April 14, 2026

30-Year Secret: The Murder of Tracey Harris

30-Year Secret: The Murder of Tracey Harris
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Season 10

In the quiet town of Ozark, Alabama, 22-year-old Tracey Harris was a hardworking young mother trying to rebuild her life after a difficult divorce. On March 7, 1990, she was dropped off at home after work… and vanished without a trace. One week later, her body was pulled from the murky Choctawhatchee River—naked from the waist up, with clear signs she had been strangled before being drowned. It was ruled a homicide, and the prime suspect was staring everyone in the face: her ex-husband, Carl Harris.
For nearly thirty years the case went cold, with Carl under a cloud of suspicion. Then, in 2016, police finally arrested him. As his murder trial loomed in January 2020, a bombshell confession from an unexpected source turned the entire case upside down just one day before opening statements—revealing a 30-year secret that no one saw coming.

Timestamps
09:56 Tracy's Unconventional Living Situation
26:47 The Search for Tracy
46:00 The Investigation Shifts Focus
56:40 Changes in Domestic Violence Laws
1:07:46 Trial Preparation
1:26:24 The Real Killer Emerges

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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell

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stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are

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so shocking that many are left wondering how.

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Is this even real?

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I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined

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with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep

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into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many

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feel they are unspeakable.

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Warning.

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Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended,

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then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all,

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caj You're back with another episode of Unspeakable. How's your

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week go in? This is gonna hopefully make it that

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much better. Now, before I get started, I do want

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to tell you that I have a Facebook page that

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I am active on because y'all know I'm in my forties,

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if you go to Facebook, you can look up Unspeakable.

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the Lady with the finger of the mouth and the

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follow I do updates there. I do you know, I

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talk and I post about what I'm what I'm going

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to be recording about and things like that. You can

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also go to my website Unspeakable topodcast dot com, and

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under that website there is a merch link a merch

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tab because people keep reaching out to me saying they

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want to get my sweatshirts and all that wonderful. You

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don't have to order directly through me. You can go

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through my website and it's all there. If there's something

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you want and you don't see it, I know sometimes

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when y'all are watching me a podcast, y'all like my

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glitter sweatshirts or whatever. I can have anything you want

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made in any color that you want, So hey, come

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up with the design. I'll be happy to make it

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for you and get it sent straight to you. I'm

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gonna catch up on my shout outs next episodes. If

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you're waiting on one, I'm gonna get to you. But

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this time I'm just going to dive right in because

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I've got a pretty long episode for you today.

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And what's kind of interesting about it is that.

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The topic of this episode, she actually has the same

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name as my neighbor, and so it was very odd

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when I was writing all these details I actually ended

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up texting her and I was like, Hey, it's kind

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of weird talking about you as a subject matter here,

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and she was like, oh, you know, so let's go

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though to Dale County, Alabama. Let's go there for this story.

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It's actually been in the news recently because of all

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the changes and updates to the cases. But Dale County,

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if you're not familiar with it, is located in the

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southeastern part of the state, and it's within the coastal plane,

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so if you want to kind of get a gist

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of where it would be, it's about forty miles from

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Georgia and also forty miles from Florida, so it is

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the perfect place nestled in between for a quick trip

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in either direction. Now, in current times, I did look

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up the county website, and if it wasn't the spitting

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image of what it looks like in my neck of

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the woods in downtown Denim Springs, I don't know what is.

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I was like, Oh, my god, looks just like home,

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you know. But back in the nineties, I'm sure that

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we would all agree things looked a little bit different.

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They moved at a slower pace, and things were vintage

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compared to today and just saying vintage. I gotta tell you,

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I recently bought something that reminded me of my childhood.

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Whenever I was checking out, the clerk at the counter goes, oh,

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you like the vintage things, and I like almost choked

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on my damn water.

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Excuse me?

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Did you just call me vintage? But I mean, hell,

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I guess I am. We are vintage, we people in

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our in our forties and older. But it kind of

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caught me off guard. So this is going to be

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a vintage case to start, but it will come forward

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into current times. So back in the nineties, March seventh,

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nineteen ninety to be specific, we know that things were

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a little different, and for a perspective, all right, this

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timeframe is whenever a lot was going on that we

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think about that made the news big. For one, on

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March seventh, nineteen ninety, that would have been the perfect

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day for someone to warn that the Zodiac Killer was

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busy planning to shoot his first victim, which would have

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been Mario or Osco, because in less than twelve hours,

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Mario would be dead. When Harry met Sally, that movie

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was about to win its Comedy Award, The La Raiders

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were writing their official announcement to their fans that they

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would be returning to Oakland. So how is that for

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a time warp to tell you about what kind of

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setting we were in in that moment. This day would

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also be one that would spark a mystery for many,

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many years to come, mystery of who was where and

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what might they have done under the cloak of darkness,

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because see, this was the home of married couple Carl

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and Tracy Harris, and their living arrangements, well, they were

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a bit non traditional considering that they had gotten divorced.

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They had gotten divorced in March of nineteen ninety, but

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they continued to live together like husband and wife even

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though the marriage was formally or at least legally over,

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and they decided, look, forever is not in the cards

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for us, at least as a married couple, but they

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would remain living together in the same home. They still

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rode together to work, they shared the car, and they

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were raising a child together, and so this was somewhat

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beneficial for that child. They just weren't going to be

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married anymore. And it's funny when you think of it,

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but for whatever reason, it was working for them. So

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Carl and Tracy had been high school sweethearts and they

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started dating around the age of about sixteen at least

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Tracy was. Carl was three years older than Tracy, and

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they had a lot of fun together which would quickly

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lead them into an early matrimony. But not because they

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couldn't wait to share a last name and were madly

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in love. No, it was actually because being pregnant and

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in high school had people looking down their noses at

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the two teens married. No they weren't, but to be

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a high schooler and to be unwed and pregnant the horror, right,

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People could not even fathom that that could happen. So,

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I mean, I'm joking here, but you know how it

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is still today. People they jump and they get married

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when they are surprised with an unexpected pregnancy, because I mean,

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a miserable marriage destined for disaster between two teenagers is

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somehow much better a choice than just people thinking badly

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about an unwed mother.

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Do you hear where I'm at with this?

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Because it just seems to be a repetitive cycle over

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and over again. So they did just that and jump

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into marriage. But I digress. We all know how that goes.

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So Tracy had become pregnant her senior year of high school,

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and that's why the couple got married. Nine months later,

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a bouncing baby girl would make her entrance into the world,

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and Tracy was over the moon when they placed that

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tiny little girl on her chest, and she knew from

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that moment forward that her life's mission would be to

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forever be devoted to her baby daughter, and they would

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name her Carolyn and bring her home with nothing but

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a wing and a prayer to raise her on. But

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as it often goes, two teenagers struggling to make ends meet,

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combined with little life experience and you know, no experience

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in real relationship, it made the home life very difficult

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for the three of them, and specifically for the two

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parents in the situation.

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They struggled a.

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Lot, and Tracy's mother was the one that was always

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there to pick up the slack and she would help

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take care of little Carolyn as the marriage, if that's

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even what you want to call it, stumbled over many

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bumps in the road. Now, the marriage would only last

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a few years, and by the time little Carolyn was

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four years old, the couple had divorced. Like I just

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told you, but they were still living together. So while

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I don't have anything whatsoever to prove what I'm about

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to say, I did get a certain feeling as I

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researched this case as to why they may have stayed

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together under one roof after divorce. And again, I want

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to reiterate this is just an opinion, but it seemed

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to me that finances may have been a large portion

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for that decision to be made. They did not seem

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to be of great means as far as their living

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situation went. It probably was out of more of necessity

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than want that they remained living under the same house.

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And it also seemed to me that Tracy really wanted

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a family for her daughter, and so co parenting, no

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matter how frustrating, was best for them if they just

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remained under one roof. So in essence, they were more

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like roommates than lovers. Plus, Carl had already moved on

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since the divorce, and he himself he got him a

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little young one too, because his new girlfriend was only

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seventeen years old. Now, the girlfriend knew that Carl was

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divorced and was still living with his ex, but I

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mean she was seventeen years old, and hell, she was

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still living at home too, and so she kind of

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just went.

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With the flow there on that whole setup.

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So the former couple was doing the best that they

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could with what they had, including the fact that they

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had to share a vehicle to get to and from work.

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So on this May March seventh, Tracy was scheduled to

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work her shift at the restaurant where she waited tables.

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It was a Wednesday, and so she was dropped off

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at work like normal. The day went exactly as planned,

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and whenever her shift ended as promised, Carl was waiting

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in the parking lot to pick Tracy up, and he

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was going to bring her home drop her off there

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before he went to his shift for work, which was

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at a local supermarket called the Superfood. So, tired from

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waiting tables, she made her way into the house and

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then Carl backed out the driveway and he left. But

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when he returned home, Tracy wasn't there. Now, they weren't married, y'all,

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and he wasn't her keeper anymore. But it sure was strange,

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to say the least, where would she be going? And secondly,

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how would she have gotten there? Because he had the

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car he also noted, you know, her purse and her

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things that she would normally have were accounted for at

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the house. But he knew Tracy, he knew her well,

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and he knew that sometimes when she would go places

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with her mama, she didn't always carry her purse with her.

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But that night would turn to days without word from Tracy.

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And although Carl was her ex, he still was used

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to her being home and at least being with their

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child at minimum, And he knew that Tracy would never

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leave Carolyn like this. She was not that type of

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mother and it just wasn't her personality either to up

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and leave without even giving him notice. So asking anyone

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who knew Tracy, the word that they would use to

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describe her were modest, hardworking, young mother, sweet and shy,

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just the personality that everyone knew didn't fit her running off.

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She was liked and she was respected, so running off

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in that moment seemed pretty suss to everybody who knew her.

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So Carl went looking for her. He went everywhere, He

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even went to hospitals. He went and checked the local bars.

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He went knocking on the neighbor's doors to see if

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maybe she was over there, trying to get away for

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some reason, but no one had seen her, and no

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one had a record of her even even stopping by

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any of these places. Now, the dynamic here was interesting

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because Tracy's mother hated Carl. She hated him with a passion,

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and so their relationship had been fractured to the point

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that he almost wondered, I wonder if Tracy went with

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her mom, and her mom just isn't saying anything, or

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she's not calling to tell me because of the situation there,

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but feeling like he needed more help as more time passed,

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Carl went to the local police and he filed a

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missing person's report so police would begin investigating Tracy's last

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known movements, and they found that the last person to

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see her was Carl. He said that himself. He said

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I picked her up from work. So Carl was brought

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in to answer questions, to which he maintained his statement,

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I dropped her off at home before I went to work.

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So obviously their living situation wasn't quite the norm. So

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police were really interested in him, and their interests now peaked,

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00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:45.440
realizing that he was the ex husband and that maybe

233
00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:47.799
they needed to keep an eye on him as to

234
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.919
where she may have gone. And look, recent studies would

235
00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:55.399
back up the police officer's thoughts here because the percentage

236
00:13:55.440 --> 00:14:01.879
of people that go missing and are possibly murder by

237
00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:05.919
an intimate partner is somewhere around five times higher for

238
00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:09.000
females than for males. And I'm just telling you that

239
00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:13.320
because statistically speaking, Carl was the best suspect, considering a

240
00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:16.039
lack of any other evidence and the fact that he

241
00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:18.440
was saying, I'm the last one to have seen her.

242
00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.480
But police still went and they asked around, they looked around,

243
00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:26.360
they checked her normal places that she liked to go,

244
00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.559
and they did not find much. So they decided, we've

245
00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:32.919
got to go to the home of Tracy and Carl.

246
00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:35.559
We've got to go check this out. So the home,

247
00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:39.039
looking at it is kind of looked like a lower

248
00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:42.919
middle class home. It was yellow with brown shutters, the

249
00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.480
lawns cut, there's azalea bushes in full bloom on they

250
00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:49.639
the front patio, there are the front porch stoop, and

251
00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:53.759
so the home looked tended to. And the investigators when

252
00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:57.159
they got inside, they looked around and they took photos,

253
00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:01.559
but nothing that they saw a them to anything that

254
00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:05.039
may have been out of place or struck them as odd.

255
00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:08.120
There was no evidence of a struggle, there was no blood,

256
00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:13.440
there was nothing. And the photos they took of the

257
00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.399
home themselves were even really uninteresting.

258
00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:18.519
The pictures looked.

259
00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:23.759
Like everything you remember from the nineties, you know, wood paneling, wallpaper, cigarettes,

260
00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:28.480
and an ash tray, photos of Carolyn and Tracy together

261
00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.879
smiling framed on the countertops, and just everything you would

262
00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:35.320
have expected to see in a home. So the home

263
00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:38.960
provided nothing of any value that may lead to the

264
00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:44.799
whereabouts of Tracy Harris. But seven days after Tracy went missing,

265
00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:49.200
full on searches for her were in the works, and

266
00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.480
part of that included that searchers took to the boats

267
00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:58.440
and they went to scour the nearby Chattawatchee River. So

268
00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:02.480
this river was incline proximity to the Harris home, and

269
00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:05.000
it was also a place where Tracy and her friends

270
00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:08.360
were known to like to go down to to hang

271
00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.000
out and just relax and have a good day by

272
00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:14.600
the river. Now, to give you perspective of this waterway,

273
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:18.559
this river is not one that is running wild massive,

274
00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.240
you know, with white water or anything of that nature.

275
00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:26.200
It was typically a rather calm waterway where people could

276
00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:31.039
kayak they could hang out enjoy the scenery, but there

277
00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:34.960
could be times that the water would rise and become

278
00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:40.159
possibly problematic, just like any other waterway system. So the

279
00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:45.000
water's edge had sandy banks, a moderate current, nothing crazy,

280
00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:47.679
like I said, and there's frequent bends in the water.

281
00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:52.679
So it's got some areas too that are kind of

282
00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:56.840
lower and more swampy in those sections, and so the

283
00:16:56.879 --> 00:16:59.279
water appears kind of murky and brown in some of

284
00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.000
the areas well. There had been recent rains and so

285
00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:07.079
that river level had risen pretty high for compared to normal,

286
00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:10.720
but now it was starting to drop and the water

287
00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:14.200
was receding, so it was much better for search conditions

288
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:15.880
if they were going to try to see if something

289
00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:19.799
had happened to Tracy near the water. So, while this

290
00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.880
river was also typically rather clean in terms of debris,

291
00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:27.400
down trees were known to be underneath the water, so

292
00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:29.960
people would have to take care whenever they were navigating

293
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.920
the system. So the reality here was that if Tracy

294
00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:37.359
was even in the water, by now it had been

295
00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.400
seven days, and so the issue became look, first of all,

296
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:43.440
it's been a long time that she's been missing here.

297
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:47.559
But secondly, there was no direct starting point and no

298
00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.759
proof really of anything that she might even be in

299
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.920
the water, but police needed to search it anyway. So

300
00:17:54.039 --> 00:17:56.920
what they did was they determined where did she usually

301
00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:00.440
like to hang out, and there was an overpass where

302
00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:05.480
people would congregate underneath this overpass, And so I'm assuming,

303
00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.319
based on what I know about waterway searches for people,

304
00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:14.160
that that would be their chosen starting point. So the

305
00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:15.920
reason I tell you that too, just give you some insight,

306
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:17.680
is you have to have a starting point to search

307
00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:21.279
for a missing person or a body in water, and

308
00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.039
everything is relative to this.

309
00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:24.880
It's not just like a fly by night jump in

310
00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:25.680
the water and go.

311
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:29.240
So everything's going to matter, everything from water temperature to

312
00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:34.240
the current, to possible debris in the waterway. And when

313
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.480
there's a body in water, it becomes kind of a dance,

314
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:43.440
so to speak. The body will sink, it will drag

315
00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:48.839
along the bottom bloat, it'll resurface. But if the water

316
00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.599
is say in the fifties temperature wise, the gases in

317
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:57.640
a body they won't accumulate like they do in the heat,

318
00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:01.240
so a body can actually stay submerged urged much longer

319
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:05.000
in colder water. So I've even got a little chart

320
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:07.039
to show you this a visual, I'm gonna put it

321
00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:09.240
on Patreon for you if you're a nerd like me

322
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:11.240
and you like to learn, I'll put that on there

323
00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:13.440
so you can kind of see what I'm saying. So,

324
00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:16.440
assuming that she may have gone into the water underneath

325
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:19.559
the bridge, the likely course of action would be to

326
00:19:19.640 --> 00:19:22.720
go upriver a little bit from that starting point and

327
00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:26.920
then widen the search pattern and get to looking. Remember though,

328
00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.799
this is the nineties and technology of the nineties is

329
00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:33.920
nowhere near what it is today. But that wouldn't even

330
00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:37.720
really matter, because after all of this thinking and all

331
00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.559
of this explaining and telling you about waterways and bodies,

332
00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:44.880
they put into the water and very shortly thereafter they

333
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.720
noticed a down tree. So, as I said, the water

334
00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:51.240
levels had started receding in the past days, so this

335
00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:55.599
tree was now more readily seen than it had been

336
00:19:55.759 --> 00:19:58.799
days prior, and this included something that seemed to be

337
00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:03.680
attached to the So the searchers maneuvered the little small

338
00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:08.000
silver batteau boat closer, and as they got a better visual,

339
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:13.519
they realized that they had just found a horribly swollen

340
00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:19.880
and bloated body tangled and hung up on this downed tree.

341
00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:23.039
So the searchers get up there and they're like, damn.

342
00:20:23.319 --> 00:20:26.319
So they didn't want to find a body. Guys, nobody

343
00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:28.960
wants to find a body. You want to find somebody

344
00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:33.400
that might have been swept away and they're cleaning onto

345
00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:36.359
a tree or got lost in the woods along the

346
00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:39.039
riverside or something. You just never want to find a body.

347
00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:42.240
And while Tracy's family and friends were praying for a

348
00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:45.960
miracle in her safe return, the sight of this deceased

349
00:20:46.039 --> 00:20:50.680
body changed the searcher's hopeful mood to now of a

350
00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:55.039
more somber one. And when the body was pulled from

351
00:20:55.079 --> 00:20:59.200
the water completely, it was a female and her face,

352
00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:04.000
although very swollen, did seem to be that of Tracy Harris,

353
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.440
but further confirmation would still be needed. The body was

354
00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:11.759
loaded into a boat and then taken to the morgue

355
00:21:12.039 --> 00:21:16.920
for a formal autopsy. Now, meanwhile, Carl had to be

356
00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.000
notified that it was believed that his ex wife's body

357
00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:24.720
had been recovered from the river, And when that news

358
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:29.039
was broken to Helm, he was dumbfounded, and he was

359
00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:34.319
full of questions. Where was she exactly, why was she

360
00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:36.640
in the river? How did she even get to the River,

361
00:21:36.759 --> 00:21:37.720
what happened to her?

362
00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:38.200
You know?

363
00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:41.240
Can you I need more information here, But the police

364
00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:44.119
for now, they didn't have any answers for him. What

365
00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:48.640
they did have, however, was a potential murder investigation on

366
00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:54.160
their hands. So police, in an effort to id Tracy,

367
00:21:54.680 --> 00:21:59.119
and probably to get his reaction, if I'm being honest,

368
00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:04.839
they showed Carl photos of his bloated, deceased ex wife,

369
00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:12.799
and his reaction, while rather stoic, was incredibly impactful on.

370
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:15.400
Him emotionally.

371
00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:19.319
And the reason I say that is because seeing someone,

372
00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:22.200
even if it's your ex, bloated and dead like that,

373
00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:24.359
that's something that you just cannot unsee.

374
00:22:24.759 --> 00:22:26.000
You will never unsee that.

375
00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:29.680
And that's one of the things that I personally hate

376
00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:32.519
about funerals is that I often go back to the

377
00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:35.039
last time I saw someone when I think of a

378
00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:37.680
memory of them, or something reminds me of them, and

379
00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:41.440
remembering that person lying in a casket is never a

380
00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:45.240
good reminder. So now imagine the state that Tracy's body

381
00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:50.359
was in and seeing that. So the autopsy when it

382
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.160
was completed, did give some important insight to the last

383
00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.519
moments of Tracy's life. The report would show that it

384
00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:02.680
was Tracy, and that she had gone into that river alive.

385
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:07.119
Her official cause of death was ruled as a homicide

386
00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:11.720
by drowning. There was water in her lungs. And remember,

387
00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:15.319
homicide only means unnatural death. It does not mean murder.

388
00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:17.720
I know people tend to use those simultaneously, but they

389
00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:21.599
don't mean the same thing. And so now figuring out

390
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:25.920
how this could have occurred starts becoming the main question.

391
00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:29.799
You know, what if she fell in the water and drowned.

392
00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:33.400
I mean, that's actually a possibility, because everyone who knew

393
00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:36.759
her said that she could not swim to boot. She

394
00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:41.799
was deathly afraid of water, deathly afraid of it. She

395
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.039
would have never entered that water, nor gone near it

396
00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:48.359
enough to fall in accidentally.

397
00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:50.079
She was that afraid of the water.

398
00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.240
When she would frequent the river, she stayed as far

399
00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:55.000
back as possible, away from the water.

400
00:23:55.480 --> 00:23:58.519
And this was a known thing. Anyone you asked, this

401
00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:00.279
was a known thing. Okay.

402
00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:06.720
Anyone who knows me personally, okay, knows these nuances about

403
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:09.119
me that I cannot stand gum popping. It throws me

404
00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:12.359
into a rage. And so these are important things that

405
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:15.880
friends can tell investigators to give insight to what could

406
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:17.880
have happened, because there's no way she would have gone

407
00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:21.599
near that water. But there was another finding in conjunction

408
00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:25.400
with the drowning that was pretty alarming as to her

409
00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:28.000
final moments, and it had to do with her neck

410
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:31.880
because the doctor opined in his report that Tracy appeared

411
00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.440
to have strangulation marks around her neck. She had a

412
00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:40.200
hemorrhage that stretched down into her left sternum muscles, which

413
00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:42.279
you know, your sternum is up by your chest area,

414
00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:47.000
and she had also aspirated on her gastric contents, and

415
00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:52.480
aspiration in drowning occurs whenever water or vomit from whatever's

416
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.240
in your stomach is inhaled into your lungs, And that

417
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:57.559
in and of itself paints a horrific picture in my

418
00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:02.480
mind of a struggle choking, gasping for air while you've

419
00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:05.160
got your own vomit inhaled during the process. And I

420
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:07.480
say that not to be gross or but I just

421
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:13.359
very I'm very empathetic to that struggle. It sounds terrible,

422
00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:18.720
it sounds scary. So she may have drowned, but what

423
00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:22.799
caused her to drown was kind of coming to the

424
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:26.400
forefront of everyone's minds. Was it possible that she had

425
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:31.119
been rendered unconscious by choking or being strangled before being

426
00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:34.279
dumped in the water. Well, that was now a question

427
00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:38.519
for police to answer. The doctor gave the physical report,

428
00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:43.319
but the cause is a police issue. Drownings happen, no doubt,

429
00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:48.519
but strangulation that's not going to be an accident in

430
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:52.319
this case. So police set out to determine who had

431
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.960
a motive to want Tracy dead, and if that was

432
00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:59.599
the case, who would best or most benefit from her

433
00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:02.599
being gone one So, as we all know, they're going

434
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:05.599
to start with Tracy's most inner circle, and that would

435
00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.200
have definitely started with her ex husband, the guy that

436
00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:12.200
she spent every day with. His story remained the same,

437
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:14.240
over and over and over again. I dropped her off

438
00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:17.200
after work, we went home, I dropped her off, and

439
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:19.519
when I got back, she was gone. I've been looking

440
00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:22.680
for her ever since until she was found in the river.

441
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:27.279
And his answers to questioning further was basically, look, we

442
00:26:27.319 --> 00:26:30.240
had a normal home life. Obviously we were divorced, we

443
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.079
had disagreements, but there was nothing out of the norm

444
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:36.880
between the two of us. He denied any domestic violence

445
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:39.079
or any reason for them to have even have been

446
00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:45.000
fighting that night. Tracy had gone missing just one day

447
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.880
or after her twenty first birthday, and her body was

448
00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:53.839
recovered on what would have been her wedding anniversary to Carl,

449
00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:57.960
had they remained married. These days of celebration were now

450
00:26:58.039 --> 00:27:01.920
days of sadness and remorse. Reflecting back on.

451
00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:03.519
What was you know?

452
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.759
Did these dates have possibly any significance to Tracy's death?

453
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:13.119
Possibly there's this sadness mixed with curiosity, mixed with hm

454
00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:16.279
so on that note, police go and they want to

455
00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:19.200
start speaking to friends and family. Did they know of

456
00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.200
any enemies that Tracy had or any reason that she

457
00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:25.279
would even have been down by the river. And no

458
00:27:25.319 --> 00:27:28.119
one knew anything about why she would have been down

459
00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:30.400
at the river. No one said we were getting together

460
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:35.640
or anything like that. But rumors did fly about who

461
00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:39.480
everybody thought had killed her. And the thing about rumors

462
00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:45.319
is that they are often exaggerated elements of partial truths.

463
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.839
We all have experienced this. Maybe you did something, but

464
00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.480
then when you hear what you did, it's totally like

465
00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:52.240
been skewed.

466
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:52.880
Right.

467
00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:57.119
But there was a commonality between all of these statements

468
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:00.200
that were taken by police, between all of these people

469
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:05.160
and nearly everyone was in agreeance that Carl was likely

470
00:28:05.279 --> 00:28:11.880
the problem. There was absolutely zero physical evidence of that, though,

471
00:28:11.960 --> 00:28:16.680
and so the police are listening because I mean, where

472
00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:19.680
there's smoke, there's fire usually, But there was no evidence

473
00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:23.480
of this, and police had already verified his whereabouts the

474
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:28.720
days leading up to and even after Tracy's disappearance. But

475
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:33.480
person after person after person consistently brought up the fact

476
00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:38.079
that Carl abused Tracy. Not only did he abuse her,

477
00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:41.960
but he was a very controlling man, according to all

478
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:45.680
of their stories. So, doing their due diligence, police went

479
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:48.039
into their system and they wanted to check for any

480
00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:51.359
domestic violence reports, but they would find that there were

481
00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:56.000
no reports on file. So while the claims that everybody

482
00:28:56.119 --> 00:28:59.680
was making were being taken seriously, police still would need

483
00:28:59.720 --> 00:29:04.640
little evidence to back this up to you know, build

484
00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:08.039
or expand upon what people were saying. They needed something

485
00:29:08.039 --> 00:29:13.039
of substance, and that was when a few specifics were

486
00:29:13.119 --> 00:29:16.680
given about Carl and Tracy. And I say specifics because

487
00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:22.759
I mean like actual incidences. Carl and Tracy had opened

488
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:26.079
their doors at one point and they allowed another couple,

489
00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:28.799
some friends of theirs, to stay with them for a

490
00:29:28.839 --> 00:29:30.960
short time as they were sorting out some issues that

491
00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:34.640
they were having. And the names of these people were

492
00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:38.839
Jeff and Don Beasley. Now Carl knew Jeff's family really well.

493
00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:41.240
He had grown up knowing them and they had grown

494
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:44.799
up together. So when Jeff and Dawn were having some struggles,

495
00:29:45.119 --> 00:29:47.440
they had come and been allowed to live with Tracy

496
00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:51.559
and Carl for about a month or so sometime back,

497
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.079
and Dawn and Tracy as a result, had become really

498
00:29:56.359 --> 00:30:01.279
really close during that month. Dawn was very clear to

499
00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:05.000
the police that Carl was controlling and he was demanding,

500
00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:08.599
and he required, even though they were exes, that Tracy

501
00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:12.799
have complete compliance to what he said was going to happen,

502
00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:14.279
or she would pay for it.

503
00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:18.480
Now, Tracy.

504
00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:22.680
Had little Carolyn, like I've told you, and Dawn was

505
00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:24.559
pregnant at the time, and so they really were bonding

506
00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:27.279
over motherhood and and kind of that kind of stuff.

507
00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:31.480
So one day they were sitting at a table whenever,

508
00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:34.880
just casually, Tracy asked Carl for some money for their

509
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:39.720
water bill, and Dawn said that at that moment, Carl

510
00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:43.400
went absolutely nuts at the thought of having to hand

511
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:46.759
her over some money, and he even threatened to kill

512
00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:50.319
her over this. Dawn said, I saw this with my

513
00:30:50.519 --> 00:30:54.599
own eyes. It turned physical, and so there, you know,

514
00:30:54.680 --> 00:30:58.480
Carl's grabbing at at Tracy and got her by the

515
00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:00.200
throat and said, I'll kill you bit, you know, going

516
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:02.160
to give you this money, blah blah blah blah, And

517
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:05.400
so she said, I even jumped up and intervened between

518
00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:08.039
the two of them. It got so physical. She said

519
00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:10.680
that Carl was nothing more than a rat bastard as

520
00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:12.759
far as she was concerned. That's a direct quote, by

521
00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:19.000
the way, of how Carl treated Tracy. Everyone who knew

522
00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:22.920
them knew he was abusive. So police, going on this

523
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:26.079
specific information, decided that they were going to really put

524
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:30.200
a close eye on Carl. While they continued to investigate,

525
00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.480
They even went to speak to Carl's girlfriend at the time,

526
00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:36.039
and when they spoke to her, the girl that was

527
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:39.519
dating him, she even had some pretty damning things to say,

528
00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:43.680
including the fact that Carl had told her he couldn't

529
00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:46.759
divorce Tracy initially because he would have to pay her

530
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.720
child support, so basically it was cheaper to keep her

531
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:55.160
type situation. Now, Another witness came forward also and said

532
00:31:55.240 --> 00:31:59.079
Carl had made statements that seemed odd now looking back

533
00:31:59.880 --> 00:32:03.000
on the circumstances, because he had been talking. They were

534
00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:06.079
having a conversation, and he said that Carl called the

535
00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:08.880
police stupid and said that he could get away with

536
00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:11.519
a murder because they were so fucking stupid they didn't

537
00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:14.359
even know how to investigate one. Well, that was before

538
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:16.640
Tracy went missing, and now that she's gone and then

539
00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:20.640
found dead, that person was like, hmm, that seems a

540
00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:25.359
bit much. Again, all of this is circumstantial, but the

541
00:32:25.480 --> 00:32:29.599
lead was a strong one. So they went and spoke

542
00:32:29.720 --> 00:32:33.880
to another friend named Bobby Herring. Bobby Herring told the

543
00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:37.920
story that he completely vouched for Carl, and he said, look,

544
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:41.799
Carl picked me up after Carl had finished his shift

545
00:32:41.799 --> 00:32:45.240
at the supermarket. We were together that night, we hung out,

546
00:32:45.319 --> 00:32:47.279
I was with him in person that evening.

547
00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:49.240
He had gone to the house.

548
00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:51.680
Even said Tracy was not at the house and he

549
00:32:51.799 --> 00:32:57.640
never saw Carl and Tracy together after Carl's shift that night.

550
00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:04.400
But regardless, the investigation somewhat was still moving forward. Carl

551
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:09.119
was the main suspect, and they allegedly had Bobby wear

552
00:33:09.160 --> 00:33:11.880
a wire at one point to try and get Carl

553
00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:14.799
to admit to something. On a recording but when that

554
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.400
was all said and done, Carl said nothing incriminating. So

555
00:33:19.480 --> 00:33:22.519
no matter how they tried, nothing ever came to fruition,

556
00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:27.000
no smoking gun, no admissions of any kind, and certainly

557
00:33:27.319 --> 00:33:30.119
no surveillance cameras or anything to go back and review

558
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:33.519
because it was the nineties. Well, when the services were

559
00:33:33.559 --> 00:33:38.119
set for Tracy's burial, everyone gathered and they were all

560
00:33:38.119 --> 00:33:42.480
coming to say their goodbyes. Carl was arguably still in shock.

561
00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.880
You know, it's just been some days now. As the

562
00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:50.880
burial was commencing, but at that time a police unit

563
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:55.319
pulled up and during the service, they said, we need

564
00:33:55.359 --> 00:33:57.079
to speak with you. We need to have a word.

565
00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.880
So they pulled Carl aside, and that's whenever they showed

566
00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:04.039
him the paperwork that they had in their hands that

567
00:34:04.200 --> 00:34:06.920
said you're going to have to give us your daughter

568
00:34:07.359 --> 00:34:11.519
by order of a judge. So what had happened was

569
00:34:11.639 --> 00:34:15.039
Tracy's mother had filed for temporary custody a four year

570
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:20.920
old Carolyn, pending the outcome of solving her daughter's murder case,

571
00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:25.719
and because she hated Carl and he was also suspect

572
00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:28.679
number one at the time, a judge looked through the

573
00:34:28.719 --> 00:34:33.280
information and absolutely agreed that Carl should not have little

574
00:34:33.320 --> 00:34:37.519
Carolyne until he was cleared of any wrongdoing in this murder.

575
00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:43.360
So truth be told. Granny, because that's what Carolyn called her.

576
00:34:44.360 --> 00:34:47.519
Granny cared for little Carolyne a majority of the time,

577
00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:50.320
as was because with Tracy and Carl struggling to make

578
00:34:50.440 --> 00:34:53.880
ends meet and being young and all of that, Granny

579
00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:57.320
was their go to sitter for young Carolyn. Carolyn and

580
00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:00.599
Granny were tight. So the order had signed by the

581
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:06.400
judge and it was effective immediately, so Carl had to

582
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:11.440
give Carolyn to her grandmother right then. Now, I'm gonna

583
00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:13.920
just say it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It was

584
00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:17.400
a temporary order, and it was done in the best

585
00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.679
interest of the child, considering the violent way in which

586
00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:24.519
her mother had just been brutally murdered, and if Carl

587
00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:29.000
did it, Carolyn was not safe with him. So Tracy

588
00:35:29.199 --> 00:35:32.400
was buried and the divide between Carl and Tracy's mother

589
00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:38.639
now widened. The divide between Carl and his daughter did

590
00:35:38.679 --> 00:35:43.639
as well, but not because the four year old hated him,

591
00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:49.280
but because distance, you know, the time apart and Carl's

592
00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:53.639
placement within the community also created kind of a gap

593
00:35:53.800 --> 00:35:57.199
between everyone thinking he did it and him saying no,

594
00:35:57.400 --> 00:35:57.760
I did not.

595
00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:00.559
People stared, talked.

596
00:36:01.159 --> 00:36:04.360
They watched this man walk free that they all knew

597
00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:08.599
had abused Tracy, and they all knew had likely killed her,

598
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:15.320
but the police weren't bringing him in. So eventually Carl

599
00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:19.239
and his young girlfriend they would also break up because

600
00:36:19.719 --> 00:36:21.360
in the back of her mind, she was kind of

601
00:36:21.400 --> 00:36:23.400
scared of him. She was scared of the fact that

602
00:36:23.679 --> 00:36:26.440
he was an assumed killer and she was dating him

603
00:36:26.440 --> 00:36:29.559
now like that kind of just fell apart. Carl then

604
00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:33.239
made the decision to move, and not only just completely

605
00:36:33.320 --> 00:36:35.079
out of the area. He decided that he was going

606
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:35.880
to leave the state.

607
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:37.199
He wanted to leave.

608
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:39.360
His past life in the past. He didn't want to

609
00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:41.840
revisit it, and he had to get out of there.

610
00:36:42.719 --> 00:36:46.960
But as the months and then the years even continued forward,

611
00:36:47.559 --> 00:36:52.360
Carl was never in touch with his daughter. Matter of fact,

612
00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:56.480
he was a no show to the hearings about custody

613
00:36:57.079 --> 00:37:00.440
multiple times, and eventually the courts got tired of dealing

614
00:37:00.440 --> 00:37:02.639
with it. They got tired of doing continuances in all

615
00:37:02.679 --> 00:37:06.239
of this, and so the courts turned over full custody

616
00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:11.559
to Carolyn's granny and as such, she was promptly adopted

617
00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:16.239
by Granny. When everything first happened, you know, Grannie was

618
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:20.719
holding on to baby Carolyn. Carolyn would cry non stop

619
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:24.320
for her mama, and her granny was the one to

620
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:27.599
hold her in her arms, to rock this young girl

621
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:31.519
to sleep, assuring her always that she was loved and

622
00:37:31.559 --> 00:37:35.760
that her mama was in heaven. And you have to

623
00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:39.039
think about that in Grannie's position, she's consoling this child

624
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:41.599
who's weeping for her mama, and at the same time

625
00:37:41.960 --> 00:37:48.440
she's a mama weeping for her child. The dynamic was difficult. Well,

626
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:53.039
Carolyn leaned into that love, and slowly, day by day,

627
00:37:53.800 --> 00:37:57.119
week by week, and month by month, life began to

628
00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:03.079
again feel somewhat normal. Time would pass, and eventually Carolyne

629
00:38:03.079 --> 00:38:06.599
would stop calling her grandmother granny and she would shift

630
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:09.639
to calling her mama. After all, you have to remember,

631
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:13.719
she was four. She had no memory of her mother.

632
00:38:13.880 --> 00:38:17.280
As painful as that is to say, the young woman

633
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:19.719
who had brought her into the world and was devoted

634
00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:24.039
beyond words to her was now kind of a ghost

635
00:38:24.079 --> 00:38:28.119
of sorts, a myth, you know, a story that was

636
00:38:28.159 --> 00:38:32.559
told to her granny, and Carolyn would eventually pack up,

637
00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:35.599
and they too, decided to move out of state. They

638
00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:40.000
moved to Texas to start over because poor Granny she

639
00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:43.599
needed a change, not only because she had lost her

640
00:38:43.679 --> 00:38:50.119
only daughter and biological child, but just six months roughly

641
00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:54.920
after Tracy was murdered, she would tragically lose her adopted son,

642
00:38:55.199 --> 00:38:58.599
Norman Byrd that was his name. Norman was just nineteen

643
00:38:58.679 --> 00:39:02.440
years old. He died at the hands of a drunk driver.

644
00:39:03.960 --> 00:39:09.039
I mean, you can you lose two children within six months?

645
00:39:09.800 --> 00:39:13.199
Unbelievable pain. He was just a few years younger than

646
00:39:13.239 --> 00:39:17.280
Tracy and Granny. Just so you'll know, it wasn't her

647
00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:21.079
biological child. She had adopted him from another family member

648
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:23.000
who had had him but was unable to care for him.

649
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:26.719
What an incredible amount of loss for one mother to

650
00:39:26.760 --> 00:39:31.519
be on the receiving end of. But thank God, looking back,

651
00:39:31.559 --> 00:39:34.480
she had little Carolyn to keep her going and to

652
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:40.000
give her purpose in life. Grannie turned out to be

653
00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:46.079
the best mama that Carolyn could have ever asked for Tracy. Aside,

654
00:39:46.280 --> 00:39:51.000
Granny cooked for her, she sewed, she baked, all while

655
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:55.760
supporting Carolyn and loving her fiercely. She never lied to

656
00:39:55.800 --> 00:40:00.000
Carolyn either. As she grew older, and the questions started coming.

657
00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:02.840
I have so much respect for that. She never lied

658
00:40:02.880 --> 00:40:06.639
to that child. What exactly happened to my mama? Who

659
00:40:06.760 --> 00:40:07.280
killed her?

660
00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:08.440
What was she like?

661
00:40:09.480 --> 00:40:14.159
Granny never shoved it in her face that she felt

662
00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:16.960
that her dad was the one who had killed her mom. Rather,

663
00:40:17.079 --> 00:40:19.519
she just kept it straight to the facts that were known.

664
00:40:20.360 --> 00:40:22.920
Your mother was murdered, she was found in the river.

665
00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:27.239
She had drowned. But when it came to why Tracy

666
00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:30.000
was at the river that night, well, that was something

667
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:34.039
Granny never had an answer to. Tracy would have never

668
00:40:34.119 --> 00:40:36.599
gotten in that water. I don't know why your mom

669
00:40:36.679 --> 00:40:40.800
was there that night. And Grannie would even lovingly laugh

670
00:40:41.079 --> 00:40:45.000
as the story was recounted about Tracy's baptism as a

671
00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:45.719
young child.

672
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:46.639
Get this okay.

673
00:40:47.320 --> 00:40:50.000
Granny had raised Tracy in church. It was a very

674
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:53.559
important part of her life growing up, and young Tracy

675
00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:57.440
had also her self known tragedy when she was young

676
00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.280
because her own daddy had passed away when she was

677
00:41:00.360 --> 00:41:04.280
just ten years old. But when it came to this,

678
00:41:04.760 --> 00:41:09.440
Granny was a very strong and faithful woman, and she

679
00:41:09.639 --> 00:41:13.559
believed in raising Tracy to believe in a higher power.

680
00:41:14.119 --> 00:41:16.360
Your daddy may be gone, but he is in heaven.

681
00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:19.960
We will see him again one day. You can trust

682
00:41:20.360 --> 00:41:23.480
that God will take care of us in all circumstances.

683
00:41:23.639 --> 00:41:27.719
And because of that faith in higher power, Tracy made

684
00:41:27.719 --> 00:41:33.199
the decision to be baptized and stepping forward. She chose

685
00:41:33.239 --> 00:41:36.840
to do this publicly and announce her walk with Christ.

686
00:41:37.159 --> 00:41:40.800
But it didn't go quite as planned because as young

687
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:44.840
Tracy was dipped into the water and washed of her sins,

688
00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:51.360
she came up not a new girl, but in absolute hysterics.

689
00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:53.800
And I kind of chuckle saying this, because Granny chuckled

690
00:41:53.800 --> 00:41:57.039
in saying this. And she wasn't in hysterics because the

691
00:41:57.079 --> 00:41:59.920
Holy Spirit had just washed over her either. It was

692
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:02.920
because she was terrified that she had just been shoved

693
00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:07.719
underneath the water's surface, albeit momentarily. And she loved Jesus,

694
00:42:07.719 --> 00:42:09.599
but she was not ready to meet him right there.

695
00:42:09.719 --> 00:42:11.760
And in that moment, which is what she felt like,

696
00:42:12.159 --> 00:42:14.280
she said, my God, I was almost drowned.

697
00:42:14.719 --> 00:42:18.239
She loved Jesus, she wasn't ready to die that second.

698
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:21.119
But they got her calm down, they dried her off,

699
00:42:21.320 --> 00:42:26.119
and she quickly recovered, Thanks be to God. So Carolyn,

700
00:42:27.079 --> 00:42:29.079
knowing that story could rest in the fact that her

701
00:42:29.079 --> 00:42:32.679
mama was in heaven all right, but the water. Nobody

702
00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:34.519
could get over the fact of her being near the

703
00:42:34.519 --> 00:42:37.960
water that night, and Carolyn would have to move forward,

704
00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:42.199
hitting all of the milestones that a child hits, but

705
00:42:42.280 --> 00:42:45.719
Tracy would never get to see it. She would never

706
00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:48.920
get to be a part of it. Starting in kindergarten,

707
00:42:49.719 --> 00:42:53.320
coloring her papers at school as a Mother's Day gift

708
00:42:53.360 --> 00:42:56.079
that she would have to give to Granny, honor roll

709
00:42:56.159 --> 00:43:01.719
award ceremonies, getting her driver's license, her first heartbreak, her

710
00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:05.599
high school graduation. Tracy would never get to be there.

711
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:08.920
But you can rest in this as I tell you

712
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:14.519
this story. Granny was always there, beaming ear to ear

713
00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:19.239
at the accomplishments that young Carolyn just continued to meet.

714
00:43:20.400 --> 00:43:23.320
But in the back of Carolyn's mind, while she loved

715
00:43:23.360 --> 00:43:28.320
her Granny fiercely, tightly and with a pure love, she

716
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:31.480
would quietly wonder, in the back of her mind, what

717
00:43:31.480 --> 00:43:34.760
would my mom have said? Would she have liked my

718
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:37.559
prom dress? Would she have yelled out in support at

719
00:43:37.559 --> 00:43:39.400
graduation watching me.

720
00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:40.719
Walk across that stage.

721
00:43:41.400 --> 00:43:44.360
Would she liked my tattoo that I got on my

722
00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:48.199
arm a tribute to her? You know, a woman that

723
00:43:48.639 --> 00:43:53.760
Carolyn couldn't even remember but wished hadn't been robbed from

724
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:58.440
her life. Colorful feathers tattooed on her forearm were a

725
00:43:58.599 --> 00:44:03.519
consistent reminder of what could have been, but never would be.

726
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:08.519
And when the year twenty fifteen rolled around, young Carolyn

727
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:13.280
was now a grown woman, twenty nine years old, older

728
00:44:14.039 --> 00:44:19.800
and more experience, and definitely a greater perspective on life.

729
00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:22.920
She was now viewing life as an adult through an

730
00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:27.360
adult lens, and when the death of her Granny happened,

731
00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:32.599
it would spawn a newfound desire within her. Because when

732
00:44:32.599 --> 00:44:36.000
Granny passed away, her funeral was not held in Texas,

733
00:44:36.440 --> 00:44:40.320
but rather back in Alabama because Granny wanted to be

734
00:44:40.400 --> 00:44:44.039
buried next to Tracy. Those were her final wishes and

735
00:44:44.079 --> 00:44:47.880
they were going to be granted. So for years and

736
00:44:48.079 --> 00:44:51.639
years all of young Carolyn's life, Grannie had made sure

737
00:44:52.199 --> 00:44:58.079
that Carolyn remembered her mother. She took photos with her mother.

738
00:44:58.199 --> 00:45:00.199
And what I mean by that is that Granny would

739
00:45:00.239 --> 00:45:04.159
bring Tracy or excuse me, bring Carolyn to Tracy's grave

740
00:45:04.679 --> 00:45:08.480
where she rested, and they would take photos there different

741
00:45:08.559 --> 00:45:11.599
milestones at that grave, so that Tracy would be a

742
00:45:11.639 --> 00:45:14.880
part of it in one way or another. And at

743
00:45:14.920 --> 00:45:22.480
Granny's funeral, a discussion began about Carolyn's mother's murder and

744
00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:25.719
where she was in life. After that discussion, she just

745
00:45:25.800 --> 00:45:29.280
could not let it go. Who had killed her mother

746
00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:34.679
and why? Why had no one ever been held accountable

747
00:45:35.039 --> 00:45:39.440
for it. Granny deserved to have answers, and she never

748
00:45:39.519 --> 00:45:45.360
got them. But what about Carolyn? Because Carolyn, she now

749
00:45:45.400 --> 00:45:49.760
felt the time was hers, The time was now. It

750
00:45:49.800 --> 00:45:53.840
had been too down, long life is passing by. She

751
00:45:53.880 --> 00:45:56.360
was now a mother herself, and she could not imagine

752
00:45:56.360 --> 00:45:59.679
the pains of not getting to see her own children

753
00:45:59.719 --> 00:46:04.000
grow up. Tracy had been robbed of her life. And

754
00:46:04.079 --> 00:46:06.920
someone at the funeral while they were talking, had mentioned

755
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:11.280
that their son was very good friends with the local sheriff,

756
00:46:11.800 --> 00:46:14.880
and so Carolyn used that connection to set up a

757
00:46:14.920 --> 00:46:18.079
meeting with him. And now, you can call this God's perfect,

758
00:46:18.239 --> 00:46:23.159
perfect timing, or you can call this coincidence. Pick your poison, okay,

759
00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:27.039
But it just so happened that the sheriff had just

760
00:46:27.360 --> 00:46:30.880
started up a cold case unit to try and solve

761
00:46:31.199 --> 00:46:33.159
the still open cases.

762
00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:34.599
At that time.

763
00:46:34.679 --> 00:46:39.840
Y'all, there was five and Tracy's mother was one of them.

764
00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:44.239
The case was officially reopened and it was now actively

765
00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:49.239
being worked all these years later, and Carolyn was right

766
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:53.559
there and listening and gaining more information as things progressed.

767
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:57.360
And it was about this time that she began to

768
00:46:57.559 --> 00:47:01.800
understand just how much her own father was believed to

769
00:47:01.880 --> 00:47:04.880
be involved in this. She learned that he was regarded

770
00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:08.039
as an abuser and a bad man as far as

771
00:47:08.079 --> 00:47:12.679
being a husband was concerned. Now, Tracy had never known him,

772
00:47:12.960 --> 00:47:16.280
remember that she never met him at you know, after

773
00:47:16.320 --> 00:47:19.119
the age of four. All she really knew about him

774
00:47:19.480 --> 00:47:22.039
was that he hadn't helped raise her in any way,

775
00:47:22.039 --> 00:47:25.119
shape or form. But she decided to take it upon

776
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:28.119
herself to reach out to him, and she did this

777
00:47:28.360 --> 00:47:32.440
through Facebook. She was able to make the connection and

778
00:47:32.760 --> 00:47:36.559
she said, look, would you like to meet It's been

779
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:39.360
nearly thirty years since the last time we've seen one another,

780
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:42.920
and I'd like to meet up, you know, I'd like

781
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:44.840
to see who you are and get to know you.

782
00:47:45.719 --> 00:47:49.639
And she had forgotten any small memories of her former

783
00:47:49.719 --> 00:47:53.519
life before you know, her mother's murder. So this was basically,

784
00:47:54.559 --> 00:47:56.599
you know, he may have been her father, but to her,

785
00:47:56.719 --> 00:47:58.800
he might as well have been some stranger passing by

786
00:47:58.880 --> 00:48:02.760
on the sidewalk. She didn't know him, and Carl agreed, Yeah,

787
00:48:02.880 --> 00:48:03.519
let's meet up.

788
00:48:03.760 --> 00:48:04.320
Let's do that.

789
00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:07.719
So they made plans to drive to each other and

790
00:48:07.760 --> 00:48:12.239
meet halfway, which was in Biloxi, Mississippi. Tracy was really

791
00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:15.400
excited for this, and mostly for the fact not only

792
00:48:15.400 --> 00:48:16.960
that she was going to meet her father for the

793
00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:19.239
first time, but she learned that she had a half sibling,

794
00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:20.400
a sister.

795
00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:23.199
And she too would be coming to that meeting.

796
00:48:24.440 --> 00:48:27.800
So it went pretty well, except for the fact that

797
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:31.320
Carl didn't seem to say much about her mother, and

798
00:48:31.519 --> 00:48:34.400
in her mind, there just would have been more.

799
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:38.960
You know, Golly, you made me with her, She expected

800
00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:39.639
more from this.

801
00:48:40.079 --> 00:48:42.400
He did tell her that as a child, she had

802
00:48:42.440 --> 00:48:45.039
been taken from him and that he regretted that since

803
00:48:45.039 --> 00:48:48.280
the day it happened, but she knew in the back

804
00:48:48.280 --> 00:48:50.559
of her mind that that wasn't quite in alignment with

805
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.760
the paperwork that she had now seen with her own

806
00:48:53.840 --> 00:48:58.079
eyes as an adult, because Granny kept everything paperwork wise,

807
00:48:58.440 --> 00:49:02.320
newspaper clippings, core orders for custody of Carolyn, as well

808
00:49:02.320 --> 00:49:06.880
as the formal documents for her full adoption. So after

809
00:49:06.920 --> 00:49:11.320
Grannie's passing. Carolyn, obviously, you know, came into everything and

810
00:49:11.400 --> 00:49:15.079
she had read them, so she knew that his perspective

811
00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:17.800
on what was happening here wasn't quite true. And there's

812
00:49:17.840 --> 00:49:21.159
a big difference between being a no show in court

813
00:49:21.199 --> 00:49:24.280
for your child and your child being taken from you.

814
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:28.719
She was still four years old when the adoption went through.

815
00:49:29.360 --> 00:49:35.039
Because he never showed. Granny wasn't the villain here. Grannie

816
00:49:35.119 --> 00:49:40.440
never left her, you know. She refused to let Carolyn

817
00:49:40.719 --> 00:49:43.360
feel that she was unwanted and unloved. And if your

818
00:49:43.400 --> 00:49:45.480
father won't show up to court, well damn it, I'm

819
00:49:45.519 --> 00:49:48.119
here and I love you and I will never let

820
00:49:48.159 --> 00:49:51.119
you go. But Carolyn, because of that, never had a

821
00:49:51.159 --> 00:49:55.239
father figure, just like her birth mother her you know,

822
00:49:55.400 --> 00:50:00.519
her grandfather had died before her mother was an adult.

823
00:50:00.760 --> 00:50:05.960
So her grandfather died, he didn't abandon her mother. And

824
00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:10.679
those feelings are legitimate. I think they're valid, and they

825
00:50:10.679 --> 00:50:13.440
were real. The frustration in that began to kind of

826
00:50:13.480 --> 00:50:17.000
boil to the surface as this narrative was being spun.

827
00:50:17.880 --> 00:50:20.880
Carolyn felt no allegiance to her father because she never

828
00:50:20.960 --> 00:50:26.599
knew him, so letting that viewpoint slide for the sake

829
00:50:26.639 --> 00:50:28.679
of having a relationship with him wasn't something that she

830
00:50:28.760 --> 00:50:32.079
was willing to do. He left her, not the other

831
00:50:32.119 --> 00:50:36.039
way around. She also couldn't help but think of the

832
00:50:36.079 --> 00:50:40.400
woman who had never left her, at least on her own,

833
00:50:40.800 --> 00:50:44.880
and that was Tracy, her birth mother. Tracy never left

834
00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:49.239
her purposefully, you know, although she had no memories of

835
00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:52.760
her mother, the bond between a mother and a child

836
00:50:52.840 --> 00:50:56.320
is something that at this point was arguably transcending this lifetime.

837
00:50:57.239 --> 00:51:00.239
Carolyn was connected to Tracy in a way that her

838
00:51:00.280 --> 00:51:03.960
granny would never let her forget. That was your mama

839
00:51:04.480 --> 00:51:06.880
and my daughter, all at the same time, and we

840
00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:11.159
will remember her as just that. Carolyn's entire life, the

841
00:51:11.239 --> 00:51:15.119
house was filled with pictures of her mama always around her.

842
00:51:15.559 --> 00:51:18.880
The memory was never allowed to fade. And now that

843
00:51:18.960 --> 00:51:22.920
Granny was gone, who was to carry the torch and

844
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:26.320
to continue lighting the way for solving her mother's murder.

845
00:51:27.280 --> 00:51:31.440
It would have to be Carolyn, because arguably enough everyone

846
00:51:31.519 --> 00:51:34.960
else seemed to have moved on, like, oh, well, it's

847
00:51:35.039 --> 00:51:35.800
been too long.

848
00:51:36.079 --> 00:51:40.920
Who cares? But Carolyn cared. Carolyn wanted to.

849
00:51:40.960 --> 00:51:45.559
Know how could it possibly be that someone who held

850
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.000
no memories of a woman who was murdered cared more

851
00:51:49.280 --> 00:51:53.480
than that people who actually knew her back then. So

852
00:51:53.519 --> 00:51:56.559
when Tracy had turned eighteen, I'm backing up a little bit.

853
00:51:56.559 --> 00:51:59.840
When Tracy had turned eighteen, she had gotten married. No

854
00:52:00.239 --> 00:52:03.480
mother and no father were there to walk her down

855
00:52:03.519 --> 00:52:06.960
the aisle. Now Grannie was there, tried and true, but

856
00:52:07.079 --> 00:52:11.360
there was no dad, and she couldn't help it shake

857
00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:15.480
that that was by choice, you know, and you can't

858
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:18.400
help it empathize with that truth. The void of what

859
00:52:18.599 --> 00:52:24.159
should have been was always there for Carolyn. Looking back

860
00:52:24.159 --> 00:52:27.079
at the photos of herself so young, always in her

861
00:52:27.119 --> 00:52:28.920
mother's arms and getting kisses.

862
00:52:30.079 --> 00:52:33.119
Carolyn had no doubt that her mama loved her and

863
00:52:33.159 --> 00:52:35.519
would have been there for her if she physically could have.

864
00:52:36.400 --> 00:52:39.599
So after the wedding, her now husband and Carolyn they

865
00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:42.400
would talk about the case together, and he was really

866
00:52:42.440 --> 00:52:45.280
the one that started to push her, why don't you

867
00:52:45.320 --> 00:52:49.480
go after the truth. Don't just wonder, Let's have the

868
00:52:49.519 --> 00:52:52.880
case reopened, Let's go find the truth. It matters that

869
00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:55.960
much to you. And at Granny's funeral, when back in

870
00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:59.039
the very location of her mother's death all those years later,

871
00:53:00.079 --> 00:53:03.159
the urge for truth and the pursuit of justice became

872
00:53:03.320 --> 00:53:07.320
overwhelming and a passion took over. And as I've already

873
00:53:07.320 --> 00:53:10.239
told you, the sheriff was a man of his word.

874
00:53:10.920 --> 00:53:14.679
The unsolved cold case murder of Tracy Harris was open

875
00:53:15.199 --> 00:53:16.719
and it was being worked.

876
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:18.000
Now.

877
00:53:18.039 --> 00:53:21.840
Sometimes whenever you're in the thick of it, okay, obvious

878
00:53:21.920 --> 00:53:25.199
questions are missed. The investigator has everything right in front

879
00:53:25.199 --> 00:53:27.840
of them, but they sometimes are missing things that seem

880
00:53:27.920 --> 00:53:30.000
kind of obvious because it's right there in front of

881
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.000
their face. Also, being far removed from the case through

882
00:53:34.039 --> 00:53:37.880
passing time, this meant that these investigators had fresh eyes

883
00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:41.360
and no prejudice to all of the documents that were

884
00:53:41.360 --> 00:53:43.760
in file, that they on file that they were going through.

885
00:53:44.119 --> 00:53:48.320
So investigators started with day one, the missing person's report,

886
00:53:48.440 --> 00:53:52.760
and then they worked through the documentation slowly and methodically.

887
00:53:53.199 --> 00:53:55.719
If a lead suspect isn't.

888
00:53:55.519 --> 00:53:59.079
Formed within the first forty eight hours, statistically, the chances

889
00:53:59.079 --> 00:54:03.719
of solving that case rops dramatically. So what about two

890
00:54:03.840 --> 00:54:07.000
hundred and sixty two, nine hundred and eighty hours later,

891
00:54:07.519 --> 00:54:11.639
because that's what thirty years is and that had all

892
00:54:11.679 --> 00:54:15.599
passed by, So this was a huge undertaking. But either way,

893
00:54:16.280 --> 00:54:19.599
they looked at all of the people that were questioned

894
00:54:19.880 --> 00:54:22.559
and or involved with Tracy at the time of her

895
00:54:22.639 --> 00:54:26.519
murder and her disappearance, and a lot of the information

896
00:54:27.159 --> 00:54:31.800
that they had in those reports was unconfirmed, but it

897
00:54:31.840 --> 00:54:37.880
was documented in the file. For instance, allegedly Tracy was

898
00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:42.639
said to have been dating two separate men whenever she disappeared.

899
00:54:43.079 --> 00:54:47.239
But interesting enough, police took the report that someone said that,

900
00:54:47.639 --> 00:54:50.280
but they never had gone and actually talked to either

901
00:54:50.360 --> 00:54:54.239
of these supposed men that she was dating. Now, the

902
00:54:54.360 --> 00:54:58.559
fact seemed to be that was because Carl was their

903
00:54:58.599 --> 00:55:01.320
main suspect. It was one of the situations where if

904
00:55:01.320 --> 00:55:03.480
you hear hoof beats in the distance and you look up,

905
00:55:03.639 --> 00:55:06.039
if you look for horses and not zebras, you'll be

906
00:55:06.159 --> 00:55:07.679
right ninety nine percent of the time.

907
00:55:08.320 --> 00:55:10.119
Well, Carl was the horse in this case.

908
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:12.519
Why would they go looking for random zebras when Carl

909
00:55:12.639 --> 00:55:14.719
was the guy that was known to abuse Tracy and

910
00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:18.920
beat her and go crazy. So it was Lieutenant Jimmy

911
00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:22.760
Culbrith who had written that original narrative of the investigation

912
00:55:23.480 --> 00:55:28.159
which all roads led back to Carl, and they continued

913
00:55:28.199 --> 00:55:31.480
to I mean, damn, your twenty some odd witnesses all

914
00:55:31.519 --> 00:55:35.960
echoed the same sentiment. Carl abused Tracy. Everybody knew it.

915
00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:40.360
One thing that also stood out was that Carl claimed

916
00:55:40.480 --> 00:55:43.519
after he left his job around nine point thirty the

917
00:55:43.599 --> 00:55:46.639
night of Tracy's disappearance, he went and he picked up

918
00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:48.039
his friend Bobby Herring.

919
00:55:48.840 --> 00:55:50.599
Well. To the police, that sure.

920
00:55:50.519 --> 00:55:54.679
Sounded convenient, because that sounds more like he was trying

921
00:55:54.719 --> 00:55:57.880
to build his alibi by using his good friend, which

922
00:55:57.880 --> 00:55:59.679
is a classic move for people that are wanting to

923
00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:01.880
hide what they may have done or where they may

924
00:56:01.920 --> 00:56:06.440
have been. So another hurdle that they had to jump

925
00:56:06.519 --> 00:56:09.159
was also that fact that Tracy had never filed a

926
00:56:09.159 --> 00:56:13.920
police report about any abuse. So the foundation of that claim,

927
00:56:14.119 --> 00:56:18.519
other than accusations by others, was lacking. And guys, we

928
00:56:18.599 --> 00:56:21.199
live in a world where you've got to have probable cause,

929
00:56:21.239 --> 00:56:25.320
you've got to have something concrete. But that's when a

930
00:56:25.360 --> 00:56:29.599
realization was made by the investigators. Maybe not so much

931
00:56:29.599 --> 00:56:33.320
a realization, but a aha moment hit them. Back then,

932
00:56:34.079 --> 00:56:38.840
the law didn't require it. See, the law of domestic

933
00:56:38.920 --> 00:56:42.719
violence didn't change until nineteen ninety four. That's when President

934
00:56:42.760 --> 00:56:45.159
Clinton signed the Violence Against Women Act.

935
00:56:45.920 --> 00:56:47.519
Now, this was.

936
00:56:47.480 --> 00:56:54.760
The first real federal legislative package that was designated to

937
00:56:54.880 --> 00:56:58.480
change the role of domestic violence and sexual assaults as

938
00:56:58.719 --> 00:57:01.639
crimes as opposed to what was previously considered a quote

939
00:57:01.679 --> 00:57:06.480
unquote private matter between partners, and the law now required

940
00:57:07.079 --> 00:57:11.880
a community coordinated response to violence against women. So like today,

941
00:57:11.880 --> 00:57:15.559
for example, if police show up to an alleged altercation

942
00:57:15.800 --> 00:57:18.880
or a domestic abuse situation, a report is going to

943
00:57:18.920 --> 00:57:23.280
be filed no matter what. No matter what, a report

944
00:57:23.400 --> 00:57:27.159
is going to be filed. And when they respond, if

945
00:57:27.199 --> 00:57:31.039
the evidence presented lends itself to that, you know, the

946
00:57:31.079 --> 00:57:35.400
fact that a physical altercation between that couple likely happened.

947
00:57:35.440 --> 00:57:38.760
I'm talking about bruises, scratches, bloody nose, something like that,

948
00:57:39.480 --> 00:57:42.800
then someone's ass is going to jail. You can guarantee it.

949
00:57:42.840 --> 00:57:44.920
You can take that to the bank, they can sort

950
00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:48.639
it out in court. Okay, if there's no evidence of

951
00:57:48.679 --> 00:57:52.039
any type of violence whatsoever, maybe the wife's crazy and

952
00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:55.280
she's just saying he did something he didn't do, A

953
00:57:55.360 --> 00:57:59.360
report is still going to be made. Now the officer

954
00:57:59.840 --> 00:58:02.159
have the discretion at that point to say, Okay, you

955
00:58:02.159 --> 00:58:04.079
too need to separate for the night. You need to leave,

956
00:58:04.119 --> 00:58:05.679
do not come back to this house till y'all can

957
00:58:05.679 --> 00:58:09.519
cool off. That can happen. But if there's evidence of something,

958
00:58:09.599 --> 00:58:11.719
an arrest is going to be made. But either way,

959
00:58:12.039 --> 00:58:15.800
after nineteen ninety four, the rules changed. You must make

960
00:58:15.800 --> 00:58:18.280
a report no matter what. And as say all of

961
00:58:18.320 --> 00:58:20.440
this to point out the fact that lack of a

962
00:58:20.519 --> 00:58:26.119
report didn't necessarily constitute no violence having occurred, there is

963
00:58:26.159 --> 00:58:29.159
a saying in law enforcement, okay, and you can quote

964
00:58:29.159 --> 00:58:30.480
me on this. I don't care. I know some people

965
00:58:30.480 --> 00:58:32.079
don't like it, but you can quote me on this.

966
00:58:32.360 --> 00:58:34.880
There is a saying in law enforcement that if you

967
00:58:35.039 --> 00:58:39.960
don't write it down, it didn't happen. And this change

968
00:58:40.440 --> 00:58:43.239
in the law is a great example of why that

969
00:58:43.320 --> 00:58:47.639
statement rings true. It doesn't mean don't write it down

970
00:58:48.280 --> 00:58:50.480
so nobody knows about it. No, No, it means if

971
00:58:50.519 --> 00:58:52.719
you don't make a report of it, there's nothing to

972
00:58:52.800 --> 00:58:58.920
go back on. Officially, by the way, it was actually

973
00:58:59.280 --> 00:59:02.280
Joe Biden, who was not president obviously at the time,

974
00:59:02.320 --> 00:59:07.880
that really pushed that bill, and thank goodness, President Clinton

975
00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:12.199
did sign that into effect. So, knowing what they knew now,

976
00:59:12.719 --> 00:59:15.519
investigators decided, okay, it's not that we don't have thing

977
00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:16.000
to go back on.

978
00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:17.199
It's that the law was different.

979
00:59:17.519 --> 00:59:19.960
So they decided to go back and contact all of

980
00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:23.039
the people who had given statements back in the nineties,

981
00:59:23.159 --> 00:59:25.840
and this even included again that seventeen year old girlfriend

982
00:59:25.840 --> 00:59:28.719
of the time, and when they spoke to her, she

983
00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:33.159
now claimed that Carl may have actually stated that he

984
00:59:33.239 --> 00:59:38.360
killed Tracy, but she just wouldn't stand on that exact

985
00:59:38.400 --> 00:59:40.480
wording of how I just said it. She kind of

986
00:59:40.519 --> 00:59:43.079
alluded to the fact he might have said he did something,

987
00:59:43.320 --> 00:59:45.599
but you know, so it was kind of open ended,

988
00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:48.960
but she shifted a little bit in the way that

989
00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:55.199
she explained the conversations. She couldn't believe it though back then.

990
00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:57.800
Her mind couldn't wrap around it when she was seventeen,

991
00:59:58.400 --> 01:00:01.079
but she felt like Carl may have done it, that

992
01:00:01.159 --> 01:00:03.960
he had the capability of doing it, and that's why

993
01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:08.239
she stopped seeing him after Tracy was found murdered, because

994
01:00:08.280 --> 01:00:12.920
she's like, I don't know. So soon after, Carl had

995
01:00:12.960 --> 01:00:15.880
to move and go and work where people didn't know

996
01:00:15.960 --> 01:00:20.239
him because it was infamous. Really, he had odd jobs

997
01:00:20.280 --> 01:00:22.519
here and there. He worked as a bouncer at one point,

998
01:00:23.199 --> 01:00:25.159
he did some construction work. He was kind of all

999
01:00:25.199 --> 01:00:27.920
over the place and Eventually, after he moved out of state,

1000
01:00:28.159 --> 01:00:31.519
he had gotten into a new relationship which produced another daughter.

1001
01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:33.840
And that's the daughter I'm talking about that went and

1002
01:00:33.880 --> 01:00:38.719
met in Biloxi years later whenever he met Carolyn. Now

1003
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:43.280
at the current point in the investigation, investigators found that

1004
01:00:43.400 --> 01:00:46.840
Carl was now living in South Carolina. And all these

1005
01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:50.280
years later, police, we're now going to call him again.

1006
01:00:51.079 --> 01:00:53.239
They were going to put him on notice that we

1007
01:00:53.280 --> 01:00:56.239
have reopened this case and we're looking at you, Padna.

1008
01:00:56.719 --> 01:00:59.079
You are on our radar and we want.

1009
01:00:58.920 --> 01:00:59.719
You to know it.

1010
01:01:00.679 --> 01:01:04.480
But still, all these years later, the interviews of witnesses

1011
01:01:04.599 --> 01:01:08.559
and people that were involved at the time, still their

1012
01:01:08.599 --> 01:01:12.280
statements now echoed that same sentiment of all the years

1013
01:01:12.320 --> 01:01:16.119
prior horrible domestic violence, he had a seventeen year old girlfriend.

1014
01:01:16.719 --> 01:01:20.039
Everyone still maintained that Carl had to be the guy.

1015
01:01:21.159 --> 01:01:25.840
The scenario that was built based on all of these

1016
01:01:25.880 --> 01:01:31.119
statements was that police believed Carl left his job at

1017
01:01:31.119 --> 01:01:35.880
Superfoods around nine pm, went home, got in an argument

1018
01:01:36.199 --> 01:01:39.800
with Tracy, choked her out, strangled her, put her in

1019
01:01:39.840 --> 01:01:42.599
his car, and then drove her to the river where

1020
01:01:42.679 --> 01:01:43.400
he dumped her.

1021
01:01:43.559 --> 01:01:44.440
He thought she was dead.

1022
01:01:44.519 --> 01:01:48.039
Obviously, she wasn't because she drowned, and then he went

1023
01:01:48.079 --> 01:01:50.760
and picked up his friend Bobby Herring afterwards around nine

1024
01:01:50.760 --> 01:01:55.079
point thirty to establish an alibi, and then he waited

1025
01:01:55.119 --> 01:01:57.840
a few days and then reported her missing. It's kind

1026
01:01:57.840 --> 01:02:00.159
of like a paint by numbers if you listened to

1027
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:01.679
a lot of true crime, that's how it goes.

1028
01:02:03.119 --> 01:02:04.000
He then was willing.

1029
01:02:04.239 --> 01:02:06.400
This is circumstantial, but he then was willing to just

1030
01:02:06.519 --> 01:02:09.360
give up his daughter that he shared with Tracy and.

1031
01:02:09.320 --> 01:02:12.159
Just moved on with his life, like who does that?

1032
01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:16.360
You know? Again, it's circumstantial, but kind of lends itself

1033
01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:18.840
to the fact that he was not very invested in

1034
01:02:18.880 --> 01:02:22.559
that family. So when police got all of their ducks

1035
01:02:22.599 --> 01:02:24.519
in a row and they felt that they had enough

1036
01:02:24.559 --> 01:02:29.800
evidence and this narrative was kind of making sense, they

1037
01:02:29.840 --> 01:02:34.320
went and Carl was officially arrested and charged on September

1038
01:02:34.360 --> 01:02:38.719
thirteenth of twenty sixteen, twenty six years after the murder

1039
01:02:38.920 --> 01:02:42.599
of his ex wife, Tracy Harris. But now came the

1040
01:02:42.599 --> 01:02:47.039
hard part. Would a grand jury agree? And a grand

1041
01:02:47.079 --> 01:02:50.760
jury's job, by the way, isn't to find guilt or innocence.

1042
01:02:51.480 --> 01:02:55.599
A grand jury acts as a buffer between the state

1043
01:02:56.119 --> 01:03:01.000
prosecuting and the citizen that's being accused and is going

1044
01:03:01.039 --> 01:03:01.920
to be prosecuted.

1045
01:03:02.280 --> 01:03:03.440
It is not a trial.

1046
01:03:03.960 --> 01:03:06.679
The grand jury simply looks at the state's evidence and

1047
01:03:06.760 --> 01:03:11.400
determines whether the person should be indicted or not, you know,

1048
01:03:11.480 --> 01:03:14.039
formally charged and then prosecuted for the crime. So they're

1049
01:03:14.039 --> 01:03:16.119
like a buffer in between that goes, yeah, I think

1050
01:03:16.119 --> 01:03:18.480
you got a pretty strong case here, or no, you don't.

1051
01:03:19.079 --> 01:03:22.639
Their job is to serve as a.

1052
01:03:23.920 --> 01:03:29.760
They protect the citizens against unfounded, arbitrary or oppressive criminal prosecutions.

1053
01:03:29.840 --> 01:03:33.639
So it's a very important function to our criminal justice system.

1054
01:03:34.360 --> 01:03:38.239
So all of the evidence was put out before a

1055
01:03:38.280 --> 01:03:40.920
grand jury, and after they heard all of it, they

1056
01:03:40.960 --> 01:03:43.559
came back with a true bill or a go ahead.

1057
01:03:43.599 --> 01:03:46.480
They gave the green light, go ahead, and you need

1058
01:03:46.519 --> 01:03:50.639
to prosecute Carl Harris. So the stage was now set

1059
01:03:50.960 --> 01:03:54.159
and the trial was going to go underway. And when

1060
01:03:54.239 --> 01:03:57.719
Carolyn got the news, it was the early morning hours.

1061
01:03:57.800 --> 01:03:59.719
There was a knock at her door and when she answered,

1062
01:04:00.039 --> 01:04:02.000
it was the police telling her we want to let

1063
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:04.960
you know face to face, we've made an arrest of

1064
01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:10.320
your mother's killer, and it was your own father. Now shocked,

1065
01:04:10.360 --> 01:04:14.199
wouldn't really be the word here, because she had heard

1066
01:04:14.280 --> 01:04:19.079
rumors since since all of the investigation and the questioning

1067
01:04:19.119 --> 01:04:22.800
and going back to the hometown had happened. Granny never

1068
01:04:22.840 --> 01:04:25.239
directly pointed the finger and said, your dad did it,

1069
01:04:26.079 --> 01:04:31.719
but these other people really kind of confirmed suspicions. So

1070
01:04:31.840 --> 01:04:34.880
it wasn't shocked. It was more of a relief, Okay,

1071
01:04:35.239 --> 01:04:37.960
whatever the truth was. She wanted the case solved, and

1072
01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:42.960
it was now becoming a reality for the trial. She

1073
01:04:43.079 --> 01:04:45.360
now made plans. She was going to travel down to Alabama.

1074
01:04:45.639 --> 01:04:47.480
She was going to be there for the entire thing.

1075
01:04:48.039 --> 01:04:50.320
This had been a very long and emotional journey to

1076
01:04:50.360 --> 01:04:53.360
this point, and now she finally felt like it was

1077
01:04:53.400 --> 01:04:57.599
her mother's time for truth and justice to prevail.

1078
01:04:58.159 --> 01:04:59.519
And you know, it takes forever.

1079
01:04:59.320 --> 01:05:01.920
To prosecute some because they want, you know, prosecutors have

1080
01:05:01.960 --> 01:05:03.920
to build their case. They wanted to be a solid case,

1081
01:05:03.920 --> 01:05:06.400
and this one's going to be no different. So prosecutors

1082
01:05:06.400 --> 01:05:09.440
wanted to make damn sure that all these years later

1083
01:05:09.800 --> 01:05:12.000
that when they tried this case, they wanted to do

1084
01:05:12.039 --> 01:05:14.960
it well, and they wanted to leave no room for

1085
01:05:15.159 --> 01:05:20.280
error or reasonable doubt. Justice delayed is justice denied. And

1086
01:05:20.320 --> 01:05:22.400
they certainly didn't want to lose this case now that

1087
01:05:22.440 --> 01:05:25.239
they had finally gotten the arrest, so they went above

1088
01:05:25.280 --> 01:05:29.159
and beyond to really understand the scene and what happened

1089
01:05:29.239 --> 01:05:32.679
all those years ago. They even visited the site where

1090
01:05:32.719 --> 01:05:37.440
Tracy's body had been found, and witnesses had mentioned over

1091
01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:39.159
and over again that they all liked to hang out

1092
01:05:39.280 --> 01:05:43.000
under that bridge nearby, So the prosecutors even went to

1093
01:05:43.079 --> 01:05:46.360
the bridge looking about getting a feel for the scene

1094
01:05:46.840 --> 01:05:50.679
and even taking pictures. You know, obviously people had partied there.

1095
01:05:50.719 --> 01:05:55.039
There was graffiti sprayed all underneath the bridge, evidence of

1096
01:05:55.079 --> 01:05:57.960
get togethers in these days gone by. It may have

1097
01:05:57.960 --> 01:06:02.920
been thirty years, but this team was ready. So as

1098
01:06:02.960 --> 01:06:06.119
the date approached, prosecutors were tying up their loose ends

1099
01:06:06.159 --> 01:06:08.440
and confirming that all of their witnesses would be able

1100
01:06:08.440 --> 01:06:11.880
to testify and organizing everything for the trial. And the

1101
01:06:11.960 --> 01:06:14.880
whole time that this is going on, Carl's over here,

1102
01:06:15.159 --> 01:06:19.199
pleading his case that this is insane, he didn't do anything. Hell,

1103
01:06:19.639 --> 01:06:22.719
you know, he starts pointing the finger at his own friend, Bobby,

1104
01:06:22.840 --> 01:06:25.679
the one who had said, yeah, we hung out that night, okay, the.

1105
01:06:25.599 --> 01:06:26.599
One that even confirmed.

1106
01:06:26.719 --> 01:06:30.239
He started pointing fingers at him, and Carl's defense attorney

1107
01:06:30.840 --> 01:06:35.599
was obviously echoing this same sentiment, including talking to prosecutors

1108
01:06:35.639 --> 01:06:38.239
and saying, look, man, he picked up his friend Bobby

1109
01:06:38.280 --> 01:06:43.519
Herring after work around nine thirty and we both know

1110
01:06:44.199 --> 01:06:47.280
that based on Carl's story and Bobby's story. You know,

1111
01:06:47.320 --> 01:06:52.239
he traveled twenty plus miles in total, So how could

1112
01:06:52.280 --> 01:06:56.400
he have even possibly traveled home from work, committed the murder,

1113
01:06:56.719 --> 01:07:00.199
went and picked up Bobby in that amount of time? Like,

1114
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:02.480
I know you're wanting to prosecute here, but I just

1115
01:07:02.519 --> 01:07:04.639
don't think that timeline adds up.

1116
01:07:05.039 --> 01:07:08.400
I mean shit. The attorney even brought up Bobby.

1117
01:07:08.079 --> 01:07:12.639
Himself as a whole other issue, because Bobby himself had

1118
01:07:12.679 --> 01:07:17.280
been convicted of raping a woman in another county, So

1119
01:07:17.360 --> 01:07:21.280
why do y'all believe him so much? That? But he

1120
01:07:21.400 --> 01:07:24.880
you know, like none of this. You haven't done a

1121
01:07:24.880 --> 01:07:27.159
good job here. Basically, you have not investigated this to

1122
01:07:27.199 --> 01:07:29.800
the fullest. And the prosecutors are looking back, going, look, bro,

1123
01:07:30.159 --> 01:07:32.880
we've got thirty years of evidence here.

1124
01:07:32.960 --> 01:07:34.519
We're used to hearing all these excuses.

1125
01:07:34.679 --> 01:07:37.440
We're not going to entertain these last minute grasping its

1126
01:07:37.480 --> 01:07:41.159
straws from Carl I mean, hell, dude, we've even went.

1127
01:07:41.000 --> 01:07:42.000
Before a grand jury.

1128
01:07:42.039 --> 01:07:44.360
They agreed with the evidence here as strong, and they

1129
01:07:44.360 --> 01:07:45.079
indicted him.

1130
01:07:45.559 --> 01:07:46.440
Get out of my face.

1131
01:07:47.760 --> 01:07:51.079
So the day of the trial was now close, and

1132
01:07:51.440 --> 01:07:55.480
it was three years after Carl's original arrest that the

1133
01:07:55.559 --> 01:08:00.679
trial date was scheduled. So in this last minute realization,

1134
01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:04.920
prosecutors found a statement of someone who they had had

1135
01:08:04.960 --> 01:08:06.599
I don't want to say forgotten, but they hadn't followed

1136
01:08:06.679 --> 01:08:09.280
up with this one person that was in the file.

1137
01:08:09.719 --> 01:08:14.480
And her name was don Beasley. Now the wife if

1138
01:08:14.519 --> 01:08:17.760
you remember, Don Beasley is the wife of the couple

1139
01:08:18.039 --> 01:08:20.319
that lived with Carl and Tracy just for that short

1140
01:08:20.319 --> 01:08:23.600
bit of time, and had witnessed that physical altercation between

1141
01:08:23.640 --> 01:08:28.000
them over the light bill. So the prosecutor was actually

1142
01:08:28.079 --> 01:08:31.840
really really interested in following up with her, specifically because

1143
01:08:31.920 --> 01:08:35.079
Tracy had been murdered in the very manner in which

1144
01:08:35.239 --> 01:08:39.239
Dawn had seen Carl abuse her that day. This would

1145
01:08:39.279 --> 01:08:41.840
have been super damning evidence for trial. I mean, it

1146
01:08:41.880 --> 01:08:43.560
pretty much would have been the nail in the coffin.

1147
01:08:44.239 --> 01:08:47.239
So tracking her down became a very difficult task. She

1148
01:08:47.279 --> 01:08:50.760
had a new name, she had moved old phone numbers,

1149
01:08:51.119 --> 01:08:52.960
but finally after a lot of effort, they were able

1150
01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:55.680
to track her down. So when they said who they

1151
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:57.760
were and they wanted her to come in, they're going

1152
01:08:57.840 --> 01:09:01.479
to need her to testify, Dawn said, I don't want

1153
01:09:01.520 --> 01:09:07.319
to testify, and the prosecutors started pretty much begging her, like, look,

1154
01:09:07.399 --> 01:09:10.000
you know, we really need you here. This is very

1155
01:09:10.039 --> 01:09:14.279
important to the case. But she declined and she said, look,

1156
01:09:14.319 --> 01:09:17.680
I'm very busy of a very demanding job, and this

1157
01:09:17.760 --> 01:09:19.960
is going to kind of put me out and mess

1158
01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:22.479
with my life here. Well, prosecutors at that point got

1159
01:09:22.520 --> 01:09:25.319
really freaking frustrated and they had to put their foot down.

1160
01:09:25.920 --> 01:09:28.680
They're like, look, look here, okay, a woman is dead,

1161
01:09:29.279 --> 01:09:34.399
she was murdered. We need your testimony. So I understand

1162
01:09:34.479 --> 01:09:36.159
you don't want to be involved and that you don't

1163
01:09:36.159 --> 01:09:39.079
want to come do this, but now we're not asking you,

1164
01:09:39.199 --> 01:09:43.359
we're telling you. We have a subpoena and we're going

1165
01:09:43.439 --> 01:09:46.079
to serve you with it. You will come and you

1166
01:09:46.119 --> 01:09:51.119
will testify. When that subpoena was placed in Dawn's hands,

1167
01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:56.520
she went nuts. I'm talking batshit nuts. She gets on

1168
01:09:56.560 --> 01:09:59.600
the phone and calls prosecutors and she was irate with them,

1169
01:10:00.159 --> 01:10:02.279
why are you forcing me to do this. You are

1170
01:10:02.359 --> 01:10:05.439
ruining my life and I don't want anything to do

1171
01:10:05.560 --> 01:10:07.920
with it. I don't want anything to do with this.

1172
01:10:09.239 --> 01:10:12.680
And so it kind of made him start wondering was

1173
01:10:12.720 --> 01:10:17.560
she threatened or something like? Was she scared for some reason?

1174
01:10:18.439 --> 01:10:21.319
You know who acts like this when we really need

1175
01:10:21.359 --> 01:10:24.920
you to come and testify about a woman's murder.

1176
01:10:24.920 --> 01:10:27.840
But no, it wasn't like that. It wasn't like she

1177
01:10:27.880 --> 01:10:30.920
was scared. She was mad. She was mad, and she

1178
01:10:31.039 --> 01:10:31.840
said that the.

1179
01:10:31.840 --> 01:10:36.760
Prosecution was putting her in an impossible position. So they

1180
01:10:36.800 --> 01:10:40.279
snap back, what do you mean an impossible position? Tracy

1181
01:10:40.720 --> 01:10:46.399
is dead? Tracy is dead. This is a mild inconvenience

1182
01:10:46.520 --> 01:10:52.039
in comparison, don't you think. And that's when Dawn dropped

1183
01:10:52.279 --> 01:10:55.479
a bomb on them and said, I know she's dead,

1184
01:10:56.479 --> 01:11:00.640
and I also know that I can't testify because Carl

1185
01:11:00.720 --> 01:11:02.279
is innocent and I know.

1186
01:11:02.560 --> 01:11:08.239
Who actually killed Tracy. The silence.

1187
01:11:09.399 --> 01:11:15.640
On the other line was palpable, and the prosecutor says,

1188
01:11:16.000 --> 01:11:20.920
excuse me, Carl is innocent. What do you mean now

1189
01:11:20.920 --> 01:11:24.760
he's you know? She says, yeah, I know who killed Tracy.

1190
01:11:25.359 --> 01:11:30.039
It was my ex husband. Well, the prosecutor didn't quite

1191
01:11:30.079 --> 01:11:34.920
know what to say to this, you know? She comes back,

1192
01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:37.279
I'm sorry, why do you think this? We know, ma'am,

1193
01:11:37.600 --> 01:11:40.479
we know that Carl killed her. We're not asking you

1194
01:11:40.520 --> 01:11:44.720
to do anything but testify to what you know. And

1195
01:11:45.640 --> 01:11:51.800
she says no, and Dawn began telling a story. And

1196
01:11:51.840 --> 01:11:55.399
it all started when Down was twenty years old and

1197
01:11:55.479 --> 01:12:00.439
she was pregnant by that point. She said she and

1198
01:12:00.479 --> 01:12:03.720
her then husband had moved out of Carl and Tracy's

1199
01:12:03.720 --> 01:12:07.399
home and into a place of their own, and it

1200
01:12:07.479 --> 01:12:11.439
was the night before Tracy's twenty first birthday when she

1201
01:12:11.560 --> 01:12:14.600
got in bed, she being Dawn, and fell asleep for

1202
01:12:14.640 --> 01:12:18.640
the evening and she was suddenly awakened by her husband, Jeff,

1203
01:12:18.640 --> 01:12:21.119
and she said he was in an all out panic.

1204
01:12:22.199 --> 01:12:24.439
He said that he had gone over to Carl and

1205
01:12:24.439 --> 01:12:28.319
Tracy's to speak to Carl, but he wasn't there, and

1206
01:12:28.359 --> 01:12:30.840
that's when he and Tracy ended up in an argument

1207
01:12:31.079 --> 01:12:34.560
because he was trying to convince Tracy to leave Carl,

1208
01:12:35.359 --> 01:12:39.079
and that's when things turned violent and he accidentally hurt

1209
01:12:39.119 --> 01:12:43.159
her and she died as a result of it. So

1210
01:12:43.319 --> 01:12:45.800
Dawn shot up in bed. Obviously, she's stunned, she's in

1211
01:12:45.840 --> 01:12:48.119
disbelief and like, what do you mean, what are you saying?

1212
01:12:48.439 --> 01:12:49.279
What is happening here?

1213
01:12:49.319 --> 01:12:52.159
Are you serious? Like, are you really serious? Jeff, don't

1214
01:12:52.199 --> 01:12:55.680
play what do you mean? She's dead? And he told

1215
01:12:55.720 --> 01:12:58.159
her that he took Tracy to the river so no

1216
01:12:58.239 --> 01:13:03.640
one would come home and no one would find her body.

1217
01:13:03.680 --> 01:13:08.399
What exactly happened in their home, Jeff and Dawn's home

1218
01:13:08.880 --> 01:13:13.760
after he confessed this to her, is unknown, but what

1219
01:13:14.039 --> 01:13:17.840
is known is that Dawn never called and reported this

1220
01:13:17.880 --> 01:13:23.479
to the police. Now, Dawn and Jeff had also divorced

1221
01:13:24.119 --> 01:13:27.840
by this current point in time, and so it was like,

1222
01:13:28.000 --> 01:13:30.399
is you're trying to tell us this story more like

1223
01:13:30.439 --> 01:13:34.399
a scorned woman and trying to throw him under the bus,

1224
01:13:34.840 --> 01:13:39.399
you know. I mean, they knew. Prosecutors knew Carl had

1225
01:13:39.479 --> 01:13:44.319
killed Tracy. He was going on trial literally the next

1226
01:13:44.399 --> 01:13:49.840
day for it. But Dawn was adamant, no, I am

1227
01:13:49.880 --> 01:13:52.800
telling you the truth. I wanted to go to police,

1228
01:13:52.880 --> 01:13:57.079
but Jeff told me not to. So the prosecutor was like,

1229
01:13:57.159 --> 01:13:57.920
you say, you just let.

1230
01:13:57.840 --> 01:14:01.359
It go, You just let that go. Is that what

1231
01:14:01.359 --> 01:14:03.039
you're wanting to convince me of? You just let it go?

1232
01:14:03.640 --> 01:14:08.920
And she says, yeah, yeah, that's exactly what happened because

1233
01:14:09.680 --> 01:14:13.399
Don was scheduled to get married and she was pregnant,

1234
01:14:14.199 --> 01:14:19.399
and in that moment she went into straight up selfish mode.

1235
01:14:19.520 --> 01:14:23.239
Don said she felt that if she went to the police,

1236
01:14:23.319 --> 01:14:27.079
she would then be throwing away her family and her dreams,

1237
01:14:27.960 --> 01:14:33.000
so she decided to just keep quiet. Okay, Well, to me,

1238
01:14:34.359 --> 01:14:37.640
I'm like, this can't be real. Prosecutor felt the same

1239
01:14:37.680 --> 01:14:40.159
way and said, so you lied then in your original

1240
01:14:40.239 --> 01:14:42.520
questioning to the police all those years ago, all these

1241
01:14:42.560 --> 01:14:45.159
statements and documents that we have, And Don said, no,

1242
01:14:46.159 --> 01:14:49.840
I gave completely truthful answers to questions when I was interrogated.

1243
01:14:49.880 --> 01:14:52.760
You can go look everything I said was true. But

1244
01:14:52.840 --> 01:14:56.000
what else you'll find is they never directly asked me

1245
01:14:56.479 --> 01:14:59.439
who I thought did it, and so I just didn't

1246
01:14:59.479 --> 01:15:04.079
offer up anything more than what they directly asked me.

1247
01:15:05.279 --> 01:15:07.239
And then she followed up and said, look, all in all,

1248
01:15:07.239 --> 01:15:11.000
I kind of you know that's the truth, But Carl

1249
01:15:11.159 --> 01:15:13.520
was so horrible to Tracy that I don't feel bad

1250
01:15:13.560 --> 01:15:15.960
for it. I don't care that he's been wrongly accused

1251
01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:18.279
all those years because he was a horrible person.

1252
01:15:19.960 --> 01:15:21.279
To boot.

1253
01:15:22.239 --> 01:15:28.279
Police never questioned Jeff either, even though Jeff had lived

1254
01:15:28.760 --> 01:15:34.359
with Tracy and Carl for that month. They never questioned Jeff.

1255
01:15:35.239 --> 01:15:37.600
So prosecutors are now looking at all this going, well,

1256
01:15:37.720 --> 01:15:40.720
they didn't even talk to him. Maybe what she's saying

1257
01:15:40.800 --> 01:15:44.119
is true. And Dawn followed up and said, had they

1258
01:15:44.199 --> 01:15:47.880
done that, they would have found that Jeff had served

1259
01:15:47.920 --> 01:15:51.159
time in prison. He did four years in prison back

1260
01:15:51.199 --> 01:15:57.000
then for burglary and escape attempts. But back whenever, Dawn

1261
01:15:57.079 --> 01:15:59.199
was twenty years old and she was looking forward to

1262
01:15:59.239 --> 01:16:01.319
her big wedding and she was going to have a baby.

1263
01:16:01.840 --> 01:16:05.159
She was willing to overlook all of these things and

1264
01:16:05.199 --> 01:16:10.840
decided to just keep quiet. She got married, and she

1265
01:16:10.920 --> 01:16:14.479
and Jeff never spoke of his admission of killing Tracy

1266
01:16:14.760 --> 01:16:19.560
ever again. They just pretended it never happen. As time passed,

1267
01:16:20.159 --> 01:16:23.840
she and Jeff would have two children together, and after

1268
01:16:23.880 --> 01:16:26.239
the first two children, she said, it really got her

1269
01:16:26.319 --> 01:16:31.600
thinking more about poor little Carolyn. She didn't, however, go

1270
01:16:31.720 --> 01:16:37.199
to the police. Well, time kept going and Jeff was

1271
01:16:37.319 --> 01:16:41.239
arrested again in nineteen ninety one, where he did five

1272
01:16:41.439 --> 01:16:45.079
more years in prison. The entire time that Jeff was

1273
01:16:45.079 --> 01:16:50.680
in prison those five years, Dawn never said anything. Still

1274
01:16:50.840 --> 01:16:54.439
he gets out, but eventually the marriage fell apart because

1275
01:16:54.560 --> 01:16:59.399
Jeff became abusive. So after thirteen years of marriage in

1276
01:16:59.439 --> 01:17:04.359
a total of FeAs four kids, they divorced. Well, why

1277
01:17:04.399 --> 01:17:07.199
didn't you go to the police, then, why would you

1278
01:17:07.319 --> 01:17:09.359
still keep his secret?

1279
01:17:10.439 --> 01:17:13.239
You have to make this make sense if it's true.

1280
01:17:13.319 --> 01:17:15.319
And her answer to them was one that I personally

1281
01:17:15.479 --> 01:17:18.279
don't care for. But she said she didn't go to

1282
01:17:18.319 --> 01:17:21.720
the police out of fear of hurting her own children's lives,

1283
01:17:22.600 --> 01:17:26.640
and that was why she was so angry about now

1284
01:17:26.720 --> 01:17:30.119
being asked to testify. She knew the truth and she

1285
01:17:30.239 --> 01:17:32.760
was now being forced to have to tell her kids

1286
01:17:33.000 --> 01:17:36.239
that their dad was a murderer and she had kept

1287
01:17:36.239 --> 01:17:44.359
it quiet for thirty years. Wow. So while this revelation

1288
01:17:44.520 --> 01:17:48.800
was absolutely just unbelievable, if it were even true, this

1289
01:17:48.840 --> 01:17:54.239
would change a lot. So the police were contacted by

1290
01:17:54.239 --> 01:17:58.520
the prosecutor's office whenever this was said, and they set

1291
01:17:58.560 --> 01:18:01.800
out to speak to Jeff be So they had to

1292
01:18:01.840 --> 01:18:03.319
do a little bit of searching, but they were able

1293
01:18:03.359 --> 01:18:05.760
to track him down and he was now fifty four

1294
01:18:05.840 --> 01:18:06.319
years old.

1295
01:18:06.600 --> 01:18:07.840
He was working as.

1296
01:18:07.680 --> 01:18:09.960
A trucker and they said, look, we'd like to speak

1297
01:18:09.960 --> 01:18:12.239
with you regarding an old case and so he was

1298
01:18:12.279 --> 01:18:15.720
brought in to answer some questions, and when it got

1299
01:18:15.760 --> 01:18:18.359
down to it, when he was faced with the basis

1300
01:18:18.399 --> 01:18:22.880
of the questioning being about Tracy's death, Jeff was taken

1301
01:18:23.319 --> 01:18:26.399
aback by the fact that he was even being accused

1302
01:18:26.439 --> 01:18:30.239
of having anything to do with the murder. You know,

1303
01:18:30.680 --> 01:18:33.119
Carl's like, I'm a friend of theirs, or I was

1304
01:18:33.159 --> 01:18:35.920
a friend of theirs back then. That was the extent

1305
01:18:36.000 --> 01:18:37.439
of anything. You know.

1306
01:18:38.039 --> 01:18:40.880
I lived with them for a month with my ex wife.

1307
01:18:42.000 --> 01:18:45.359
After her death, our friendship faded, Carl moved off. I

1308
01:18:45.359 --> 01:18:47.199
haven't spoken to Carl in thirty years.

1309
01:18:48.560 --> 01:18:49.359
What is going on?

1310
01:18:49.439 --> 01:18:52.520
I mean he was questioned for four plus hours about

1311
01:18:52.520 --> 01:18:57.239
Tracy's death, and he was completely dumbfounded by and added that,

1312
01:18:57.279 --> 01:18:59.199
you know, he was disturbed by the fact that he

1313
01:18:59.279 --> 01:19:02.399
was being looked at closely. This is unbelievable, you know,

1314
01:19:02.560 --> 01:19:05.640
wide eyed, looking like a deer in the headlights. He

1315
01:19:05.680 --> 01:19:07.720
even agreed to take a light detector test to prove

1316
01:19:08.039 --> 01:19:10.119
that he was telling the truth and the whole truth.

1317
01:19:10.479 --> 01:19:13.640
He said, give me one, I'll take it. So the

1318
01:19:13.680 --> 01:19:19.720
police obliged him and he failed it. He failed the

1319
01:19:19.760 --> 01:19:25.159
polygraph and in a turn of events, like something out

1320
01:19:25.199 --> 01:19:32.319
of a murder mystery movie. They would continue to question Jeff,

1321
01:19:33.880 --> 01:19:40.680
and after many many hours in the hot seat, Jeff

1322
01:19:40.760 --> 01:19:45.520
Beasley would eventually crumble under the pressure and begin to

1323
01:19:45.640 --> 01:19:51.079
lose his composure without warning, and the police sat in

1324
01:19:51.279 --> 01:19:56.840
stunned silence as Jeff Beasley confessed to having.

1325
01:19:56.640 --> 01:19:59.039
Murdered Tracy Harris.

1326
01:20:00.199 --> 01:20:05.840
Carl Harris had been telling the truth the entire time.

1327
01:20:07.039 --> 01:20:10.399
For thirty years, people had pointed the finger at him

1328
01:20:10.439 --> 01:20:13.960
as he adamantly denied having killed his ex wife, and

1329
01:20:14.159 --> 01:20:20.479
no one believed him, but guys, it was true. Jeff

1330
01:20:20.520 --> 01:20:23.720
Beasley then laid out the chain of events that he

1331
01:20:23.880 --> 01:20:26.840
said led to the death of twenty one year old

1332
01:20:26.920 --> 01:20:31.399
or twenty year old Tracy Harris. Jeff started by claiming

1333
01:20:31.680 --> 01:20:35.840
that he and Tracy were having an affair. She said

1334
01:20:35.880 --> 01:20:38.159
that she was going to leave Carl, and she now

1335
01:20:38.279 --> 01:20:41.760
wanted Jeff to leave Dawn, and they ended up in

1336
01:20:41.800 --> 01:20:46.119
an argument when he told her, I'm not leaving Dawn,

1337
01:20:47.359 --> 01:20:52.000
and as a result of that statement, Tracy said, well, fine,

1338
01:20:52.439 --> 01:20:55.279
then I'm gonna go tell Dawn about our affair.

1339
01:20:56.479 --> 01:20:56.680
Now.

1340
01:20:56.720 --> 01:20:59.279
How and why the two ended up at the river

1341
01:20:59.479 --> 01:21:03.079
isn't clear, but when the two were at the bridge.

1342
01:21:03.680 --> 01:21:08.680
At some point, an argument ensued and Jeff lost total control.

1343
01:21:09.680 --> 01:21:12.520
He lunged forward and he grabbed a hold of Tracy

1344
01:21:12.840 --> 01:21:16.279
as they began to struggle by the water's edge. Not

1345
01:21:16.439 --> 01:21:19.520
only was Tracy afraid of Jeff, but she was also

1346
01:21:19.840 --> 01:21:23.880
terrified of the water that Jeff was dragging her towards.

1347
01:21:24.439 --> 01:21:28.399
So Tracy began to fight tooth and nail to avoid

1348
01:21:28.439 --> 01:21:33.159
being pushed into the water, but Jeff easily over powered her,

1349
01:21:33.560 --> 01:21:37.720
and feeling the water hit her skin, she knew instantly

1350
01:21:38.000 --> 01:21:40.359
that she was about to die because number one, she

1351
01:21:40.479 --> 01:21:44.479
couldn't swim, so as she swung and she clawed, and

1352
01:21:44.560 --> 01:21:47.279
she tried to climb on top of Jeff to escape

1353
01:21:47.319 --> 01:21:50.319
the water, he grabbed her by the neck and he

1354
01:21:50.520 --> 01:21:54.600
slammed her back on her back underneath the water's surface,

1355
01:21:54.800 --> 01:21:57.640
and he slid his hands down all the way around

1356
01:21:57.680 --> 01:22:01.000
her neck and shoved her face on under the water,

1357
01:22:01.840 --> 01:22:04.359
and she held her breath as best as she could,

1358
01:22:04.520 --> 01:22:07.840
but his hands were gripping so tightly around her neck

1359
01:22:07.840 --> 01:22:10.239
as she fought that she let go of all of

1360
01:22:10.279 --> 01:22:13.159
the air that was in her lungs. As sheer panic

1361
01:22:13.439 --> 01:22:19.119
began to ensue, and so she instinctively grasped and gasped

1362
01:22:19.159 --> 01:22:22.560
for a breath, but only was able to inhale water,

1363
01:22:23.079 --> 01:22:26.359
and the water filled her lungs, causing her to sputter

1364
01:22:26.760 --> 01:22:30.840
and to choke as she began asperating, but Jeff continued

1365
01:22:31.079 --> 01:22:34.560
to hold her head under that water until she couldn't

1366
01:22:34.600 --> 01:22:38.199
fight back anymore. She needed air, and no matter how

1367
01:22:38.239 --> 01:22:42.520
she was trying she pawed upwards, she just couldn't get

1368
01:22:42.520 --> 01:22:45.960
any She pulled at his hands and she was desperate

1369
01:22:46.199 --> 01:22:48.920
for him to just let go and let her take

1370
01:22:48.960 --> 01:22:53.960
a breath, but he only bared down and squeezed harder,

1371
01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:58.279
so her grip on him, and her trying to pull

1372
01:22:58.359 --> 01:23:02.920
away that grips, it just loosened as she started to

1373
01:23:03.000 --> 01:23:07.800
lose consciousness, and it loosened until her arms got weak

1374
01:23:08.399 --> 01:23:12.399
and weak, and then finally fell limp into the water

1375
01:23:13.199 --> 01:23:19.039
and she stopped moving all together, and Jeff drowned her

1376
01:23:19.720 --> 01:23:23.199
right there in the water's edge where they had hung

1377
01:23:23.239 --> 01:23:28.000
out so many times before. And when she was dead

1378
01:23:28.680 --> 01:23:32.319
and he knew that she couldn't speak anymore, he then

1379
01:23:32.600 --> 01:23:36.199
pushed her off into the water, where her body sunk

1380
01:23:37.199 --> 01:23:42.039
and it floated along, bobbing around on the bottom's edge

1381
01:23:42.359 --> 01:23:48.520
until she got caught up on a downed tree, and

1382
01:23:48.560 --> 01:23:51.119
when she was found, I do want to note that

1383
01:23:51.199 --> 01:23:55.840
her shirt was missing. So the question here is could

1384
01:23:55.880 --> 01:24:01.359
the water have removed it? Maybe, but it seems unlikely

1385
01:24:01.399 --> 01:24:08.479
considering the waters slow to moderate movement. In Dawn's recount

1386
01:24:08.600 --> 01:24:14.399
of Jeff's original confession, she said that Tracy and Jeff

1387
01:24:14.439 --> 01:24:20.800
fought at Tracy's home. No one who was questioned ever

1388
01:24:20.880 --> 01:24:25.800
believed on any planet that Tracy would cheat with Jeff

1389
01:24:26.399 --> 01:24:28.760
or anyone else for that matter.

1390
01:24:29.359 --> 01:24:31.479
No one believed that.

1391
01:24:32.439 --> 01:24:37.239
Even Dawn herself doesn't believe that they were having an affair.

1392
01:24:38.239 --> 01:24:42.920
Dawn's perception is that she thinks that that night, Tracy

1393
01:24:43.039 --> 01:24:44.880
was going to tell that Jeff had made a move

1394
01:24:44.920 --> 01:24:49.920
on her and that she had rebuffed it. Jeff panicked

1395
01:24:49.960 --> 01:24:53.960
whenever this happened, and he killed her as a result

1396
01:24:54.000 --> 01:24:57.760
of that. So whatever the exact truth may be, we

1397
01:24:58.000 --> 01:25:01.399
likely won't ever know, except for the fact that Jeff

1398
01:25:01.479 --> 01:25:07.439
Beasley was the real killer of Tracy. Harris and prosecutors

1399
01:25:07.520 --> 01:25:12.600
in that moment had an aha just hit them like

1400
01:25:12.640 --> 01:25:16.239
a light bulb went off when they thought back over

1401
01:25:16.319 --> 01:25:18.279
all of the evidence they were going to use to

1402
01:25:18.359 --> 01:25:23.920
convict Karl, and the photos that they took while visiting

1403
01:25:24.319 --> 01:25:29.000
that bridge that was believed to be the murder site underneath, well,

1404
01:25:29.000 --> 01:25:32.199
there had been something in their faces the whole time,

1405
01:25:32.760 --> 01:25:36.439
but it had just never clicked. Remember me telling you

1406
01:25:36.800 --> 01:25:41.479
about the spray painted letters and words under the bridge. Well,

1407
01:25:41.960 --> 01:25:46.640
when Dawn was originally questioned thirty years prior, her name

1408
01:25:46.800 --> 01:25:51.199
was don Hulbert on the police report, she hadn't yet

1409
01:25:51.239 --> 01:25:57.600
married Jeff. Well right there in huge spray painted letters

1410
01:25:58.119 --> 01:26:03.600
underneath the bridge was then Beasley. It just hadn't clicked

1411
01:26:03.960 --> 01:26:11.119
until just now that Dawn who gave that alleged report

1412
01:26:11.560 --> 01:26:16.119
wasn't Beasley back in So the prosecutors now weren't recognizing

1413
01:26:16.239 --> 01:26:20.680
anything about Beasley in the new age, looking underneath the

1414
01:26:20.720 --> 01:26:26.199
bridge proof that he had been there, And after nearly

1415
01:26:26.319 --> 01:26:31.640
thirty years, Jeff Beasley was arrested and charged after confessing,

1416
01:26:31.800 --> 01:26:36.399
just eighteen hours before Carl was to go on trial

1417
01:26:36.800 --> 01:26:41.920
for his life and his freedom. Carolyn and her family, well,

1418
01:26:41.960 --> 01:26:43.920
they had all come into town expecting to sit through

1419
01:26:43.920 --> 01:26:44.439
the trial of.

1420
01:26:44.399 --> 01:26:46.359
Her father who killed her mother.

1421
01:26:46.680 --> 01:26:48.840
Only to now be asked to come up to the

1422
01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:52.680
police station because they needed to speak with her so

1423
01:26:52.800 --> 01:26:55.359
Carolyn walks in and she's brought to a smaller room,

1424
01:26:55.760 --> 01:26:58.800
and that's when the police broke the news that they

1425
01:26:58.800 --> 01:27:02.920
had gotten a confession to her mother's murder, but it

1426
01:27:02.960 --> 01:27:07.079
wasn't from her dad. She had never even heard the

1427
01:27:07.119 --> 01:27:10.760
name Jeff Beasley mentioned before in her entire life. She

1428
01:27:10.840 --> 01:27:13.760
had no idea who this man was, and the flip

1429
01:27:13.800 --> 01:27:17.680
flop of blame was just insane. She could not wrap

1430
01:27:17.720 --> 01:27:20.439
her brain around it in the moment, and she left

1431
01:27:20.479 --> 01:27:23.199
the police station in shock. I mean, the mystery of

1432
01:27:23.199 --> 01:27:26.880
her mother's murder was solved, unsolved, and solved again in

1433
01:27:26.920 --> 01:27:30.840
the last eighteen hours. She had gone three years believing

1434
01:27:30.840 --> 01:27:34.079
her father had done it, and now they're telling her, sorry,

1435
01:27:34.640 --> 01:27:38.680
it's just not true. The prosecutors in this case were

1436
01:27:38.720 --> 01:27:42.439
also horrified, not only at this callous murder that had

1437
01:27:42.479 --> 01:27:45.800
just been confessed to, but the fact that they had

1438
01:27:45.840 --> 01:27:51.880
almost prosecuted an innocent man. Being a shitty husband does

1439
01:27:51.960 --> 01:27:55.920
not make you a murderer, even when everyone on the

1440
01:27:56.000 --> 01:28:01.239
planet believes it. So the finding at that point may

1441
01:28:01.239 --> 01:28:04.159
have hurt the pride of the prosecutor's office, but more importantly,

1442
01:28:04.640 --> 01:28:09.680
the facts and the truth mattered. Pride and ego can

1443
01:28:09.800 --> 01:28:14.600
never take precedence over truth, especially in a system of justice,

1444
01:28:14.640 --> 01:28:17.840
and as such, recognizing the significance and the weight of

1445
01:28:17.880 --> 01:28:21.359
this situation, the prosecutor's office decided to hold a press

1446
01:28:21.399 --> 01:28:25.720
conference on January thirteenth, twenty twenty, publicly dismissing the case

1447
01:28:25.720 --> 01:28:28.520
against Carl Harris and formally charging.

1448
01:28:28.279 --> 01:28:30.159
Jeff Beasley with murder.

1449
01:28:31.359 --> 01:28:34.960
Jeff would ultimately plead guilty and would be sentenced to

1450
01:28:35.079 --> 01:28:39.920
thirty years in prison for murdering Tracy Harris. And this

1451
01:28:40.640 --> 01:28:43.720
is one of those cases where I just don't find

1452
01:28:43.760 --> 01:28:48.319
that there were any heroes. An ex husband who was

1453
01:28:48.600 --> 01:28:52.880
less than kind to his now dead wife, a husband

1454
01:28:52.880 --> 01:28:56.199
wife duo, and so called friends that were given a

1455
01:28:56.319 --> 01:28:58.560
roof over their heads when they were down on their luck,

1456
01:28:58.640 --> 01:29:03.079
yet repaid true by murdering her and then staying quiet

1457
01:29:03.119 --> 01:29:09.039
about it thirty years. They acted like they didn't know

1458
01:29:09.199 --> 01:29:14.359
what happened. They stood in the same rooms as others

1459
01:29:14.760 --> 01:29:18.960
and wore the mask of disbelief at Tracy's death, all

1460
01:29:19.640 --> 01:29:24.720
the while carrying the truth quietly. But they weren't strangers,

1461
01:29:25.159 --> 01:29:29.199
they weren't monsters hiding in the dark. They were right

1462
01:29:29.239 --> 01:29:33.399
there in broad daylight and Tracy, had she been alive,

1463
01:29:33.720 --> 01:29:40.000
would have called them her friends. A child cried herself

1464
01:29:40.039 --> 01:29:45.079
to sleep for months, and an ex husband took all

1465
01:29:45.399 --> 01:29:49.720
the heat for thirty years while they both just sat

1466
01:29:49.960 --> 01:29:56.039
quietly and moved on from it. And I'm gonna say this,

1467
01:29:56.159 --> 01:29:59.800
while Dawn didn't kill Tracy, let's talk about a different

1468
01:30:00.520 --> 01:30:04.399
of betrayal, the quieter one, the one that may not

1469
01:30:04.439 --> 01:30:08.760
have physically murdered her, but still chose it every single

1470
01:30:09.000 --> 01:30:09.920
day after.

1471
01:30:11.199 --> 01:30:14.239
Because knowing and not saying.

1472
01:30:13.880 --> 01:30:18.840
Something that's not about love and that's not about fear,

1473
01:30:19.439 --> 01:30:22.600
that was selfishness dressed up as devotion.

1474
01:30:23.960 --> 01:30:25.520
You cannot convince me otherwise.

1475
01:30:26.359 --> 01:30:29.479
I'm glad that Tracy's murder was solved, and I am

1476
01:30:29.560 --> 01:30:32.760
thankful that Dawn did speak up. But while some think

1477
01:30:32.800 --> 01:30:35.600
it admirable that she spoke up, I'm not so sure.

1478
01:30:35.600 --> 01:30:39.640
I'm jumping on that admiration train just yet. She only

1479
01:30:39.760 --> 01:30:42.720
spoke up when her hand was forced.

1480
01:30:43.439 --> 01:30:44.399
She said it herself.

1481
01:30:45.600 --> 01:30:49.079
The decision to wake up every morning and say nothing

1482
01:30:49.479 --> 01:30:53.880
solidifies the fact that her comfort mattered more than Tracy's

1483
01:30:53.920 --> 01:30:59.319
life ever did. It wasn't blindness, It was a choice,

1484
01:31:00.359 --> 01:31:06.239
and that choice was repeated for thirty years. If I

1485
01:31:06.239 --> 01:31:09.119
could go back in time and I could warn Tracy,

1486
01:31:09.399 --> 01:31:14.199
I would, but not about Carl. He gave her Carolyn

1487
01:31:14.920 --> 01:31:19.760
the greatest gift she ever received before her untimely murder.

1488
01:31:20.840 --> 01:31:24.239
I would warn her about the Beasleys, because if this

1489
01:31:24.479 --> 01:31:27.800
is what friendship looks like, then let's be real. Who

1490
01:31:27.800 --> 01:31:28.920
the hell needs enemies