Sneak peek: The Farris Wheel | Forensic Files

Murders don't happen every day in Cherokee County. The type of murder that happened in this
case doesn't happen a lot. But if it were to happen, it would be in this family.
Was the Farris family a happy family? No. This family was not like every other family. There was a lot of love there,
but there was also a lot of family drama. Constant infighting, animosity among siblings for money, for their their
father's money. And I think that that's where the drama always came back to, was who was going
to get dad's money. The Farris family is made up of Gary Farris, the patriarch, Melody Farris,
the mother, and then there were four children. The oldest being Chris Farris, then there was Scott Farris, and then
you have Emily, and then Amanda. Gary Farris was a brilliant commercial real estate attorney. He was very smart.
He loved his kids. Melody is a very straightforward person who for the last 35 years had been a
stay-at-home mom. I'm the mother who took care of everything, took care of everybody.
I was the one that my children called when they needed help. I was always there for them. I never
told them no. The Farrises lived on the east end of the county. Their property was around 10 acres, very
nice piece of property. It was obvious that these people were likely affluent. Had a house, a barn.
We had four horses. We had I don't know how many goats. They lived a life though odd to a lot of
us. It was normal to them. It has been called the Ferris wheel. And it was, but it was our Ferris wheel.
It was our life. On 4th of July of 2018, everything changed for this family. It was brought to my attention by my
sister and my mother that my father was missing. He wasn't the healthiest man. He had
high blood pressure. He smoked a lot. We were all thinking he might have had a heart attack.
We decided to start searching the property. I started checking all the pastures.
We had been out looking for quite some time. We had been over every square inch of that property.
We couldn't find him. Something's really off here. Scott and I were standing there by the
burn pile just looking. With this being a working farm, they would pile tree stumps and and rotten
firewood just kind of like a trash pile and every now and again they'd burn it. My dad did talk about that he was going
to burn that stuff on that pile. I looked down and immediately I could start seeing bones.
I squatted down and I'm like, "Those are human remains. I'm calling 911 right now."
We heard the radio call that those are remains that had just been found in a fire.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the amount of fire damage done to the body. This guy's been in this fire
burning for for quite some time. During the excavation of the bones, there's a bullet found lodged in a rib bone.
This is not an accident. It's a murder. They go through the family members and they're going to look at who had the
opportunity and anyone who lived on that property would have been in that box. How did he get on the burn pile?
Who shot him? With what gun? Where? We don't have a single clue. I called it a a soap opera because of
the old TV show Dallas. You had money. You then you had the who shot J.R. Except it was who shot Gary Ferris?

ALL NEW: Melody Farris, the matriarch of a wealthy family, spins a tale trying to pin the murder of her husband on her own son. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports Saturday, April 26 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Gary Farris and the family conflicts surrounding it.

Key points

The Farris Family Dynamics. The Farris family was filled with love but also intense drama over money.
The Discovery of Human Remains. A search for Gary Farris leads to the shocking discovery of human remains.
Murder Revealed. Evidence found at the scene indicates that Gary Farris was murdered, not an accident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This family was not like every other family.

Describing the Farris family's unique dynamics.

0:33WatchApr 24, 2025

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