why. People in town really believed that it was
connected to the Murdoch in some way. The name Buster Murdoch kept coming up. >> I never had anything to do with his
murder and I never had anything to do with him on a physical level of of any regard.
>> The rumors also suggest uh a cover up. >> We are aware of no evidence today that
would suggest that any Murd played any role in Steven Smith's death or played any role in trying to cover up the
investigation into his death. All I want is peace in knowing what happened to my
son. He's my world and I'm going fight to the end. >> This is a woman that has fought this
battle alone since 2015, screaming as loud as she could with not a lot of people listening.
>> CBS News confirming that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is now investigating Steven Smith's death as a
homicide. The Murdoch case >> brought Steven's Cole case to life. >> Somehow someway in the Murdoch murder
investigation, a new thread was opened up into Steven Smith. >> Our primary function right now is to
have that body exumed, have a true independent set of eyes look at it and tell us once and for all what really
happened to Steven Smith. >> The gash was from part of this eyebrow across here. The injuries can tell us so
much about what happened. And in this case, they did. >> I did >> set the scene for me on July 8th, 2015
here. >> Steven was was somewhat right here in the road. >> How confident are you that you know what
happened to Steven Smith that night? I'm as close to a degree of scientific certainty as I've ever felt.
like his Mother Sandy Steven Smith was born a fighter. >> He was a preeie. He weighed 2 lb 12 oz.
>> A twin. >> Yeah, twin. >> Born at 27 weeks with his sister Stephanie. Sandy says Steven couldn't
breathe on his own. After several months, she was told he might not make it. And she was finally allowed to hold
her baby for the first time. >> How was that moment? >> Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It was
supposed to be my goodbye. But he started breathing on his own cuz he felt you. >> Yeah. That's why he was my heart.
>> Sandy never dreamed she'd one day be fighting for answers in her son's death.
>> How would you describe the journey that you've been on for justice? >> It's been a hard journey just living day
by day and fighting day by day. On July 8th, 2015, Steven was found dead on a country road in Hampton County, the same
county where three generations of Murdall men had held the top prosecutor job for nearly a century. The Murdalls
still loomed large over small town life. Alec Murd coached Steven's baseball team
at one point >> when they were little. I think Steven was like seven or eight. Steven and
Stephanie were also classmates of Mydall's older son, Buster. Before Steven went to nursing school, with
dreams of one day becoming a doctor, >> he wanted to be a doctor, but it was more expensive, so he just started with
nursing school. He loved dealing with medicine and he just loved it. >> You must have been so proud.
>> Oh, it was. >> But instead, Sandy says those dreams were buried with her son. You decided to
bury him in his scrubs. >> Scrubs. Dr. Steven Smith. He had everything he needed in his pocket. He
had a stethoscope and everything he needed. Steven had just completed a semester of school and was taking summer
classes, shuttling back and forth between his parents, who lived apart. He had visited Sandy a week before he was
killed. >> A storm started brewing. I told him that he needed to hurry up and get back to
his dad's house. So, when he made it, he texts me and says, "I made it safe, Mom.
Mama, I love you. >> Sandy says those were Steven's last words to her. Days later, she would hear
the news that would alter the course of her life. >> July 8th, I was on my way to work and I
was listening to a local radio station and I heard that they had found a body. >> Sandy called her daughter Stephanie
right away. >> She said, "Mama, did Steven stay with you last night?" Because he didn't come
home last night. Then my stomach dropped and I knew it was him. >> Sandy says Steven's father, Joel, went
to the sheriff's office for confirmation that it was Steven. That's when she says
they received a call. >> I was on the phone with Joel the whole time while we were waiting
for the sheriff to come out and that's when Joel asked me to hold on because Randy Murdo was calling. Randy Myrtle is
Alec Myrtle's older brother and had been representing Joel Smith in a workers's comp case, but now he was calling about
Steven. >> When Joel got back on the phone, he said Randy asked if that was our Steven and
that he wanted to help proono. >> Did you think it was strange that Randy offered to help proono?
>> Well, I did, but Joel thought it was a nice gesture. Later that morning, Sandy says she was
surprised again as she drove past the scene where Steven's body had reportedly been found.
>> There was Alex and Randy standing on the opposite side of the road. >> Murdoch.
>> Murdoch. >> A few minutes later, Sandy says Randy Myrtle called again >> and asked if that was me that passed by.
He said, "I wish you'd have stopped so I could have met you." Randy Murd declined
our request for an interview, but through his attorney, he provided a written statement to 48 hours in which
he said, quote, "I was not aware of Steven's death until Joel told me they wanted my involvement and I contacted
law enforcement on their behalf." Murdall said he went to the scene with a private investigator after meeting with
Joel and Stephanie, adding quote, "Claims that I visited the scene of Steven's death with my brother Alec are
false. Joel Smith passed away three months after Steven. But Stephanie and Sandy told us they
never asked the Murdals for help. And there were other things about Steven's case that didn't sit well with Sandy
from the moment the sheriff confirmed the body was Stevens. At first, he told them Steven had been shot.
>> What were you thinking? >> Who would shoot him? It made no sense. I lost it. Then I left my job and just
drove back to Hampton and we just mourned together. We just couldn't understand why or who. It was just the
biggest shock of our life. >> Within hours, Steven's cause of death was suddenly changed to a hit and run.
>> Toward the evening time, we were contacted by the sheriff's office. After his autopsy, there was not any type of
bullet or bullet fragment found in his head because his body was in the roadway. It was being ruled to hit and
run. >> Retired South Carolina Highway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore was the onseen
supervisor. >> I was told that the medical examiner made that ruling and I reached out to
her. It became a little bit heated. Give me an answer medically that would lead you to believe he was hit by a car.
There was no medical reason. >> Did you see any signs of a hit and run? >> No, ma'am. None. Any type of debris, any
kind of glass, car parts, it's plastic, anything that looks like it may be related to a vehicle.
>> Also unusual for a hit and run. Steven's clothing was intact and his shoes, which
were loosely tied, were still on. >> Generally, clothes are torn or unraveled and shoes have come off. And Steven's
car keys and cell phone were in his front pocket unharmed. And Moore says Steven's body appeared staged.
>> His body was laying like it had been placed in a certain position, not what you would typically see. And it looked
like somebody had hit him in the head with some kind of object. >> Meanwhile, Steven's wallet was still in
his car, which investigators found 3 miles away with the doors locked and the gas cap hanging open. In all the years
I've worked, a car sitting on the side of the road with gas cap off is not normal. I thought it was staged like his
body was staged in the roadway. >> Sandy says she wondered if Steven might have been the victim of a hate crime.
>> Did you think that it was possibly because of his sexuality? >> I did think that. I know he was teased a
lot at school, but he still held his head high. >> But Sandy says in the days leading up to
his death, Steven was worried about his safety. He'd called his sister Stephanie
for help the day before he was killed. >> Stephanie said the battery cable was loosened on his car. So she had met him
and then she tightened the battery cable and she asked him to get out the car and
help her and he said, "No, I'm not getting out." >> Like he was scared, >> right?
>> But he never said why. Despite what Lieutenant Moore felt were suspicious circumstances, he says once
Steven's death was ruled a hit and run, it became the Highway Patrol's job to solve the case instead of the Hampton
County Sheriff's Office or SLED, the South Carolina law enforcement division. >> I felt like the case, for lack of a
better word, was being pawned off on us. No matter what we said, we were going to
be the ones investigating that case. As we were getting started, certain names started coming up.
>> Which names? Murdoch. Soon after Steven Smith was killed, Hampton County Guardian managing editor
Michael Dwit says he began hearing persistent rumors all over town. >> What are the rumors? that at least one
Murdoch child was in a vehicle with other boys and allegedly somebody in the vehicle struck the young man with a
baseball bat and killed him. >> Sandy says those same rumors hit her doorstep as soon as Steven's body was
taken for an autopsy. >> It made no sense to me. >> At any point did you think that someone
in the Murd family was involved? Well, the longer it went on, the more I was asking myself questions,
but I just couldn't find the connection. Powerful family, and then you got Steven, who was just Steven.
>> Sandy couldn't help but think back to her last conversation with Steven a week
before he was killed. >> Somebody was messaging him a lot. He told me that he was going deep sea
fishing and he said, "Ke West." And I said, "Well, who are you going with?" He said, "Well, I can't tell you."
>> That make you pause. >> Yeah. He said, "You'd be surprised." It's kind of like a prominent person.
And then all I could say was, "Well, I hope you have fun." >> Sandy says Steven had become more
secretive the last couple weeks, but it never crossed her mind he might be talking about a Murdoch.
>> The original rumor was that Steven was planning to go away with Buster Murdoch
and his family, that they were together romantically. Liz Frell is the writer and co-host of the Murdom Murders
podcast. >> There's no evidence of that that we know of. >> And 48 Hours found no evidence to
support the rumors. Retired Highway Patrol Lieutenant Thomas Moore says the mere mention of the
Murdals made it difficult to get help from local agencies. >> We tried to hand that case file over to
the sheriff's office and they physically would not take it from our hand. The Murdoch name was still very powerful,
very well connected in law enforcement, and the rumors suggested, well, the local cops aren't going to dig into it.
>> Instead, the case was handled solely by the highway patrol's multidisciplinary
accident investigation team called Mate, which specializes in complex vehicle crashes.
>> The Mate team was from out of town and we wanted outside eyes involved in this.
The Murdall name appears dozens of times in Mate's 2015 case file, which we obtained through a Freedom of
Information request. In his audio notes, Corporal Michael Duncan makes it clear he doesn't think Steven's death is a hit
and run. >> There is no body trauma other than to the head area. Does not appear to be, in
my opinion, struck by a vehicle. >> Another investigator, Todd Proctor, goes further. Typically, you don't see the
highway patrol working a murder, and that's what this is. >> He hints at a conflict of interest for
the local sheriff's department. >> There's a reason why Hampton County Sheriff's Department is not handling
this, and I'll leave it at that. >> In this interview with Proctor, local teen Taylor Dobson shares a detailed
version of that story about several young men in a truck. >> I heard that these two, maybe three
young men were in a vehicle. They were riding down 601, saw the car on the side of the road, I guess, saw the boy
walking. Um, they turned back around, then stuck something out the window. >> He offers a name reluctantly.
>> He goes by Buster Murdoch. >> Dobson says he grew up with Buster. >> Kind of out of character to who I knew.
It was just strictly hearsay from all I know. Proctor reassures him the dolls are
already aware authorities want to speak with Buster. >> They know that he's on our radar. Matter
of fact, I talked to one of their guys yesterday and and told them, you know, I'm I'm going to talk to Buster here
soon, you know, and they said, "Okay, that's fine." >> But according to the case file, a call
to Buster Myrtle in October 2015 was never returned. And in December, following a front page story in the
Hampton County Guardian, mate received a tip called in at the direction of Randy
Myrtle, Buster's uncle. A man named Daryl Williams called a Hampton Police officer to report the tip, which
involved two teens, Shawn Connelly and Patrick Wilson. In a recorded phone call, the officer relays to Corporal
Duncan what Williams told him. >> Daryl called me and he said, "Patrick, come over here to the house." He said
that Shawn Connelly was drunk and hit something. He went back the next day to see what it was he had hit and he seen a
lot of police out there. Patrick was crying telling him and after he got finished telling the story, he walked
outside his house and threw up. >> Did he go into any detail about how it happened?
>> Supposedly, he had fixed his mirror, one of the mirrors up on the truck. The side
mirror story matched Steven's original death certificate. For reasons that are unclear, there is no record of Duncan or
Proctor ever speaking to Connelly or Wilson. Wilson had no comment to 48 hours. Messages to the Hampton County
Sheriff's Office, Williams and Connelly have not been answered. Sandy Smith says
she asked Shan Connelly point blank if he killed Steven. >> And he said, >> he said, "No, ma'am, I did not. I give
you my word. But I promise you I never killed your son. >> Do you believe him? >> Yeah.
>> If he lied to you, if that turns out to be the case, >> it won't be the first time I'm lied to.
But you know, if you did it, you need to pay. >> In September 2016, fed up with what she
calls the lack of an investigation, Sandy began a letterw writing campaign that included the FBI.
>> What did your letter say? I was just letting them know that my son was murdered and there's no progress being
done and I think it had something to do with the Murdoch family and please help.
Just please help me. >> Sandy also told the FBI she believed someone was deliberately trying to
derail the investigation. >> Did you ever get a response from the FBI? >> I did and I had two agents come to my
house. >> She asked them to unlock Steven's phone and they did. Do you know if anyone
actually was able to read Steven's text messages or see where he might have been
based on cell phone evidence? >> What I heard from the FBI agent, there was a a lot of interesting information
in the phone that needed to be looked at. >> But she says that didn't prompt local or
state authorities to pursue the case further. >> There's something in that phone that
nobody wants out there. By late 2016, the investigation into Steven Smith's death went cold. What do
you think it took for Steven's case to finally get the attention it deserves that you wanted?
Somebody else had to die. The murders of Paul and Maggie Murdall in June of 2021 caused a seismic shift
in smalltown Hampton and gave Sandy Smith a lifeline she desperately needed. >> It took this to get Steven's name back
out there so somebody would start paying attention. In a strange twist of fate, while
investigating the murders of Paula Maggie Murdall, Sled announced it had stumbled on a new lead in Steven's death
and would be taking over the case. They did not say what that evidence was. >> It seems like all roads lead to the Murd
family around here. >> Yes. >> Is that coincidence or is there a reason for that?
>> Around here, it's natural. It would be another 2 years while authorities focused on getting a
conviction against Alec Murd. But Sandy now has a high octane legal team in her corner.
>> After 8 years of waiting for your turn, Sandy Smith finally just had enough. >> Ronnie and I are like arsonists. We
started the fire. >> Ronnie Richter and Eric Bland are representing Sandy pro bono. Our sole
goal was to rekindle the interest in Steven's death. >> And they turned up the heat on SLED. In
March of 2023, Sled publicly acknowledged it was treating Steven's case as a homicide. The same week,
Buster Murdall released a statement through his father's attorney, saying, quote, "These baseless rumors of my
involvement with Steven and his death are false. I unequivocally deny any involvement in his death and my heart
goes out to the Smith family. >> Those words are now in cement. I take him at his word that he had nothing at
all to do with Steven's death. >> Rather than old rumors, Bland and Richtor say they're focusing on a new
investigation made possible by $130,000 in GoFundMe donations from Sandy supporters. The resources were made
available for us to do some private investigative work. That's going to start with hiring a pathology team.
>> They were also able to have Steven's body exumed, something Sandy had wanted for years.
>> Our primary function right now is to have a true independent set of eyes look
at it and tell us once and for all what really happened to Steven Smith. >> In April of 2023, Dr. Michelle Dri, a
former investigator and forensic pathologist who's performed more than 3,000 autopsies, oversaw the examination
of Steven's body. >> The injuries can tell us so much about what happened. >> And in this case, they did.
>> They did. >> Dri says the autopsy confirms Steven died from a single blow to his forehead,
severely fracturing his skull. >> That's a big gash. >> That's 7 and 12 in almost. There would
be another gash in this posterior area from hitting the pavement so hard. It literally split his
skull >> and split his skull. >> They were also able to put to rest some rumors, including the one that Steven
had been beaten with a baseball bat. >> It wasn't a baseball bat. >> No, those type of injuries would cause
something that we call pattern injuries, and we don't see that here. This is a linear fracture um as well as this is
here. Just as important is what they found, Dri says, is what they didn't find. >> We didn't find fractures of any part of
the body except for the head. There was a little road rash, which you would expect.
>> Any signs of a struggle? >> No. >> Any signs of a beating? >> No. >> Any injuries below his head other than
the road rash? >> None whatsoever. >> She says that eliminates the possibility Steven was hit by a car head on. Dri
says the findings also refute early theories that Steven's body might have been staged.
>> Were you able to determine whether Steven was struck and fell or he might have been struck and then placed there?
>> We don't believe that he was placed there. We believe that whatever happened happened right there. Dr. Kenny Kinsey
agrees. >> We think he was killed right here. >> Right there. a crime scene expert and
star prosecution witness in the Murd murder trial. Kinsey worked with DRI to analyze Steven's case. He says the
evidence at the scene is clear. >> That's a massive amount of blood. And if he had that kind of injury somewhere
else, it wouldn't be that uniform. >> Due to their sensitive nature, we created versions of the crime scene
photos in which the blood and body are shown as graphics. The quantity of blood, the direction of the flow in the
road, and then the direction of all the the blood on his person led me to the only conclusion.
>> Kinsey is convinced an object attached to a vehicle traveling at high speed caused the single fatal blow to Steven's
head. >> But whatever hit him was fast and it was large. >> So, a hit and run, but an atypical hit
and run. >> Yeah, very atypical. >> A hit and run with no vehicle debris at the scene. It's a conclusion no one was
expecting. >> How confident are you that you know what happened to Steven Smith that night?
>> I'm as close to a degree of scientific certainty as I've ever felt. >> What no one can say with certainty is
whether Steven's death was accidental or not. But still, Richtor points out he was left there to die.
>> Someone left him in that condition in the roadway and that is a very serious felony.
Steven's body was found about three miles from his car. Kinsey tried to retrace his steps.
>> I wanted to walk every possible path that Mr. Smith may have taken. >> Steven's family has always insisted if
Steven had car trouble, he would have felt safer walking through the woods. So, where was Steven's car?
>> Steven's car was located, if you look at this gate here, it was not grown up then. you could access that gate but in
this area really close to the woods. >> But to cut through the woods, Steven would have had to scale a fence that was
8 ft tall. >> And from what I understand from interviewing neighbors, it's been there
for well over a decade. >> Kinsey theorizes Steven was walking along the road trying to flag someone
down for help. >> He is walking this direction in the in the lane facing traffic.
whatever was attached to the vehicle or hanging off of the vehicle. Whenever it struck Stephen, he went down in in this
area somewhat on this line here. The vehicle that struck Steven was coming toward him
just like that vehicle in the photograph. >> Like this? >> Yes. Going that direction. Kinsey says
the evidence suggests the driver saw something in the road and changed lanes. >> And sometime before it struck Steven, I
believe it changed into the oncoming lane. >> That's when he says an object from the
passenger side struck Steven. >> What kind of object could it be? >> It could be anything. It could be a
ladder hanging off the back of a work truck. It could be a extended side mirror, the metal type that you see on
some farm vehicles or some larger vehicles. >> That scenario matches up with the tip
from 2015 involving Patrick Wilson and Shan Connelly, which Kinsey calls plausible.
>> That certainly would be possible. That would be one of the places I would start.
SLED has kept its investigation close to the vest, but Bland and Richtor say a grand jury was impanled and is issuing
subpoenas. They're honing in on specific individuals, and I think there's about five or less that SLED believes has
information regarding Steven's death. >> We don't know who those individuals are.
In an interview on Fox Nation in August of 2023, Buster Mydall again denied the rumors of his involvement. I never had
anything to do with his murder and I never had anything to do with him on a physical level of of any regard.
>> He also provided an alibi. >> The night Steven was killed, I was at our Edestto Beach house
>> with your family. >> With my mom and my brother. >> Sy's team says it's turned over all of
its findings to sled, but Kinsey says it's still going to take someone coming forward.
>> Somebody knows. >> Oh, they know. Yes, ma'am. As a grand jury zeros in on potential
suspects in Steven Smith's death, the legal wrangling hasn't slowed down for Alec Murd.
>> You've got local charges, you got state charges. The legal civil cases are going
to go on for years. >> On November 17th, 2023, >> I am guilty. Yes, sir. >> Murdal agreed to a plea deal
encompassing all of the state financial charges he faced for defrauding and stealing millions from clients and law
partners. He had previously pleaded guilty to 22 federal conspiracy, wire fraud, and moneyaundering charges. Alex
prayed on the vulnerable whom he also thought would never figure out his schemes.
>> Correct. It's people that are at the worst times of their lives where you need a lawyer to be the best for you,
not the worst for you. >> Perhaps none more so than Elena and Hannah Plyer who are now represented by
Blandon Richtor. >> Who are the Plers? They were two young girls from uh Colombia.
>> They were just 12 and eight when they survived a deadly crash due to a faulty
tire. They killed their mother and 14-year-old brother in 2005 and became the youngest of the financial victims to
whom Myrtle admitted he lied and stole from when questioned at his murder trial.
>> What loss did they suffer? Who died? >> Uh, their mother. Their mother did. >> He only mentioned your mom.
>> Yeah, that bothered me because you don't remember that a 14-year-old was killed
in that wreck. Alec got a very good paycheck off of my brother's death. >> Both women are now mothers and Elena is
a detective with the Lexington County Sheriff's Office. >> Since all of this has come out, there's
a lot of pain that's still there. >> Elena was old enough to remember the details of the last road trip she and
her sister would ever take with their mom and brother. >> My brother and I had gotten into an
argument. I wanted to start sitting in the front seat. We fought about it and fought about it and finally mom was
like, "You know what? Justin's going to ride on the way to Columbia and on the way back home, Elena gets to
ride up front." And I was so happy. >> Elena and Hannah, who were still sitting in the back seat, survive the crash.
>> So, you must think about that all the time. >> I do. I actually had a lot of guilt for
several years. That guilt is something she says she's learned to let go as she recounts her
and her little sister's harrowing survival. >> We hadn't been on the road too long.
Hannah was sleeping and I was listening to Usher and I remember mom saying, "La,
you awake?" And so I remember pulling my headphones down. I said, "Yeah, mom." Within seconds, I heard this loud pop.
And then I immediately heard my mom scream. I looked out the window and my usher CD was spinning on a train limb.
>> Their mother Angela and brother Justin died instantly. Elena realized she was
trapped and couldn't move and had to send Hannah for help. >> I said, "I need you to get out of the
car and I need you to go to the top of the hill to the interstate." >> And you're only 12.
>> I'm 12, right? So many things could have went worse. >> 8-year-old Hannah climbed up to the
interstate. >> There was an 18-wheeler and I was able to flag him down and I think by that
point an ambulance had came and they had taken me to the hospital. >> Elena waited alone until a fire rescue
team arrived and cut her out of the wreckage. She watched as they removed her mother and brother. And so I watched
them put them in a black body bag. >> She was then airlifted to a hospital and would need numerous surgeries. What was
the moment like when you were able to see each other again after that? >> I remember it. I remember hugging her
and thanking her for not dying, for not leaving me. And then from there, I was just in the hospital bed with you. You
You couldn't keep us apart. The sisters say they were passed around to live with
family members. >> We didn't have a bedroom. >> We just had each other. >> Just each other. Yeah. We lived at a
little plastic bend. >> When a family friend referred the Pilers to Alec Myrtle. He promised to change
all of that. >> Do you remember the first time you met Alec Myrtle? >> Yeah. I remember when he walked in, he
seemed really arrogant, like a bulldog, just tall, almost intimidating in a sense. He told us, "They took your
family from you and we're going to make this right. They're going to pay." >> To two young girls who had lost
everything, Murd seemed larger than life. >> I always felt at peace when I got to
talk to Alec. People listened to him. You could tell there was a lot of control there.
>> How did he earn your trust? >> Really, with his words, he was a smooth talker and he made you feel special. But
once the case settled, the special treatment stopped. >> He pretty much checked out. He had
explained that the case had settled. We won. Big money. >> Elenia's case settled for $4.7 million.
You know, Hannah's for right at $3 million. Uh that money was then entrusted to Russell Lefit. Lefit was
the CEO of Palmetto State Bank in Hampton and a close friend of Murd who' handpicked Lefit to manage the funds as
conservator until the girls turned 18. >> So these two very wealthy prominent men
basically helped themselves to these kids piggy bank. >> Any money they needed had to be approved
by Lefit and a judge. >> Even if it was a dollar, we had to have a receipt for it. When you and Eric took
on their case, what did you discover? >> Russell was making loans to Alex. Alex would be overdrawn 50,000, $100,000,
$300,000 in his personal account, and he needed money to cover those shorts. >> RTOR says that at Mydall's direction,
Lefit transferred nearly $1.5 million from the Plyers's money to Alec Murdall and himself.
When it came time for these young ladies to turn 18, the money was supposed to be
there. So, Alex had to go out and steal new money from different clients and put
that money back. >> Murdoch was never charged for Hannah and Elena's case, but Lefit was convicted on
federal charges for his role. >> But still, there's that toll of how do you trust going forward? People were put
in a position of trust on their behalfs when they were just children. And then to learn as an adult that the entire
time they saw you as nothing more than a checkbook. >> While the plers can begin to heal, Sandy
Smith still waits for her day of reckoning. >> All this sweeping drama. There's answers
and there's closure for everybody else, but not for Sandy Smith. It's time to put the spotlight on Steven Smith.
Months after his blockbuster trial, >> Alex Murdo, >> verdict, guilty. >> Convicted double murderer, Alec Murdall
and the crime of the century are still Hampton's biggest attractions. >> Almost every day, somebody's coming by
taking a picture of the law firm or riding out the Moselle taking pictures. They just can't get enough.
The Myrtle craze was on full display at an auction for the family's personal items from their Moselle property. The
infamous leather couch set, where Alec testified he took a catnap while his wife and son were murdered, sold for
$30,000. And Maggie's dog, Bubba, who helped prosecutors prove Alec was actually at
the crime scene, has become a local folk hero. If that rambunctious yellow lab hadn't have been doing what labs like to
do, chase birds, we might not have solved this case and we might not have gotten a conviction. Come here. Bubba.
>> Alex voice calling Bubba was caught in the background of phone video Paul took
minutes before he was killed. >> Bubba and the other dogs at the kennels. They were witnesses to a very horrific
event. Bubba now lives a quiet life with the Mydall's housekeeper. Meanwhile, Alec
Murdal is serving two life terms in a maximum security prison. Do you think Alec Murdal still thinks he can try to
play the system? >> 100%. >> Now, Mnall's attorneys are hoping their latest motion will be a get out of jail
free card. >> We're focused on getting him a new trial. In September 2023, Dick Harbutian
and Jim Griffin announced their motion for a new trial based on allegations of jury tampering by the Colatin County
Clerk of Court, Becky Hill. >> What we had filed today supported by sworn testimony of jurors is that the
clerk of court had improper private communications with the jurors. >> The state versus Richard Alexander
Murdoch defended. They argued that Hill violated Murdall's right to a fair trial
when she allegedly told jurors not to be fooled by his testimony and to watch his
body language as Alec was about to take the stand. >> I'm Alec Murdock. >> In a signed affidavit, Hill denies all
of the defense allegations and voluntary statements from a majority of the jury support Hill's account. Rick Duran
Blland say even a new trial can save Alec Murd. >> If the motor convictions overturned then
you have the financial crimes. >> According to the plea deal with prosecutors on the state crimes could be
sentenced to nearly 30 years for those charges alone. >> So yes, there's a theoretical universe
in which Alex Murd could see the sun again, but it's theoretical only. is it's like rearranging the the deck
chairs on the Titanic. It's feudal. >> If you were to write a made for TV southern legal drama, you you couldn't
have done a better job than this. >> Dit writes about it in his book, The Fall of the House of Myrtle, which he
ends with Steven Smith. >> It's kind of interesting and tragic that the oldest story remains unsolved.
solving his murder. I think this will be the end of this sweeping saga. >> As SLED continues its investigation of
the Smith case behind closed doors, what investigators found after the Murd murders remains the subject of intense
speculation. Do you have any idea what the new evidence that may be presented to the
grand jury is? >> No. Uh, I do know that Sled has Steven's phone. I know that they have Steven's
tablet. >> Could Steven's phone reveal the identity of the prominent person with whom he
told Sandy he'd planned to go deep sea fishing? >> That'll be interesting. What sled has
found out and what the grand jury is going to determine whether the person that he was going to go away with deep
sea fishing um had anything to do with his death or has knowledge of his death. How has this fight for justice been? Oh,
>> it has been a long road, but it's worth it. >> Sandy is keeping the faith and keeping
Steven's memory alive. She recently established a college scholarship in his name.
>> We are starting this scholarship fund so other children won't have it as hard as
Steven did. and she's offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
>> And now it's your turn that if you know something that you say something. >> What do you miss most about Steven?
>> Just I miss everything about him. >> What do you think Steven would think of your fight where we are today in his
case? He said, "Oh, mama, you would do that for me." >> Yep. >> Yep. I would over and over.
Hey, hey, hey. Something pretty disturbing happened in Circleville. Starting small and
flourishing over decades. Residents began to receive letters that accused the citizens of being
involved in some pretty terrible things. Embezzlement, domestic violence, affairs, and even murder.
The Circleville letter writer knew everything about everyone and knew everyone's secrets.
>> They were vicious and ugly. somebody with some severe psychological problems. I would hazard
the guess. >> The threatening anonymous letters kept coming, hundreds of them. Most were
postmarked from Columbus, Ohio, about 30 miles north, which is where I grew up and where I was living in March of 1977,
when small town Circleville began to feel under siege. when just a walk to the mailbox could trigger terror.
Especially in the case of one woman who lived here, a school bus driver by the name of Mary Gillespie. Mary Gillespie
goes out to her mailbox. She receives a letter. She opens it. It's an anonymous letter, distinct handwriting,
and it's telling her to end the affair with the superintendent of the school there, Gordon Massie.
Mrs. Gillespie, stay away from Massie. I've been observing your house and I know you have children.
>> It's your daughter's turn to pay for what you've done. I shall come out there
and put a bullet in that little girl's head. These letters were being sent to newspapers, elected officials, private
citizens, >> and they're all saying the same thing that basically Gordon Massie, the
superintendent, he needs to be exposed. He needs to be fired. Her husband, Ron, begins to receive them as well. Mr.
Gillespie, your wife is seeing Gordon Massie. You should catch them together and kill them both. He doesn't deserve
to live. Well, he got letters saying that if he didn't do something about this affair,
his life would be in danger. >> We know what kind of car you drive. We know where your your kids go to school.
>> By August of 1977, everything changes when Ron Gillespie gets a call late one
night. Enraged, he picks up a gun, gets in his truck, and drives off >> and told the daughter that he was going
to confront the letter writer. He was traveling at a high speed, lost control of the truck,
went off the road, hit a tree, and was killed. The letter writer had made threats to Ron Gillespie that he could
end up dead. Then he ended up dead. >> Was Ron Gillespiey's death an accident or was he murdered?
>> Murdered. >> This case has really left its mark. >> Yeah. And it's destroyed a lot of
people. I think there was a big cover up. >> Turned out to be quite a mystery. >> Do you think you know who wrote those
anonymous letters? >> Yes, I do. Circleville, Ohio has the look and feel of a quaint Midwestern town.
>> In many ways, it's sort of an all-American town. Still has a pretty rural character to it, and some families
have been there for decades. Its major attraction, says journalist Martin Yant, is the annual pumpkin show.
Let's give a big hand of love. >> Well, it was a good place to live. Fairly peaceful till all this stuff
started. >> Janet Cassidy is talking about that barrage of anonymous poison pen letters
that began arriving in mailboxes all over Circleville in 1977. Small towns have big secrets buried deep under
those freshly mowed lawns. >> It caught the attention of Marie Mayhew, who researched the story for her
podcast, Whatever Remains. >> This anonymous author was hellbent to expose every little ugly secret in
Circleville. >> At first, the writer seemed fixated on the married school district
superintendent. Gordon Massie was a wellthought of man in Circleville >> and his rumored relationship with a
school bus driver. >> Mary Gillespie was a wife and a mother. They were accusing her of adultery.
>> You've got the superintendent, possibly having an affair with a school bus driver. Wasn't that kind of the talk of
town? >> Yeah, it was definitely. June Whitehead grew up in Pickaway County with her sister Janet.
>> Have you seen Mary's picture? >> She was Miss Jackson. >> She looks really attractive there.
>> Yes, she was. >> Mary married her high school sweetheart, Ron Gillespie. >> And you wouldn't find a better person
than Ronnie Gillespie. >> The couple had two children and settled in Circleville.
I mean, this had to be very awkward for Mary Gillespie, for her children, for Gordon Massie, for his wife, for his
son. It must have been awful. I mean, it was just sort of this all-invasive poison. There was nobody that was off
limits to this letter writer. >> And it wasn't just a campaign of letters. There were phone calls and
offensive signs that began appearing along Mary's bus route. Ron would have to go out and he would
have to find and pick up all the signage about his wife and kids around Circleville.
>> Determined to stop the rider, the Gillespies brought their letters to the sheriff's office.
>> There was an ongoing investigation. They were tapping phones. They were watching
houses. They tried to work with the USPS to check the mail. But the letters continued and small town Circleville was
consumed with speculation. Was the writer male or female? Did the writer live in town?
Then in August 1977, Mary left her husband and children at home and drove to Florida with her sister-in-law.
>> Ron had told her he knew who the letter writer was and he was going to take care
of this problem while they were in Florida. They were in route when they learned that Ron had crashed his truck
into a tree after getting that mysterious phone call. The coroner ruled his death an accident.
But Ron's brother-in-law, Paul Freshau, believed he had been murdered. >> Although a number of people told me that
he was not a heavy drinker, he had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. Also suspicious, under
Ron's body, police found a 22 caliber revolver. >> The gun had been fired once. So then the
question was, was he shooting at the letter writer? The sheriff didn't give that any credence at all.
>> But Paul Fresh Hour kept pushing the Pickaway County Sheriff to take a closer
look. Pam Stanton was close to the fresh hours. >> He wanted the truth about Ron's death.
He wanted to know who was writing the letters to. >> The attacks on Mary Gillespie and Gordon
Massie didn't stop. Now letters were also being sent to local businesses, government offices, schools, and people
who lived in the area. >> This person was at that point pretty unbound, not afraid to say anything. And it scared a
lot of people, you know, is he coming after me or she coming after me? Mary had always denied having an affair
with Massie, but after Ron's death, she says they began seeing each other. And that's when the threats against her
became even more vicious. >> Everyone knows what you have done. If you don't believe us, just make them mad
and find out for yourself. Robin Yokum writes mysteries, but back in the early 1980s, he was a crime
reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. >> There were obscenities and and threats to uh do harm to Mrs. Gillespiey's
daughter. It's your daughter's turn to pay for what you've done. On February 7th, 1983, Mary Gillespie
was driving her empty school bus heading to pick up kids. It's 3:30 p.m. She's about to turn left
here on Five Points Pike when she looks over there and sees a handmade sign on a
fence. It talks about her 13-year-old daughter, and it's obscene. So, she pulls the bus over here. But when she
goes over there to try to pull the sign off the fence, she realizes that it's rigged to twine in a box. She says she
takes that box home. She then opens it and gets a shocking surprise. >> It was a gun and it was ready to go off.
When Mary brought the box to the sheriff's office, investigators quickly realized it was a booby trap. Yokum was
in the newsroom when word got out. >> And I remember the excitement from a newspaper perspective. It's a great
story. A woman who had been the target of all these letters finds a a booby trap with
a 25 caliber handgun rigged to it. All reporters would want to cover that story,
>> especially if there was a dramatic twist. >> And when did Paul Fresh Hour become the
suspect? >> Pretty quickly. There's small town intrigue. A seemingly omnipresent unknown villain
extracting revenge on the people of Circleville by uncovering their secrets. A mysterious death and elaborate
attempted murder. To this day, there's a fierce debate about who that villain is or was. So,
we'll take you back through the evidence and the theories, and you could decide.
This sounds like something out of an Agatha Christie novel, doesn't it? >> It does. There's a cast of characters.
The letters would keep coming and then the inevitable attempted murder, but it is very much an Agatha Christie feel to
it. >> And just like one of Christiey's mysteries, the gun found in the booby trap provided the first clue. Firearm
examiners at BCI, Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, were able to restore the partially filed off serial
number. >> And when they traced the gun, it came to a coworker of Paul's. He said, "Yeah, I
sold that to Paul Freshour." On the surface, says Martin Yan, it was shocking because Paul Freshau and his
wife Karen Sue had been close to Mary Gillespie and her late husband Ron, Karen Sue's brother.
>> It was kind of an extended family that seemed to socialize together. >> But by 1983, when sheriff's
investigators went to talk to Karen Sue, the fresh hours were in the midst of a contentious divorce.
>> Karen Sue gave them quite an earful. She told investigators that Paul had become
infuriated with Mary. >> Karen said that Paul had thought the world of Ron and Mary before Ron died.
But after his death, Paul hated Mary. Hated her over the Massie deal. >> And then Karen Sue told them that her
estranged husband was behind Circleville's anonymous letters. She had found one letter torn up in a
commode and she had found a couple of other letters hidden in the house. >> When investigators went to see Paul
Fresh Hour, Marie Mayhew says he was very cooperative. Did he demand to have a lawyer?
>> No. He answered all of their questions and readily admitted the gun belonged to
him. Well, they asked him how the gun ended up in the booby trap, and he said, "I don't know."
>> Fresh Hour told investigators his gun had been stolen weeks earlier and allowed them to search his house and his
car. He even gave them samples of his handwriting. >> It definitely does seem like he has
absolutely nothing to hide at that point. >> He denied being the letter writer and
said he had nothing to do with the booby trap, but he failed a polygraph. So Paul
Fresher was arrested for the attempted murder of Mary Gillespie. >> Were you surprised when he was charged
with attempted murder? >> Yes. >> Yeah, I was. >> This was the man Pam Stanton called
Uncle Paul and says their families were so close she thought of him as a second father.
>> I mean, was he worried? So his life was on the line. His freedom, yeah, he was
scared anybody would be. >> Fresh hour was never charged with sending any of the threatening harassing
letters. But in Circleville, there was an assumption that the letter writer was finally behind bars.
On October 24th, 1983, Paul Fresh went on trial at the Pickaway County Courthouse in Circleville.
>> It was a big deal. Robin Yokum didn't cover the trial, but he followed all the
news coverage. >> You know, he was the mastermind behind this alleged booby trap, but almost
everything focused on the letters. >> First up was the intended victim, Mary Gillespie. She testified about finding
the booby trap and then over defense objections, she was asked about the anonymous letters she had received.
How damaging was that to Paul Fresh Hour at his trial? >> That was very, very damaging.
>> The defense argued there was no direct threat to Mary's life in the letters, so
they weren't relevant to the case, but the judge allowed in 39 of them. It was a break for the prosecution who claimed
the writing on the booby trap shared similarities to those letters. the letter and the writing that was on the
2x4 was the same block handwriting, sort of the same cadence and the same message
as the anonymous letter writer. >> The state brought in the BCI handwriting analysts who compared the writing on the
booby trap to the letter sent to Mary and then to samples of Paul Freshhower's handwriting. They had handwriting
analyses that indicated that the letters could have been written by Paul Fresh Hour.
>> And a second expert, originally a defense witness, agreed. I mean, that's pretty damaging, isn't it? When a
witness hired by the defense, ends up testifying for the prosecution. >> I can only imagine it was something
you'd want to avoid. It was far more difficult for the prosecution to prove Fresh Hour made the
booby trap. Was Paul Freshau's fingerprints found on the gun or the box that held the gun?
>> No. And they didn't have a whole lot of evidence about the booby trap other than
he admitted that was his gun. >> There was circumstantial evidence. Fresh Hour had taken the day off from work the
same day the booby trap was found. And that box that held the gun, an industrialsized chalk box like this one,
was easily found at Annheiser Bush where Paul worked. >> They had his gun in the booby trap
and they had the chalk box, so they thought they had plenty of evidence, >> but no one saw Fresh Hour near the booby
trap. >> He had a pretty good alibi for most of the day. Paul Fresh Hour didn't take the stand,
but multiple defense witnesses testified to seeing him at home. He was having work done on his house. The reason he
said he took the day off. >> As the trial progressed, I'm thinking a lot of this stuff just doesn't add up.
You know, where are the fingerprints? Where's the physical evidence? >> But it was enough evidence for the
jurors. They found Paul Freshau guilty of attempted murder. How did you hear the verdict?
Even after all this time, it's still hard, isn't it? I got home and everybody was just
a basket case. They were crying. Everybody was upset. He received the maximum sentence, 7 to
25 years in prison. When Paul Fresh was convicted, did everybody in town breathe this sigh of
relief? The letter writer is caught. It's over. >> I think that's that's a fair assessment.
They've linked him to the letters. They linked him to the booby trap. We're going to get this guy out of our
community. Get him in prison. Everything will kind of go back to normal. Except it didn't because the letters never
stopped. Paul was living a a pretty good life. Had never had any problems with the law.
Basically, he lost everything. Lost his home, lost his job, went to prison. It was inconceivable to Paul Freshhower's
family and friends that the man they so admired could be convicted of attempted murder.
>> It's just preposterous. There's no way. >> He wasn't dumb enough to put his own gun
in a booby trap and anybody could have gotten that gun. >> And even today, former investigative
journalists Martin Yant and Robin Yokum question whether Fresh Hour's verdict was fair. Can I tell you a I'm 100% sure
that he didn't do it? No, I can't. But I can tell you had I been sitting on that
jury, I I would have never sent a guy to prison based on that flimsy evidence. >> The more I got involved in the case, the
more I saw, there were just too many question marks. >> At trial, the prosecution had branded
Paul Freshau, the Circleville letter writer. But once he was locked up, how did menacing anonymous letters keep
coming? >> I'm not talking about one or two letters. There were hundreds of letters
that went out after he was in prison. >> The Pickaway County Sheriff couldn't say
how Fresh Hour was able to write and send those letters, but he was certain Paul was responsible. The prison warden
disagreed. >> His warden insisted that would be impossible. They kept him in isolation.
They did not allow him to have pens or paper. >> He was strip searched. All his incoming
and outgoing mail was inspected. There is absolutely positively no way Paul Freshau was writing those letters and
smuggling him out from prison. No way. >> After Yokum and Yant wrote articles about Paul Fresh, they also received
letters. And inexplicably, so did Paul Fresh. behind bars. The >> letter writer bragged about setting him
up. He said, "When we set him up, we set him up." Good. >> And who did Paul think had set him up?
>> Karen Sue. >> His ex-wife. >> His ex-wife. >> Paul Freshour's lawyer raised that very
possibility during his closing argument. Who hated Paul enough to try to get him
into trouble? If you read the divorce decree, who stands to profit financially if Paul is convicted goes to prison?
Pam Stanton says that during that divorce battle, Karen Sue lost her home, custody of their daughters, and was
living in a trailer on Mary Gillespiey's property. If Uncle Paul's out of the picture, she got it off.
>> And Karen Sue was one of the first to link Paul to the anonymous letters. Remember, she told investigators that
she found some at their home, including that one in the commode. >> Karen tried to piece it back together
when Paul was not at home and said she could make the name of Gillespie out on the letter.
>> Could she show them these letters? >> No. She didn't keep the letters. >> Does that make sense?
>> Not to me. Why wouldn't she run off right away to the sheriff's office and say, "Look, this is from my husband.
He's the letter writer. She didn't do any of that until after the booby trap was found.
>> Do you believe that Paul Freshhower did set up the booby trap and tried to kill
Mary Gillespie? >> Nope, I don't. I think somebody stole his gun to set him up and it worked.
In the early 1990s, when Martin began investigating Fresh Hour's case, he discovered evidence in police reports of
an alternate suspect. >> There was another bus driver who saw what I think is very significant. It was
something that never came up at trial and it points in a whole different direction.
>> Investigators never followed up, but Yant did. The female bus driver told him that 20
minutes before Mary found that booby trap, she had driven by the same spot. >> She said she saw a man standing beside
an elamino >> that looked like this one, >> but the man turned away from her and
acted like he was going to the bathroom. So, she didn't get a good look at him. >> The description didn't seem to match
Paul Fresh Hour. She said he was a large man with sandy hair and Paul was not large and he had very dark hair.
>> And wasn't Karen Sue at that point dating a man who was large with sandy hair?
>> Yes. >> And what about the El Camino? >> There's no evidence that any inquiries
were made about who might have an El Camino. Didn't in fact Karen Sue's brother have an El Camino?
>> That's what I've been told. >> But Marie Mayhew believes trying to connect the booby trap to Karen Sue is
tenuous at best. >> There's someone who looked like the man she was dating driving a car that looked
like it could have been her brothers. None of that points back to Karen Sue. I don't believe that she framed her
husband for this or was responsible for it. >> 10 years after Paul Fresh Hour went to
prison, the intrigue surrounding the case caught the attention of the television series Unsolved Mysteries.
But in December 1993, before filming even began, the show received a postcard with an ominous
threat. >> Forget Circleville, Ohio. If you come to Ohio, you elikos will pay. The
Circleville writer. >> It didn't deter the show from going to Circleville. Even Paul Freshour, who had
just been released on parole, agreed to talk. >> I'd really like to see someone really
look at this case on the letters, reopen the letter part of it, and get in, find
out who wrote the letters. Pam Stanton says Karen Sue was not happy that Unsolved Mysteries was in town or that
Pam agreed to be interviewed. I got a phone call and her telling me it would be in my best interest not to go.
>> Karen Sue didn't participate in the program, but according to Pam, she kept track of everyone who did. She sat in a
car on the other side of the the intersection and took pictures of everybody going in and out for the
interviews. If true, Marie Mayhew says that doesn't prove anything. What's more, Karen Sue has never been
considered a suspect by police. >> I think she's a very convenient villain. >> We reached out to her, but she did not
respond to our request for an interview. There are so many twists and turns in this case. All of a sudden, something
will surface, makes you rethink what you were thinking. >> Martin Yant is right. And there's
another twist to come. >> After Paul Fresh Hour went to prison, how do you think the letters continued?
It took nearly 20 years, but in 1994, the Circleville letters abruptly stopped. When Paul Fresh was released from
prison, did people when he got out still think he was the letter writer? >> Yeah, there. Yeah.
>> He was very hurt and he was hurt with what it did to his family. A very univil
war had been raging for years between Paul Freshhower and his ex-wife Karen Sue. Even their two daughters were
divided over their dad. And caught in the middle was their son Mark. >> He was so loyal to his mom, but he loved
his dad, too. But with Sue, you were going to be her son or his son. Pam Stanton says Mark chose his mom and
never once visited his father in prison. >> He wouldn't tell me why. He just said he
couldn't. >> It was Paul Fresh Hour's gun discovered in the booby trap that helped land him
behind bars. >> He did tell some people that the gun had been stolen. >> According to Martin Yant, Fresh Hour
strongly suspected that the thief was his own son. And I did interview one man that said he
specifically told him that he thought it was Mark the son. >> And this was before there was any talk
of a booby trap. >> Before the booby trap. >> Fresh hour kept his suspicions about his
son to himself, says Yant. >> Family loyalty meant more to him even though his son had totally rejected him.
>> Why didn't he say more? Why didn't he point the finger at his son? >> Paul get his son in trouble? Oh, no.
Uncle Paul never done that. >> But he knew he would he could go to prison. >> I don't care. Uncle Paul would have died
before he'd have seen Mark go to jail. All this destroyed Mark. The divorce, the letters, it all destroyed him in a
way that could never be fixed. Just before sunrise on September 11th, 2002 in Portsouth, Ohio, a man's body
was found floating in the Sciota River. It was 39year-old Mark Freshhower he had
shot himself. His mother, Karen Sue, later told police her son had suffered for years from
depression. And I firmly believe when Mark took his life, he could not deal with the guilt
any longer. >> If Paul Freshhower actually had nothing to do with the booby trap,
is it also possible he had nothing to do with the letters? >> As he told me, I didn't write the
letters. I didn't do this. Even after he got out of prison, he approached the FBI and asked them to
investigate the case. >> The FBI never responded, said Jeant. But today, nearly three decades later, one
of its former star profilers agreed to examine the Circleville letters for 48 hours. Mary Aleno Tulle has explored
some of the darkest criminal minds. From the Green River killer, >> sir, you >> to the uniomber. Whoever the writer is,
they're flying under the radar screen, coming across as very normal, and people would not suspect them.
Who was the Circleville writer, or were there multiple writers? Ul believes one solitary author churned out every
letter. When you have one person and one person only who has that secret, that person can take the secret to the grave.
Number one, do you think it's male or female? Can you tell? >> And I knew that would be one of your
first questions. When it comes to a letter writer, gender is very difficult to discern.
>> That's because the writer was clever, consistently deceptive, and manipulative, says Oul.
>> You see the manipulation continue throughout these letters. She went all the way back to the writer's first
letters in 1977, hunting for hints about gender and found some. The letter writer kept referring
to I'm the boyfriend of a woman. They wanted to make you believe I'm not a woman, I'm a man.
And seeing how they were trying to hide who they were makes me think there could
be a good possibility it's a female. Altogether, Otul inspected 98 letters, finding the word choices and the grammar
revealing. How educated is this writer? Can you tell? >> I would say this is not a highly
educated person because of the quality of the sentences and how they were put together.
Significant, says Oul, considering that Paul Freshhower had a job as a manager at Annheiser Bush and a master's degree.
She says there were other identifying clues from the anonymous writer. And as you read these letters, you can see the
letter writer is really having a good time. >> What does that say about that person?
The letter writer is pretty callous and this person would have to know I'm hurting people and that's okay with me.
>> A sign the writer might have been suffering from a personality disorder says Oul meaning that he or she knew the
difference between right and wrong but simply chose wrong. So that would suggest to me that in their regular
everyday life they sought ways to be a bully, to be intimidating. >> If that's the case, Pam Stanton says
that does not sound like her uncle Paul. Did he have a like a dark side to him or
anything? >> Never. Uncle Paul was never bitter, never angry. >> Do you think the letter writer was Paul
Fresh Hour? Right now, I have my doubts. Sitting here today, I'd say I can't rule
them out. But I'm looking at other reasons that tell me it it might in fact be somebody different.
>> And Oul does not believe the secretive writer would risk exposure by setting a
booby trap in a public place. >> That suggests to me that may have been done by somebody else who took advantage
of this situation. The mysteries seem to only deepen, but one expert is convinced she does know
the identity of the Circleville rider. >> 100% sure. >> Could there have been copycat letter
writers? See the letters for yourself on Facebook at 48 hours. When the 1980 Robert Breford prison
drama Brewbaker needed extras in the Columbus area, Paul Fresh Hour channeled his experience as a former prison guard
to play one on the big screen. Little did he know he'd eventually serve a decade for attempted murder. And
although never charged with terrorizing Circleville with the letters, he had to live with people believing he was the
writer, but not sisters Janet Cassidy and June Whitehead. What is one thing that you really want to see corrected?
>> I don't think Paul is guilty. I think he served those 10 years in prison. And I
don't think he was guilty of the attempted murder and I don't really think he was the letter writer.
>> And with former FBI profiler Mary Ellen Tulle believing the writer could be someone other than Paul Freshhower, it
calls into question the testimony of those two handwriting experts at his trial, linking him to the letters.
So 48 hours turned to forensic document expert Beverly East looking for her independent analysis.
>> I don't want to hear the story cuz the documents tell me the story. >> That story says East begins by
identifying distinct writing patterns in Paul Freshour's known writing. In this case, letters he wrote to a friend.
>> The G in Grimmer is a very unusual dream. Looks like a six, a number six. And that's unusual.
>> That's very unusual. >> She then studied a selection of 49 of the anonymous letters spanning from when
they first started in 1977 through the 1990s and found that unusual G shaped like a number six in several of
the Circleville letters, including one sent while Paul was in prison. So, Gillespie, Gillespie, getting
Gillespie and Gordon. You've got that number six. >> E says, numbers can tell a story of
their own. >> Numbers don't lie. Numbers don't lie. >> Pointing to this zip code written by
Paul. There's this ambiguous number three that might also be a two. It's like he's not sure if it's 42112
or 43113 in the anonymous letters on the zip code. I found the same mistake. >> While E admits that there are writing
patterns in the anonymous letters that don't look like Paul's. After showing us almost 100 examples of
his distinct quirks that she was able to identify, she's convinced one person was
responsible. >> I would go into court and swear on the Bible on the evidence that I found.
>> And when you say you'd swear on the Bible, what would you say? >> I would say one person wrote all of
these and the one person is this person, >> Paul Fcher. >> Paul Fresher. And if you saw that a document examiner
today thought in fact he did write those letters, would that change your mind? >> No.
>> And there is historical basis for skepticism. >> You know that some document examiners
have been wrong in the past. >> I cannot speak for others. There are always going to be times where people
are inaccurate and it's not because the science is not accurate. It's because that particular examiner has not done
due diligence to arrive at the opinion that they should do. You can't be wrong. You cuz somebody's life
and livelihood is at the end of your opinion. So I am not wrong. While studying the thousands of pages in
the case file, Marie Mayhew made a discovery that supports E's findings. Investigators have found Paul Fresh's
fingerprints on about a dozen letters postmarked while he was incarcerated. Those fingerprints are there and they're
his. >> Do you think that Paul Fresh is the Circleville letter writer? >> Yes, I honestly do.
Former FBI profiler Mary Elano Tulle says she cannot explain those letters, but she also cannot ignore that during
Fresh's decade in prison, the phantom writer mailed hundreds of letters. If a crime continues on and you have someone
in custody for a long period of time, you have to say somebody else is sending these letters. They're not happening by
magic. Somebody else is writing the letters. If in fact Paul Fresh Hour was the letter writer, is it possible that
he mass- prodduced letters, went to prison, and then had somebody else send them while he was in?
Anything is possible. That would have to be investigated and ruled out. >> Paul Fresh Hour died June 28th, 2012 at
age 70. Still fighting to prove his innocence. Instead, what's left behind is an unfinished portrait. Was Paul
Fresh Hour the successful, loving family man he appeared to be or a cruel, even dangerous criminal mastermind?
Whatever your conclusion, Paul Freshhower predicted when interviewed by writer Robin Yokum 35 years ago that his
notoriety as the Circleville letter writer would long outlive him. >> When I'm dead and in my grave, people
are going to believe I'm sending those letters. Unfortunately, Paul died and we'll never
know. We'll never know. A modern-day Indiana Jones hid a treasure chest and left clues.
>> If you've been brave, I give you title to the gold. >> But was the cost of the quest too high?
>> This treasure hunt did claim at least five lives? If >> he could have stopped this madness, it
wasn't worth it. >> 48 Hours. Next on CBS, streaming on Paramount Plus.

“48 Hours” cases that occurred in small-town America. Watch the YouTube mini-marathon, which includes "Family Affair," "Stephen Smith: A Death in Murdaugh Country" and "The Circleville Letters."

00:00 Family Affair 40:52 Stephen Smith: A Death in Murdaugh Country 01:22:47 The Circleville Letters

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Height family murders, focusing on Robin and Craig Height's roles and the ensuing investigation and trial.

Key points

The Height Family Tragedy. A seemingly perfect family is shattered by a brutal murder. 'Murder just didn't fit with the seemingly perfect family.'
The Night of the Murders. The events leading up to the murders unfold, revealing family tensions. 'The weekend before the murders, August 2008... Robin was at Craig's cabin.'
Craig Height's Arrest. In May 2009, Craig Height was arrested for the murder of his brother. 'Did that shake your faith in him? No.'
Guilty Verdict. After hours of deliberation, the jury finds Craig Height guilty on all counts. 'We the jury found the defendant Craig Height guilty.'
Randy Myrtle's Offer. Randy Myrtle offers to help with Steven's case, raising suspicions.
Sandy's Letter Campaign. Frustrated with the investigation, Sandy writes to the FBI for help.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I am definitely a woman in the center of a storm.

Robin Height reflecting on her situation amid the chaos.

10:42WatchJul 18, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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