You're Gonna Hang Me | "Blood is Thicker: The Farris Wheel" | "48 Hours" Podcast Episode 5 | Forensic Files

[music] >> She said, Gary is in the burn pile. No, she said he is in the burn pile.
He's in the burn pile. When Melody Ferris' lover, Rusty Burton, said those five words to detectives,
[music] he blew the investigation wide open. Rusty claimed Melody told him that [music] key phrase the night her
husband, Gary Ferris, was killed. Here's Detective Daniel Hayes. Rusty claimed that his response to her
was, "Don't tell me nothing else." Now, Rusty eventually recants [music] this story, correct? He does. But he
waits almost a year to do it. He does. Back on July 24th, 2018, Rusty [music] had agreed to secretly
record his calls with Melody. But detectives discovered Rusty shared that secret with Melody, tipping her
off. They had continued seeing each other for almost a year after Gary was murdered.
And Rusty was with her when she turned herself in. When we arrested her, she was actually up in Tennessee spending
time with him. When you Rusty was still with her and spending time with her, so we went back
up to interview him and that's when he told us. He was like, "Oh, by the way, I was, you know,
I was wrong. She told me this in person a few days past that." I was wrong. >> [music]
>> After her arrest, Rusty took back his dramatic story. He now told investigators that Melody said those
words after Gary's murder investigation had started. But during that year, they had talked
many times together. These two people >> Two people who were in love with each other and planning a life. Um yes, they
were planning a life together. Could Melody [music] have influenced Rusty to change his tune?
Whatever the case, Detective [music] Hayes was sure Melody was Gary's killer. She was the only person that had motive.
I think motive was a big part [music] of this case. According to Detective Hayes, Melody
stood to inherit millions. But aside from family accusations and Rusty's original story,
what evidence made detectives so sure? And just how did a petite woman like Melody move Gary Ferris' 300-lb body
from their home to the burn [music] pile, some 50 yards away? I'm Peter Van Sant.
>> [music] >> From 48 Hours, this is Blood Is Thicker: The Ferris Wheel. Episode 5, You're Going to Hang Me.
Peter, I want to show you some evidence. All right. [music] Let's go take a look.
Where are we? What is this lot back here? >> Uh this is part of the Sheriff's Office
Evidence Unit. This is our outside impound lot where we store, [music] you know, large pieces of equipment or
vehicles. Back in 2024, Detective Daniel Hayes walked [music] me out to the Cherokee
County impound lot, where they keep seized property held as evidence [music] for investigations.
Right over here, Peter. This is what we're looking at, these two vehicles. Hayes led [music] me toward a small
orange tractor and a red two-seat RTV, rough terrain [music] vehicle. They're two vehicles used on the Ferris
family farm. These are the two vehicles that for years [music] people have wondered,
was one of these used to move Gary Ferris' body [music] to that burn pile? That's correct.
And what did you learn when your forensic people took a look at these two vehicles? Uh
>> [music] >> well, when they took a look at them, they found evidence of blood on both of
them. He pointed to where they found [music] the speck of blood they tested. Investigators got a match.
It was Gary Ferris' blood. So, what does that suggest to you? Tells me that Gary was bleeding and his
he was on or around the tractor. Then we checked out the RTV. And where was the blood found on this
vehicle? Uh on the RTV, we found blood in several spots. There was blood found on the shifter, uh uh evidence of blood
on the the tailgate in the back. Now, that's intriguing. Blood in two different places. Was this Gary's blood?
Uh the blood on the shifter was Melody's blood. Detective Hayes said they never tested
the blood on the tailgate. He explained that even the Sheriff's Office has a tight budget.
And those tests and the products needed to do them can be expensive. But was there any evidence that Melody
used the RTV to move Gary's body? This family has utilized both of those machines to move
dead horses, um pull stumps out of the ground. So, anyone who's been on the property that
saw knew the capabilities of these machines. And she could handle both of these. She knew how to
use the machinery, both of these machines? She could, uh and and she not only did other family members tell us
that she has driven and operated both, um she admitted that she drives RTV all the time when Gary's not there and has
operated the tractor. Detective Hayes had a theory that Melody somehow used the tractor and the RTV to
lift and move Gary's 300-lb body. How about [music] this this RTV? Is this something that would be used to drag a
body? Could be. The this RTV has a a dump bed on the back of it, a a bed that you can put things in [music] to haul
them. Um it's capable, you know, has very heavy-duty front bumper. It's got a rear bumper that you could attach a
strap to, a tow strap or something. Now, from what I understand, [music] there is no evidence of tire marks that
go from the house to the burn pile. Is that correct? >> That's correct. And no evidence of like
something [music] being dragged That's correct. >> across the dirt. So, this still remains
a mystery, doesn't it? It does, but it was days [music] before we got there. So, there was plenty of time to rake,
cover up whatever any of that evidence that could have been there. Hayes also [music] told me other
suspicious evidence his team had uncovered, including inside [music] the master bedroom closet.
I actually personally located two pairs of shoes. One pair of shoes were interesting because you could see
[music] on the bottom where someone had stepped in blood in them. They were smaller size, appeared to be
>> [music] >> women's shoes. Detective Hayes concluded they were Melody's shoes.
Hayes then turned his attention to the [music] second suspicious pair. So, I had gloves on.
I picked up another pair of shoes. I said, "Man, these are cold feeling compared to the other ones." And it
turns out they were wet. They were freshly laundered. Hayes saw them on a rack and assumed
they were left there to dry. It suggests to me that those pair of shoes likely had some
blood on them or some other evidence that someone wanted to, um you know, get off of there. And it
could also indicate they got dirty working on the farm. There was one more thing. As Detective Hayes looked through
the closet, he checked the dirty clothes hamper and pulled out a small shirt he assumed was Melody's.
But there appears to be dark blood stains on this shirt and um what I believe to be a black, almost
sooty-looking, stain on it. Testing revealed that the blood found on the shirt and shoes was in fact
Melody's, not her husband's. >> [music] >> Detective Hayes later said that he thought the blood could have been from
when Melody smashed a plate in an argument [music] with Gary or from when she was working on the farm.
He wasn't sure. What detectives did know was where everyone in the family was when they
believed Gary was murdered and who Melody called that night. Clean up is for sure in the middle of the night. One
of the Sheriff's Department analysts was able to use the Ferris' phone [music] records to reconstruct the last moments
of Gary's life and when his body could have been moved to that burn pile. In the time frame, the phone moves from
the area of the home to the burn pile. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office had been collecting and reviewing phone data
for weeks. We had physical phones for Melody Ferris, Gary Ferris, Scott Ferris, >> [music]
>> uh Rusty Burton. That's Lindsey Harris, an intelligence analyst with the Sheriff's Office.
She took a look through the vast trove of Ferris family texts, calls, emails, and searches.
She even got the data from Melody's burner phone, the one she'd been using to talk to Rusty during their affair.
Every device a little different, but when you do extract the data, you get a good bit of information. A lot of the
contents, a lot of the app data, photos, videos, conversations. Harris looked for
patterns [music] and if those patterns changed. I'll look at patterns of location. Are
you in the right place that's normal in your life? Are you Are you calling normal people? Are you calling during
normal times of the day? Are you moving at different times of the day that you normally wouldn't? For instance,
>> [music] >> Harris discovered how Melody's texts revealed her changing moods during the
days leading to Gary's murder. She's upset about a beach condo that was purchased and she's very vocal in her
messages about that. Chris had asked Gary to help pay for a beach [music] vacation. Melody texted
both of her daughters about it on July 2nd, 2018. She says, "I got Gary's phone." This
shows us she has the ability to physically look at his phone and read messages and find out information. And
she's not happy about it. She says she's beyond furious. And she she talks here with Amanda about how Scott left this
morning at 8:00 and he's gone to play golf again. And you know, help me God. She's upset about Scott's whereabouts
and his activities. Um And And again, it's it's all about he refuses to help. He
This is my last straw. I'm taking measures into my own hands. Harris then analyzed the data from July 3rd, the
last day Gary was seen alive. Two of the grandkids had asked Melody if they could spend the night with her.
Melody says how about the following night. And um you know, in totality, she's she's at home and she
stays at home. No real plans on the night of the 3rd. And based upon statements made, she's always willing to
have her grandkids over, especially they're in town. It was uh definitely odd that
she did not want some the kids over that day. There was also data supporting Chris's
story of visiting Gary at the farm with his daughter. He was the last person to speak with
Gary on the phone. >> [music] >> So, this call is a minute and 43 seconds in duration at 3:51 is the last time
>> [music] >> anyone spoke to Gary on the phone. And then Gary attempts to call Chris
back at 3:53. [music] And that is the last proof of life on Gary's device. Phone records then indicate that at 5:16
p.m., Melody texted [music] Amanda to let her know that Chris and his daughter had left.
Investigators [music] believed Melody was now alone on the property with Gary. And immediately [music] at 5:17, Melody
begins talking to Rusty on that burner phone, >> [music] >> which is not odd in their relationship.
They have a lot of phone contact. Um but then we get into a little bit of a break of communication on both phones
[music] for a period of time. There is nothing for nearly 4 hours from 5:36 [music]
p.m. to 9:26 p.m. Location data showed that Melody's phone stayed at the main house.
>> [music] >> No outgoing calls or texts were sent at that time to anyone. As for Gary's whereabouts,
Gary did have the Android phone, a Google [music] device, and he did have location services turned on. So, this is
a very precise location of the handset itself. It it helped [music] us create a timeline for Gary's proof of life.
A couple of hours after Melody's phone went silent, data showed Gary's phone leaving the farm at around 8:30.
His device moves to this location and it appears to be a restaurant. Harris pointed to a map displaying Gary's
movements. So, this is uh leaving the area of that strip mall restaurant and headed back
into the area of the home. According to his phone, Gary arrived back home at 9:34 p.m.
Melody is also in the area of the home. Once Gary made it back, Melody didn't contact anyone for about an hour.
It's my belief that the homicide took place between 9:34 p.m. on July 3rd and 2:00 a.m. on July 4th.
>> [music] >> There's a little more than an hour between the time Gary arrived home and
when Melody [music] called her son Scott to tell him that the horses somehow got
out. The call with Scott at 10:52. This to me is a Melody asking Scott's whereabouts
in order to know um when is someone going to else arrive at the farm. At that moment, Scott was
on his way home from the lake. When he arrived, Scott said he saw the glow of the burn pile fire and called
Melody. It does not appear the phone is answered. Scott's phone location at this
time at 11:30 [music] does cover the area of the house. And then Melody calls Scott back at
11:34. So, between 5:16 >> [music] >> 5:16 p.m. on July 3rd to 11:30 p.m., Gary and Melody are the only two at the
farm with the exception of the time Gary's device travels to the area of a restaurant.
Late that night, Melody [music] was back on the phone with Rusty. Records show there were three separate
calls. Lindsey discovered something fascinating. So, from January 2018 to July 5th, 2018, Melody and Rusty [music]
made contact 3,478 times on the phone. Only one of these 3,478 ever took place after midnight and that
was on [music] July 4th, 2018. This is the call between Rusty and Melody around 2:30 in the morning on
July 4th. That same one Rusty told police about in the days after the killing. So, theory
could be they're discussing. They're They're coming up with a plan. He's helping her through it. Could he be
telling her how to maneuver farm equipment? Could Could he be giving her advice? Could he
be helping her through it mentally? We don't know. Meanwhile, the data showed that Gary's
phone was still inside the main house until the next morning. The phone does begin to move.
>> [music] >> The records investigators collected had Scott calling Melody at 6:12 that
morning, telling her that he was going to come to the main house >> [music] >> to grab the debit card.
By 6:21 a.m., Scott was using the Wells Fargo ATM to take cash out to go golfing.
Lindsey Harris said that Gary's phone data showed the device moved after [music] Scott had left the property.
Melody was now alone. Detectives [music] believe she is the only person who could
have been carrying Gary's cell phone. The device [music] moves from the area of the home to an
area of the burn pile. But then, more than an hour later, the phone moved again away from the burn
[music] pile. By 9:05 a.m., Gary's phone is in the area of the home. Harris's explanation for that? Someone
must be moving it. >> [music] [music] >> Let's take a moment and add this all up.
Outside the main house, there was blood evidence tying Melody and Gary to the tractor and the RTV,
bolstering the theory that Melody used those vehicles to move her husband's body.
And there was the cell phone data, including how Gary's phone moved the morning of July 4th, when Melody was the
only other person home. Earlier that morning and the night before, Melody had also made several
calls to her lover Rusty. She also called her son Scott after a long period where her phone was
completely inactive. Nearly 12 months later, on June 18th, 2019, Melody Ferris was arrested. She was
charged with murder with malice, felony murder, >> [music] >> aggravated assault, concealing a death,
and making false statements. I didn't do [music] this. I would promise you on my life I did not do it.
After Melody's arrest, Rusty recanted [music] his damning burn pile story. That reversal could have helped Melody.
This is a prepaid call from an inmate [music] at the correctional facility. But she still wasn't happy. Yeah.
No. Okay. Well, you know, back a long time ago, I said stop talking. Right. I haven't done anything.
I know that, darling. But somehow or other, you know, what you keep talking about, you're
going to single-handedly hang me. I have not said anything other than the one time and I have retracted that. And
they failed to show that retraction. I haven't said anything else. Cuz there was nothing else to say. There
wasn't anything like that to say. Melody seemingly knew how damning Rusty's original statement could be.
You heard her warn him, "You're single-handedly going to hang me." She asked for reassurance that he wasn't
going to switch sides again. I'm making sure that you understand. I think I did. But there's there's not
You didn't do anything wrong. I haven't done anything wrong. But there's there's nothing wrong with
us talking. I understand that. After a little more than 5 minutes, the two lovers, now separated by jailhouse
bars, ended their call. I love you. Love you. The years-long romance between Rusty and
Melody, combined with her failed marriage with Gary, morphed into what Detective Hayes [music] considered her
likely motive. Killing was the only way that Melody [music] could profit. Through the investigation, we determined
that she was the beneficiary to everything. Through marriage, she was entitled to everything as long as
if Gary's dead and she is alive, it's all hers. Hayes also thinks the breaking point for
Melody may have been all that money that Gary was giving the kids. We talked [music] about it during a
ride-along. She was angry at all the children except for Amanda because they were taking
money from Gary, which was her money. And she knew that her her bank account was dwindling away because of them. She
knew once Gary was gone, the money stopped coming in. Is there any evidence uh detective that
Gary had said to her something like, "We're done. I'm going to end this marriage once and for all." And that
that could have precipitated an attack? Uh there were some text messages between them where he, you
know, had addressed her spending and told her he was taking action to to make it stop. But you believe that
Gary had made a decision in this marriage that he was going to cut his wife off from his funds,
completely isolate her so so she would not have access? I do believe it that he had already
taken action to cut her off. And so in her mind then, she's thinking to herself,
"I'm not going to have access to this money and I have to kill him so that I I can
maintain it. I can take over these funds." Gary was what was standing in her way between her and the money and
her and her life with Rusty. Murder would have left Melody with the best of both worlds.
And do [music] you believe that she and Rusty were planning on getting married perhaps? Absolutely.
When we spoke with Rusty and [music] he let us have his phone and we found where he was he was searching [music]
uh wedding bands recently. Now Now, Melody told us, "Oh, no, we weren't going to get married." But do
you think she's telling the truth? No, I don't think she's telling the truth. I don't think she's told the truth
the entire time. Even if Melody and Rusty were planning to take the inheritance and start a new
life, the data showed Rusty was not [music] on the ground with Melody the day Gary was murdered.
His location data proved he [music] was in Tennessee. Melody pleaded not guilty.
She now [music] had to decide if she wanted to testify in her own defense and watch [music] as her family secrets were
shared with the world. The most heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching thing I had ever sat through in my entire life.
From 48 Hours, this [music] is Blood Is Thicker, the Ferris Wheel produced by Sony Music Entertainment.
I'm your host, Peter Van Sant. [music] Judy Tygard is the executive producer of 48 Hours.
Original reporting by 48 Hours producers [music] Betsy Scheuler, Ryan Smith, and Hannah
Vere. Jamie Benson is [music] the senior producer for CBS News podcasts and Mara
Waltz is the senior story editor. Recording assistance [music] from Alan Pang and Alana Myers.
Special thanks to CBS [music] News podcast vice president Megan Marcus. Blood Is Thicker [music] was written and
produced by Alex Scheuler. Stephanie Serrano is our editor. Our executive producer is Shera Morris.
Our associate producer [music] is Zoe Kolken. Theme and original music composed by
Hansdale She. Cedric Wilson is our sound designer and mixed the episodes. We also use music [music] from Epidemic
Sounds. Fendel Fulton is our fact-checker. Our production manager [music] is Tamika
Ballance Kolken. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and [music] review. It helps more
people find it and hear our reporting. Thanks for listening.

After Melody Farris is arrested, Rusty Barton changes his story about what she told him the night Gary was killed. But even without Rusty's cooperation, detectives gather key evidence that builds the case against Melody.

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

Melody Ferris is accused of murdering her husband Gary, with evidence suggesting motive and involvement from her lover Rusty Burton.

Key points

The Burn Pile Revelation. Rusty's claim about Gary's location ignites the investigation.
Melody's Secret Calls. Detectives uncover Melody's secret calls with Rusty after Gary's murder.
Blood Evidence Found. Forensic analysis reveals blood evidence on farm vehicles linked to Gary's murder.
Melody's Arrest. Melody Ferris is arrested and charged with multiple crimes including murder.
Motive for Murder. Detective Hayes discusses Melody's potential motive tied to financial gain.
Melody's Dilemma. Melody must decide whether to testify and reveal her family's secrets.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You're single-handedly going to hang me.

Melody warning Rusty about his statements.

18:59WatchApr 8, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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