The Reluctant Witness | "Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel" | "48 Hours" Podcast Episode 4 | Forensic Files

Can Can I just say a couple things to you? Sure. Look, it's a while to get here, but nevertheless, that's just part
of the business, and I want >> On July 24th, 2018, nearly 3 weeks into the investigation of Gary Ferris's
disappearance and suspected murder, Detective Daniel Hayes and Sergeant [music] Ashley Pope traveled from
Cherokee County, Georgia, to Coffee County, Tennessee, to meet [music] the traveling country
salesman who they thought could break the case wide open. We kind of view this as you coming on
our side of the table, okay? And it may be uncomfortable, but I think it's something that needs to be done for
yourself. This would be the third face-to-face [music] meeting with Rusty Barton, the man who had been having an
affair with Melody Ferris for years, and who investigators believed [music] knew
some of her deepest secrets. So far, he'd given them nothing. But this time, Rusty [music] was ready
to open up. I feel the best way to do this would be just to let you tell us what you want to tell us, and
then if we have any questions at the end to fill in. Okay. Is that fair? Yes. For years, Rusty and Melody talked
almost every day on the phone, >> [music] >> and their phone calls had become a key
part of the investigation. I think [clears throat] there was only one conversation that is what you're looking
for. Okay. The one conversation in question between the lovers was around 2:20 a.m. on the
4th of July, an unusually late hour for them. Rusty said [music] they'd been talking
for quite a while when Melody said something chilling. Probably the last minute of the last
conversation, she said, "Gary is in the burn pile." No, she said, "He is in the burn pile."
That was more than 24 hours before Melody and her children would go searching for Gary on the property and
discover his charred remains. And I said, "What?" And she said, "He's in the burn pile." And I said,
"Do not say another word, and do not tell me anything. I do not need to know." And with that, the phone call ended. And
that is everything Peer Chief discussed with her. Period. It sure sounded like Melody had
implicated herself in the murder of her husband. Detective Daniel Hayes told me he had a
theory that Rusty knew what was going on. That he knew what had just happened, >> [music]
>> and he either didn't want to know about it or did did not want her to say it over the
phone. Detectives felt they were getting closer to an arrest, but they would need Rusty on their side
to seal the deal. Are we talking wire bug or taped phone conversation? Maybe. Guys,
I'm Peter Van [music] Sant. From 48 Hours, this is Blood Is Thicker: The Ferris Wheel.
Episode 4, The Reluctant Witness. As Detective [music] Hayes and Sergeant Pope pressed Rusty Barton, they zeroed
in on what Melody [music] told him during that phone call. 48 Hours got access [music] to the full
detective interview. And you said something to [music] the effect what when she said, "Gary's in the burn
pile." Or he's in the burn pile. >> He's in the burn pile. I said, "Don't Don't say nothing else. Don't tell me. I
don't want to know." So, I want to get into like your head a little bit about it.
>> "He is in the burn pile" were [music] the specific words she Yes. To my That's
Rusty's lawyer chiming in. >> [music] >> He was also present the day of this interview with the sheriff's office.
>> [music] >> Rusty told Melody not to tell him any additional information >> [music]
>> after her big reveal. Sergeant Pope pointed out to him why some [music] people might find that
response a bit unusual. My question would be if I'm just going to play this out of
Daniel. Me and him were not only coworkers, but we're friends, and we know intimate details of each other's
lives. If he called and said something like that to me, there's a couple things. So, if my first
instinct was like, "What? Don't say anything else." There would have been something that led
me to believe that this was an incident of murder. >> [music] >> Right? Right. Mhm.
What wasn't Rusty telling [music] them? That's >> Well, I'm also concerned with too that
you're leaving stuff out that might implicate you further in something. Does that make sense?
We have to think about that, too. What >> I shot Gary. What do I do now?" Go throw
diesel fuel >> Why are you calling me about this? I don't want to know. >> Hey, if that is the case, we need to
know that. >> Yes. If that was the case, I would tell you. At this moment, Detective Hayes
didn't want to press Rusty too hard, so he moved on. And then you had an hour-long
conversation with her the next morning at 6:30. Which is not unusual. Not unusual, and
that was just a regular everyday conversation. >> Regular everyday. No stranger to
talking, Rusty described what a regular conversation with Melody was like. What we talked about was the normal
we talked about we always talked about we talked about you know, the kids and the grandkids.
You can probably take a guess at what we just bleeped. Rusty continued with the timeline,
saying that Melody texted him at 11:00 a.m. on July 5th, the same day the family began searching for Gary.
The last text message was, "We're looking for Gary. Call you ASAP." Okay. >> That was the last communication.
>> Which that's strange because he told you he's in the burn pile. >> Yeah, I knew where he was.
The detectives were perplexed. Why would Melody text Rusty that Gary was missing after telling Rusty on the
phone that he was in the burn pile? And there was one other curious thing detectives discovered when they reviewed
Rusty's online search history. He had Googled whether police could have access to his past text messages.
Rusty didn't like it when asked about that search. I didn't murder nobody or have nothing
to do with it. Again, my whole thing about what worried about was all the pictures and the porn and the
talk of all that kind of stuff. Yeah. You just didn't want us to read that cuz it would have embarrassed you. Yeah.
Weeks after finding the human remains, Melody and Rusty had continued communicating, but not on Melody's main
phone. So, that is a uh an extraction of your phone. All right? And you can see this is the phone number that she used.
>> That's 678 number. >> Right. That's her burner phone. That's the one we know is her burner phone.
Okay. That's right. Melody was using a burner phone to talk to Rusty. Scott had seen her use it and was quick
to tell investigators, while Rusty wasn't as forthcoming. Detectives wondered what else he might
have left out. Before questioning began, detectives tried to intimidate Rusty. They laid out fake unsigned warrants on
the table in front of him, showing potential serious charges Rusty could face. But if he helped them out, well, that
was another story. You need to for you record every time you talk to her on the phone. Rusty's lawyer sided with the
detectives. I'm telling you that it >> Yes. You feel Does that make sense? Yeah.
So, Rusty [music] took his attorney's advice, and about a week later, he got on the phone with Melody.
Once Rusty though was cooperating with you, tell us how he helped the investigation about the tape recordings.
Um so, we got a year's worth of data from him. Um you know, we we were able to install
a investigative tool on his phone. I spoke with Detective Hayes [music] in 2024.
We send him a text message, and he accepts it, and it it kind of >> [music] >> assigns your phone a new phone number.
So, we had to work in a conversation with her of why Rusty [music] has a new phone number now that she's
supposed to call him on, which she knows about. And you know what he basically told her?
"I got this new phone for me and you since all this other stuff's going on. Just call this number." She would.
Every time Melody would call that phone, [music] detectives monitored and recorded the conversations.
On August 2nd, 2018, Rusty and Melody were on the phone. She knew that Rusty had recently talked
to detectives. [music] They talked about concerns over his possible arrest. They said that I would
that I would be arrested here, and then they would have to uh uh take me you know, extradite me to
Georgia. Right. She sounded worried that they had their eyes on him. You all need to get
any information that proves that you were in town that time. Rusty was already on top of that, documenting his
days in Tennessee the week Gary disappeared. I wrote down and made up a timeline,
you know, per day of where I was, who I talked to, that kind of stuff. Melody remained calm as Rusty got worked
up about their situation. But I been upfront dying. I know you are. I so am I. So am I.
Melody told Rusty that she believed the sheriff's office didn't have any evidence against them.
She said her attorney thought the detectives were lying. He said, "All they're trying to do is scare you." I
said, "No [ __ ] well they're doing a good job of it." Rusty told her what happened during his
meeting with detectives. Well, you know, like I told them, I don't have nothing to hide.
Right. You know, I know I wasn't there. I didn't have nothing to do with it. I don't know what happened.
I talked to her that night, yes, she called me three times. I talked to her that night. We
we just talked. It was just normal [ __ ] As you can hear, Rusty left out that he
had shared details of what Melody said about the burn pile with detectives. I didn't tell her nothing, she didn't
tell me nothing. Yeah, cuz there was nothing going on. My balls are running a plum out of
steam, baby. I know it. I know. Melody then pauses before saying, I know you were scared to death, and so am I.
Then Rusty said something rather curious. Baby, are you sure the house is clean?
Baby, there's nothing in the house. And then he asked her if she got rid of the gun.
And here's the thing of it, baby. >> There was no gun. There was no gun. Why are you so sure that the cops didn't
find anything? Cuz there was no gun in there. If this was Rusty trying to reel Melody
in, she didn't seem to be taking the bait, >> [music] >> even when he directly asked her about
who killed Gary. Baby, do you know who did it? Who [music] killed him? >> No, I do not know.
I mean, somebody killed him. No. No. >> [music] >> Who Who could have done it? I don't know.
Then, at about [music] 45 minutes in, Rusty got more specific. He brought up their phone call in the early morning
hours of July 4th. [music] Listen to me, okay? Okay. We need to be on the same page.
Okay. We need to be on the same page, meaning we've got to get our stories [music]
straight. All right, and and so I I don't want to be confused. [music] But I reme-
I remember you telling me he's on the burn pile. Mhm. He asked her to explain [music] what
happened. At first, Melody was just silent. I can tell you that there should not have been as much
damage as there was done. I don't know what that means. That body should not have been burned
up. So, who burned it up? I think Scott did. >> [music] >> You can't I think Scott did.
This was a new accusation that detectives had never heard from Melody. Yes, she had talked in earlier police
interviews about tensions between Scott and his father over money, but she hadn't been this explicit about
Scott killing his father. Now, I honestly don't know what Scott did or anything. I don't know.
Uh, do I have speculation? Yes, I do. Rusty decided to ask Melody yet again if she had told him that he, meaning Gary,
was on the burn pile. I don't remember. Another long pause. I think all that I remember saying to
you was that Gary had started the burn pile. Okay. Cuz I and I don't remember. I was trying to
put it all together, and that was what I was coming up with. Rusty told Melody that now he wasn't entirely sure because
he had a few drinks of Crown Royal that night and had taken some Advil PM. I was just kind of in and out, so
Did you ever tell them that you had had drinks and Yeah. Advil PM? Okay. That detail seemed important to Melody,
that Rusty made it known to police that he had been drinking and may have been under the influence of medication during
that late-night chat. Don't give them any more information than, you know, um, of course they're not going to be
talking to me. Rusty responded, Yes. I just I don't know what to say or not to say, you know, if we get
if we both get locked up. You don't say anything. You say nothing. Melody and Rusty talked for nearly an
hour before finally saying goodbye. Okay. Okay. I love you. I love you. Their phone calls continued in the
following days. >> [music] >> Detective Hayes told me that Rusty agreed to keep recording, but then
learned something rather startling. Unfortunately, within the first few phone calls,
um, we learned Rusty told her that we were trying to record her phone calls. Um,
so we didn't believe what we were hearing to be real >> [music] >> as far as genuine. We thought that some
of it was staged because we know Rusty told her we were trying to record her. So, what we just heard from Melody, was
that all an act? A means of throwing detectives off her scent? Whatever the case, authorities still
thought Melody was the killer. But until the autopsy report provided a positive ID that [music] Gary Ferris was
the murder victim, all detectives could do was wait. We have verbal confirmation, we didn't
have any documentation [music] yet. There have been times in the past where sometimes
the verbal confirmation and the written confirmation don't, um, match. And in this case,
[music] that meant waiting for almost a year. The Ferris [music] family was a family
divided. As they waited for the official investigation to conclude, [music] the brothers and sisters had made their
own conclusions >> [music] >> about their mother's potential involvement. Here's Detective Daniel
Hayes. Emily, um, >> [music] >> Scott and Chris, they believed their mother had something to do with it. She
either did it or she had it done. >> [music] >> Um, Amanda did not. Amanda sided with
her mother and basically defended [music] her. Scott and Chris had even gone down to
the sheriff's office and shared additional information [music] that implicated their mother,
offering financial motives, revealed her [music] affairs, and disclosed that she
might have even tried to poison [music] their father. Yet for the next several months, Scott
continued to live on the same property as his mother. Did you ever have a conversation with
her that said, "You know, this looks bad for you. I think you were involved in this." Did you ever say anything like
that to your mom? No, not directly towards her. So, she's, you know, she was kind of like bipolar in a way.
She'd be nice one minute, and then she'll be your worst enemy the next. Scott told me that he stayed as far away
from his mother as possible while still living on the farm, and attempted to make what money he
could now that his provider was gone. Cherokee County froze all accounts. Mom's, my dad's,
my sister's, they froze them all. So, we had no access to money whatsoever. So, I would go and find work, you know,
under the table type pay work. Um, That's because in a homicide, they don't want a potential killer to benefit
financially from that, so they freeze the assets until the case is adjudicated. >> Yeah. Scott said that Melody made living
on the farm extremely difficult after Gary's murder. After all this started, I would be up at the barn working or
something, she would come up and just start screaming at me and threatening me and stuff.
>> About what? Oh, about, you know, I should be giving her the money that I'm making. So, you
would argue? She would try to argue. Over the course of several months, the sheriff's
department got multiple calls from the farm. For the police to come out to the house. What was the nature of these
calls though, do you know? Um you know, Melody made allegations that Scott was threatening her. Uh
um things on those lines. Melody had told the sheriff's office that Scott didn't want her near the barn
or his stuff. Now, Scott called 911 on you apparently six different times. What was that about?
The I know two of them. I'm not sure about the others. Uh one was that I had stolen my own trailer.
It was a trailer that we had on the property that we used. In one incident report, Melody claimed
that Scott told her, quote, "You need to leave or I will make sure the same thing that happened to my daddy
will happen to you." But for Scott, Melody was the one harassing him. He even turned to Detective Hayes for
some advice. Well, I called Detective Hayes and I'm like, "Look, she keeps doing all this stuff.
And how can I protect myself? Because I know it didn't look good on any of us because they're investigating all of
us." According to Scott, Detective Hayes suggested he start using the voice memo
app on his cell phone to record his mother. So, that's what I started doing. And I had
a lot of recordings of her harassing me. Scott discovered that someone [music] had broken into his apartment on the top
floor of the family's barn. The lights were on. He saw a drawer in the kitchen [music] and drawers in his
bedroom had been left open. The place looked ransacked and he called the police. [music]
The sheriff's office checked the place, but nothing was missing and they couldn't prove who did it.
That was April 2019. [music] At this point in the investigation, Melody had lawyered up and had stopped
[music] cooperating with detectives. But she was already their number one suspect.
While everyone awaited the autopsy, detectives spent [music] their time combing through data
and conducting various ballistic tests to see if Melody should have been able to hear a gunshot inside the house.
Finally, after 11 months, >> [music] >> the autopsy report was released. It confirmed the remains [music] in the
burn pile were Gary Ferris. Six days later, the sheriff's office made [music] their move.
Melody was in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where Rusty lived. She learned deputies were looking for her. So, we had to have
Rusty drive Melody to us at the uh police uh department up there. On June 18th, 2019, Melody turned herself
in. Melody [music] was charged with murder, concealing the death of another, false
statements, and aggravated assault. Do you believe that Rusty could have been [music]
a motive for her killing her husband? I absolutely do. Uh she obviously wanted a life with Rusty.
They needed Gary's money and the only thing in between Gary's money and Rusty and Melody was
Gary Ferris. [music] Shortly after arresting Melody, Detective Hayes decided it was worth
talking to Rusty again. [music] So, we went back up to interview him and that's when he told us. He was like, "Oh, by
the way, I was I was wrong." Rusty was about to flip again. This time on detectives and dramatically change
his story. Was it out of love or self-preservation? From 48 Hours, this [music] is Blood Is
Thicker, the Ferris Wheel produced by Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host, Peter Van Sant.
Judy Tygard is the executive producer of 48 Hours. Original reporting [music] by 48 Hours producers Betsy Schuler,
Ryan Smith, and Hannah Vere. Jamie Benson is the [music] senior producer for CBS News podcasts and Mara
Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance [music] from Allan Pang and Alana Myers.
Special thanks [music] to CBS News podcast vice president Megan Marcus. Blood Is Thicker [music] was written and
produced by Alex Schumann. Stephanie Serrano [music] is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris.
Our associate producer [music] is Zoe Kalikin. Theme and original music composed by
Hansdale She. Cedric Wilson [music] is our sound designer and mixed the episodes.
We also use music [music] from Epidemic Sounds. Fendel Fulton is our fact checker.
Our production [music] manager is Tamika Balanc Kolasny. If you're enjoying the show, [music]
be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting.
Thanks for [music] listening.

Melody Farris's longtime lover, Rusty Barton, becomes a key focus of the investigation when he admits something incriminating that Melody told him on the phone. And as the investigation drags on with no arrests, life on the farm grows increasingly tense as Melody and her son Scott are forced to coexist under the weight of suspicion.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "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

Detectives investigate Gary Ferris's murder, focusing on his wife Melody and her lover Rusty, revealing shocking secrets and family tensions.

Key points

The Chilling Phone Call. Melody's late-night confession to Rusty raises alarms about Gary's fate.
Rusty's Conflicted Loyalty. Rusty struggles with what he knows and what he should say to Melody.
The Gun That Wasn't. Melody insists there was no gun, raising more questions about the case.
Melody's Accusation. In a surprising twist, Melody suggests Scott may be responsible for Gary's death.
Family Divided. The Ferris family grapples with suspicions and accusations against Melody.
Melody Charged with Murder. Melody faces serious charges including murder and aggravated assault. Could love be a motive?

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Gary is in the burn pile.

Melody's chilling statement during a late-night phone call.

1:53WatchApr 1, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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