Oct. 27, 2025

Fatal Fortune: Byrd & Melanie Billings

Fatal Fortune: Byrd & Melanie Billings
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Season 1

On July 9, 2009, Byrd and Melanie Billings were brutally murdered on their sprawling property in Escambia County near Pensacola, Florida. The ensuing investigation revealed a plot to steal an estimated 13 million dollars in cash in a safe in the Billings home.
Multiple suspects, driven by greed in a plot for a fortune were subsequently caught and would set off a quest for answers that would captivate the entire nation.

Timestamps
13:19 The Home Invasion
16:00 The Investigation Begins
17:33 Turmoil
18:46 The Red Van Connection
20:17 The Suspects Emerge
37:54 The Shocking Discovery
39:08 Justice Is Served

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WEBVTT

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of

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the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and today

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I am bringing you a brand new episode in the

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Fatal Fortune series. Now we're going to be going to

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Escambia County, Florida for this one. And a little bit

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about Escambia County, it is very well known if you're

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from my neck of the woods in South Louisiana, really

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anywhere on the Gulf Coast. It is home to Pensacola Beach, Florida,

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which is a vacation destination for nearly three million travelers

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per year. Escambia County is so popular in the South

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in fact, as a travel destination that it's known as

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the Redneck Riviera. Now, although the Escambia County area is

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known for its beautiful beaches, it's not without its share

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of high profile cases. The Blue Moon murders occurred in

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the Pensacola Beach area. Ted Bundy was captured in Escambia County,

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so it's definitely had its share of high profile cases. Now,

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the area where this particular crime took place was in

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an area of Pensacola known as Bulah, which would be

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considered kind of a rural area of Pensacola, a very

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affluent area as well. They had almost no crime in

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this area of Pensacola, just a very quiet and nice place.

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So you can imagine the shock when police entered the

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home of Bird and Melanie Billings. This was on July

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ninth of two thousand and nine, and they find this

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couple shot to death. So who did it, why did

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they do it, and what happened. That's exactly the questions

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that I'm going to answer for you today. And to

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do that, I need to give you a little history

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on this now murdered couple, and it really is the

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tale of several different lives. I'm going to start with

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Bird Billings. And bird Billings actually went by the nickname Bud,

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and Bud was sixty six years old at the time

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of his murder, and he was wealthy. Bud was known

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as a guy who just kind of always found his

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way to success. He was born and raised in Mississippi,

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and in nineteen seventy six he actually started a boat

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company in the state of Mississippi. In the eighties, he

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was a successful used car dealer there and eventually he

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made his way to Florida. Now, during all this time,

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he had a couple of marriages and divorces. He even

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owned a couple of strip clubs believe it or not

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in the nineties in Florida. But his third triumph marriage

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was the charm for him. He married Melanie Billings, who

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was twenty three years his junior. She was forty three

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years old at the time of her murder. So eventually

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Bud leaves the strip club business behind him and he

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opens up several used car dealerships with in house financing,

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and he becomes very, very wealthy in the area. Now

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he and his wife live on what some considered the

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premier property in the area. It was thirteen acres, huge,

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multi story home. Life was great for these people. Now.

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Melanie Billings, she by all accounts, was just an amazing

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human being, and her passion and purpose in life was

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adopting children, and Bud he shared in that passion, and

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together they adopted thirteen children. But to tell you how

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awesome these people were, they specifically sought out special needs

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children because they knew these children would maybe find a

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little tougher road to finding a family to adopt them.

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And they were just obviously very patient people and very

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special people to do that. Thirteen children at the time

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of their death. That's how amazing this couple was. So

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on July ninth of two thousand and nine, it was

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one of those children that called police and reported that

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Melanie and Bird Billings have been shot. So police and

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detectives they show up on the scene this massive property,

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this home that is secluded in many ways from the

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main road, and they enter that home and the first

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thing that they note is both the side door, the

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front door, and the back door had been forced open

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kicked in presumably. So as soon as they step into

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the living room, they start seeing a lot of blood

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and they know something ain't right. They follow that blood

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trail and they fine Bird Bud Billings face down in

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the bedroom. His hands they are zip tied, and they

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notice a single gunshot wound in his head area, and

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they also noticed two gunshot wounds in his leg areas. Now,

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Melanie Billings, she is found in a hallway facing toward

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a bathroom. She's found face up and she has multiple

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gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Both Melanie and

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Bud were dead when police arrived. So at this point,

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not only do you have an active crime scene in

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which two people are dead, but you also have thirteen

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children in this residence with special needs that you now

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have to deal with and speak with. Police found children

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hiding under beds, they found children hiding in closet, you

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name it. And police they got to secure this crime scene.

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They got to make sure the bad guys are going,

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They've got to interview these poor children. Just a really

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difficult crime scene right off the bat to work. Now,

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think about this. These children were in the house when

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all of this went down, and it's important to mention that, thankfully,

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by the grace of God, none of these children were

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physically hurt. Definitely some mental squares there that I am

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absolutely sure lasted throughout their lives, but physically, thank god,

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none of them were shot. So police start investigating and

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they learned this is a very prominent couple in the area,

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a very wealthy couple. There was an enormous police presence

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on the scene as soon as this gut called out.

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As I told you, this is not a normal thing

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in that area of Escambia County. Detectives start looking for

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evidence of what happened, and they find two nine millimeters

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shellcasings in the living room area and ten spent shellcasings

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in the bedroom and in the bedroom hallway. This particular

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house was so large even the master bedroom had a hallway.

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So they start recovering these projectiles from these bullets, and y'all,

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a projectile is the part of the bullet that pierces

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the body and causes the damage. They photograph every square

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inch of this massive house. And as I said earlier,

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there were three points of entry and those doors were

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kicked in to gain entry to the home. And so

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that was a big clue to police because now they

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knew there were definitely multiple assailants. They start interviewing the children,

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and one child in particular shocked detectives when she told them, hey,

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I saw the assailants pull up to the house. So

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she lived on the second story, that's where her bedroom was,

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and she told police that a red van pulled up

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all the way to the front door and several people

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got out. Police also noticed near the body of Melanie

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Billings there was a small linen closet, and they look

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inside of this small linen closet and they noticed there

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are four indentions in the carpet. Now, to leave these indentions.

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Police knew right off the bat something relatively heavy must

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have been sitting on top of that carpet. So common

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sense here would tell you it's likely a safe, and

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the indentions they were spaced to part enough to dictate

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the safe was likely the size of like a microwave oven,

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so heavy but not so heavy that someone could not

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pick it up and carry it out. Now, when this

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stuff happens, the investigation starts, and one of the first things,

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if not the first thing that detectives are going to do,

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is they're going to dig into the background of the deceased,

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and they do this for obvious reasons. This is how

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they start removing suspects. Everyone, and I mean everyone in

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a murder case outside of the detective is a suspect. Initially,

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in any case, you start with the closest person to

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the victim and you work your way out of that

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inner circle and you weed out suspects as you go along.

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So through that process, detectives discover that Bud Billings had

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a daughter from a previous marriage, and her name was

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Ashley Markham. He also had a son. Now, both of

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these biological children were adults, and they did not live

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with the Billings family. Detectives also discovered the Billings were

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in d need legit millionaires, which strengthened that robbery motive.

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That as soon as you pulled up on this scene

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and you saw this house, you know, that was the

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first suspicion you would have as somebody robbed these people.

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Now police knew they had their work cut out for them.

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Bud Billings owned a used car dealership several actually in Pensacola,

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and when you own car dealerships, you come into contact

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with hundreds of potential suspects every month, and that's a

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lot of folks to interview. Think about the amount of

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people that Bud Billings would just talk to and come across.

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Police got to interview all these people because one of

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those might be the perpetrator, or several of those might

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be the perpetrators. Then they discovered what I consider the

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entire key to this case when upon securing the home,

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they stumble across the Holy Grail into work surveillance cameras

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in a surveillance system, so detectives remove the hard drive

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out of that system. This is a little bit before

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we had clouds and people were using you know, Google Cloud,

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and things of that nature to upload surveillance stuff. They

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still used hard drives back in those days, so they

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removed that hard drive. They bring it to the police

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headquarters and what they see is absolutely shocking. They see

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several people exit the van and go to the front door,

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and they see several people go to the side and

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rear doors of that home, and simultaneously, these people kick

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in the doors and they make entry inside of that home. Now,

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inside of the home, there were also cameras in the

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living room area and you can see these guys approach

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mister Billing and there's some quick dialogue that has exchanged

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between mister Billings and these people. But unfortunately these cameras

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were not equipped for sound. It was only video. But

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you can tell from the mannerisms that this isn't a

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pleasant conversation. They're not saying, hey man, we came over

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here to watch the ball game. You can see this

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is a very serious situation. Now, you also see the

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perpetrators in this video in what they are wearing, and

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they're dressed in all black and what can be described

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as ninja costumes. So there's a short dialogue and then

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you see mister Billings get shot in the leg. You

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see them arguing some more. Mister Billings is getting thrown around.

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Then you see them getting shot again in the leg.

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And then the next thing that you see is everyone

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disap peer into that master bedroom area of the home. Now,

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the unfortunate thing is there was no cameras in that

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master bedroom.

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In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper

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secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias,

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a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Derek todd Lee was

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a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was

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a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile,

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led a double life that would unravel in a series

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of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and

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the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and

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murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare,

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igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was

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just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer. Eventually,

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by just three letters, would reveal not only the depths

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of Derek Toddley's depravity, but also the resilience of those

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most affected by his evil acts, the families and the survivors.

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This is DTL.

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DTL can be found by Searching Unspeakable, a true crime

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podcast by Kelly Jennings wherever you listen to podcasts, Episode

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one dropping November three. But the good thing in this

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case is now they had some surveillance video and they

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had the getaway vehicle or the vehicle that they used

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to get there and get away on that surveillance video,

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and they did something you don't see often when these cases,

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when these Martyer cases first occur, but it's extremely smart

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in this case. And what they did was they contacted

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the media and they released a picture of this van

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to the media, and the media at that point they

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took that and they just blasted it everywhere. Facebook wasn't

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what it is today, but they still posted it there.

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They posted it on the local news anywhere they could

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post it. Ay, be on the lookout for this red van. Now,

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in many cases, detectives don't do that because they want

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some time to hunt for these folks before the perpetrators

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know the police are on their trail. If they're still

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in possession of that van, the police don't want to

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put it out there, and then the perpetrators get rid

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of the van and they could have caught them in

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the van. So it was really tricky on whether or

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not it was a smart thing to release this, but

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00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.360
in this case, as you will discover in a little while,

227
00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:54.039
it was the right call. Now, another thing that police

228
00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:59.240
discovered through access to the surveillance video was that from

229
00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:03.639
start to finish this double murder, from the time that

230
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:08.240
the assailants appeared on the property until when they left

231
00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:13.720
the property was only four minutes. It was really fast,

232
00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:17.600
and that told police one thing. This was very well

233
00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:21.759
planned out. This wasn't a bunch of guys driving down

234
00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.840
the road just looking for somebody to rob. So police

235
00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:28.679
go to daughter Ashley, who was a much older adult,

236
00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:32.080
and they asked her if she had any idea of

237
00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.480
who would want to do this, who would want to

238
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:38.519
hurt your parents, and she said she can't imagine anyone

239
00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:42.159
wanting to harm her parents. But she did mention that

240
00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:46.679
older adoptive brother, Justin, who had kind of a rocky

241
00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:51.279
relationship with Bud Billings, his adoptive father, and it was

242
00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.440
related to just the butting of heads that you have

243
00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:59.679
when you're growing up with your parents, and everything they

244
00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:02.879
say is wrong and everything you say is right. And

245
00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:06.119
when they asked Justin about all this, he admitted to

246
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:11.079
the rocky relationship. But it's one thing to not get

247
00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:15.039
along with your dad at nineteen twenty years old. It's

248
00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:19.319
quite another thing to kill your dad. And when they

249
00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.720
checked Justin's alibi that he provided, it checked out and

250
00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:28.559
he was crossed off the list. So they then asked

251
00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.119
Justin the same thing. They asked his sister, who do

252
00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:35.400
you think would have done this? And Justin mentions a

253
00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:40.759
huge falling out that his dad had somewhat recently with

254
00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:44.400
a former business partner at one of his car dealerships.

255
00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:49.200
That really got nasty, in Justin's words. So they start

256
00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:52.799
trying to locate this business partner, which they do in

257
00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.319
very short order. Y'all, this where we're at right now.

258
00:17:56.359 --> 00:17:59.240
In this case, this is over like a twelve hour

259
00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:03.240
time period. These police are moving fast, but they do

260
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:07.440
locate that business partner. He's in a neighboring county and

261
00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:10.160
he owns a car dealership in that county, And you

262
00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:13.839
can't make this shit up. They drive over there, they

263
00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:19.000
pull into the car dealership and this guy is outside

264
00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:23.200
and guess what he's doing. He is cleaning up a

265
00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:29.400
red van. However, as coincidental as that was, and even

266
00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:34.440
though the guy was upfront with his disdain of Bud Billings,

267
00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:38.359
he was checked off the list pretty quickly and he

268
00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:41.680
really had nothing to do with the killings, nor did

269
00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:44.839
the van he was working on. That was just, believe

270
00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:48.039
it or not, sheer coincidence. But as I told you

271
00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:51.240
just a few minutes ago, remember they had released a

272
00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:55.160
picture of that red van as soon as they got it,

273
00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:58.880
and it was in short order, almost immediately after that

274
00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:03.640
picture was relayed on the local news that crime stoppers,

275
00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:07.759
they get a tip that the same red van is

276
00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:12.799
part behind a house really close to the crime scene.

277
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:15.559
The guy that called in the tip said the van

278
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.200
used to be his van, but he had sold it

279
00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:23.920
to a guy by the name of Patrick Gonzalez Junior,

280
00:19:24.359 --> 00:19:27.640
and that it was sitting at his dad's house, who

281
00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:32.640
was Patrick Gonzalez Senior. This guy even had the address

282
00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:37.559
to where this van was located, so detectives head that way,

283
00:19:38.119 --> 00:19:42.000
but before they do, they run the background on the

284
00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:47.680
homeowner and they discover that Gonzalez Senior he has a

285
00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:53.640
criminal record that is a mile long, nothing major, but

286
00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:59.359
just a lot, just really a treasure drove of petty crimes.

287
00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:02.599
So detectives go over there. They want to put their

288
00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:05.599
eyes on this red van and they pull up at

289
00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:08.920
the scene. It's a mobile home and they don't see

290
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:12.759
a red van at all, but there is a shed

291
00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:16.440
that's behind the house, and that shed is large enough

292
00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:19.599
to park a van in, and just on the edge

293
00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:22.839
of the opening to that shed, you can see what

294
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:26.680
appeared to police to be the very edge of the

295
00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:31.720
rear of a red van peeking out of that shed.

296
00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:35.759
Imagine those two doors that you have with these old

297
00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.640
dingy vans. You can see those just peeking out, just barely.

298
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.640
But police have a problem. They don't have a warrant,

299
00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:46.960
and they're trying to figure out how they are going

300
00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:52.319
to get back there legally. And about that time, a

301
00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:58.839
car pulls up and Leonard Gonzales Senior, his wife gets

302
00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:05.000
out Patrick Gonzale Leonard was his first name. So his

303
00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:08.799
wife gets out of that car and detectives they're like,

304
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:12.039
how can we get back there? And one detective says,

305
00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:16.079
why don't we just ask her? He walks up to

306
00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:19.599
her and he says, hey, is that a van parked

307
00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:24.480
back there? And the wife says yes, And detectives ask

308
00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:26.640
if they can go back there and take a look,

309
00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:28.880
and she's like, sure, I don't care, you can go

310
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.079
back there and look. So that's just what they do.

311
00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.319
They go back there, and as soon as they start

312
00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:39.480
walking back there, two men walk out of the house,

313
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:45.359
Gonzalez and another guy, and his name was Wayne Cauldron.

314
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:50.680
Now Wayne sees these detectives and he just takes off

315
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.640
running as soon as he sees them, so police grab

316
00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:58.279
him pretty quick, and police would discover later that Wayne

317
00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:03.400
and Ganzale they were neighbors and that Wayne was from Tennessee,

318
00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:06.720
but he had moved to the Panhandle of Florida after

319
00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:11.400
doing time in prison in Tennessee. So not a good

320
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:15.160
guy by any means. So they grab him. They grabbed

321
00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.920
Gonzales Senior. They bring him back there to where that

322
00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:21.240
van is. Gonzales Senor is saying, hey, you ain't got

323
00:22:21.240 --> 00:22:23.279
all right to love back here, and they say, uh,

324
00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:25.880
your wife told us we could go back here. We

325
00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:28.279
have permission, we don't need a warr So as they

326
00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:32.160
go back there, they discover not only does this look

327
00:22:32.319 --> 00:22:36.000
like the red van in that surveillance video, but there

328
00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:39.440
was a lot of areas sanded off and there were

329
00:22:39.559 --> 00:22:44.000
spray paint near that van, and that indicated to police

330
00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:49.640
that someone was attempting to change the appearance of that van,

331
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.720
and they were in the middle of that when police

332
00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:56.079
showed up, so they hauled the van down to the

333
00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:00.519
police headquarters to have that analyzed and scrubbed that van

334
00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:05.640
for DNA, etc. And here's where a detective does some

335
00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:10.960
really amazing bit of detective work. So he's going to

336
00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:15.200
leave the shed where that van was parked, and he

337
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:19.519
notices on a shelf a box of work boots and

338
00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:23.799
the box appeared to be brand new, and y'all, this

339
00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.519
inside of this shed, it was very dingy picture, just

340
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:33.359
a ugly, nasty inside of a shed where everything's old

341
00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.039
and dirty and it's got a ton of dust on it.

342
00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:39.000
And this shoe box stood out to him because it

343
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:43.559
looked brand new, number one, It had no dust on it,

344
00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:46.799
and it had a little picture on the side of it.

345
00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:49.799
And the little picture on the side of that box

346
00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:54.359
was of boots that appeared to be combat boots. They

347
00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:58.039
were black, and it just reminded him of what he

348
00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:02.400
saw in the video. Now, they didn't have a search

349
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:06.440
warrant to take anything off the property except that van.

350
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:11.359
But he notices that box and he's going to head out,

351
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:15.920
and he says, is anything in that box? And Gonzales

352
00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:20.119
Senior's wife says no, And he said, well, I'm leaving

353
00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:23.200
right now and be passing a garbage can, so if

354
00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:25.359
you want me to, I can throw that away for you.

355
00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:28.519
And she says, sure, you throw it away if you

356
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:32.440
want to. So he grabs it and he walks out

357
00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:35.680
of that shed, but rather than throwing it in the

358
00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:40.559
garbage he throws it in the back of his police car.

359
00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.240
Gonzales Senior and Wayne Cauldron. They are then hauled to

360
00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:50.480
the police station for questioning, and they also ask Gonzales

361
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:53.680
Senior's wife if she would go down to the station

362
00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:58.960
and talk to them, And under questioning of Gonzales Senior's wife,

363
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:02.960
she admitted yet that she had overheard her husband and

364
00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:08.640
Wayne Cauldron talking about a scheme to rob somebody. She said,

365
00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:11.759
I never heard a name mentioned. I never heard anything

366
00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:16.119
about them killing anybody, but I did hear something from

367
00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:18.480
them when they were talking, and I could tell they

368
00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:21.079
were trying to keep this kind of a secret because

369
00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:24.039
they were being quiet about it. But I do know

370
00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:27.519
that it had something to do with robbing someone. So

371
00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:34.359
armed with that information, police question Gonzalez Senior and Cauldron

372
00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:37.440
and they start putting the pressure on them and they say, hey,

373
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.400
They tell Gonzales Senor, your wife has already told us

374
00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:44.799
she heard you kind of hashing out a plan to

375
00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:49.559
rob somebody. Gonzale Senor. He starts singing like a canary,

376
00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:55.640
and he mentioned that his son, Leonard Gonzalez Junior, is

377
00:25:55.799 --> 00:26:00.559
also involved. And he said that his son had business

378
00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:04.319
dealings with mister Billings in the past, and that's how

379
00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:08.960
they knew mister Billings. They have another name, and they

380
00:26:09.160 --> 00:26:13.599
go pick up Gonzalez Junior. He comes to the station

381
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:17.680
and in the meantime they do a lot of looking

382
00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:21.240
in his background. Now, Gonzalez Junior, he seemed to be

383
00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:25.319
totally opposite of his dad. He was a business owner.

384
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:30.039
He was much more professional looking, if you will, than

385
00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:33.319
his dad. He was a karate instructor. You own the

386
00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:36.640
karate business. He had even been on the local news

387
00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:41.799
several times and police would discover that mister Billings. At

388
00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:47.440
one point he even donated five thousand dollars to Gonzales

389
00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:52.839
Junior's karate school for some sort of project they were doing. Now,

390
00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:56.559
they would also find out that Gonzalez Junior went to

391
00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:00.359
mister Billings a second time over the years to get

392
00:27:00.440 --> 00:27:04.119
money for some other business that he needed donated to,

393
00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:07.079
and mister Billings told him no, he didn't want to

394
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:11.240
get involved in that just wasn't his deal. Now, eventually

395
00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:16.799
his karate studio started struggling and he would start losing money.

396
00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:20.480
Police would find this out after, but gives you a

397
00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:24.720
pretty good motive to want to rob somebody, right. As

398
00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:28.160
a matter of fact, his karate studio was struggling so

399
00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:32.559
bad he ended up having his car repossessed, and his

400
00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:38.880
mother bought him that red van that was used in

401
00:27:39.079 --> 00:27:42.400
these killings. She bought that van for him so he

402
00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:45.440
would have something to ride around him because this car

403
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.880
had been repossessed. So police present all this to Gonzales Junior,

404
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.279
and of course he denies everything under questioning, and when

405
00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:57.480
they tell him, hey, it was your dad that told

406
00:27:57.559 --> 00:28:00.119
us all this stuff and your mom, he said, but

407
00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:04.359
his dad is crazy, he's a liar, he's not to

408
00:28:04.440 --> 00:28:08.720
be believed. He's a petty thief and you're gonna believe

409
00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:12.759
me a business owner who's got my shit together over

410
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.440
my dad, et cetera. But police, they knew that it

411
00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:19.319
was only a matter of time before they could crack him.

412
00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.240
And in the meantime, they start looking at that shoe

413
00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:26.920
box and looking into where that was purchased, and they

414
00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:31.839
discover that this particular brand of shoes they were bought

415
00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:36.480
at a Walmart. So they go to the Walmart and

416
00:28:36.519 --> 00:28:39.680
they go to the Lost Control people at that Walmart

417
00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:43.480
and they say, hey, we need you to pull surveillance

418
00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:47.519
videos from inside the store. And they knew what time

419
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:50.799
that these guys were in the store because they managed

420
00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:54.640
to get a hold to the receipt for those shoes,

421
00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:59.000
and so Lost Control brings them in the back. They

422
00:28:59.240 --> 00:29:03.319
view the video and they see Gonzalis Junior as well

423
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:07.720
as three or four other individuals. They all go into

424
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.880
that particular Walmart and they all buy the same type

425
00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:18.960
of combat style boots together. They see them all leave

426
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:26.079
on that surveillance video in a gold suv. So they

427
00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:29.799
do what they did with the red van, and they

428
00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:35.640
release a picture of that gold suv to the media,

429
00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:39.160
and again another Bolo be on the lookout for this

430
00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:42.000
gold SUV. If you know who owns it, give us

431
00:29:42.039 --> 00:29:49.079
a call, and sure enough, almost immediately they start getting tips.

432
00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:52.960
But they had something even better than tips. At this point,

433
00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:57.480
they had a couple of suspects actually turned themselves in

434
00:29:57.799 --> 00:30:03.720
that owned that gold su Just the pressure right of

435
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:06.720
this being all over the news, this was a big deal.

436
00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:12.559
Now at this point, there are two factions of people

437
00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:17.559
involved in this. Detectives would discover. First you have what

438
00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:22.119
I'm gonna turn the Pensacola group, which was Wayne Cauldron,

439
00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:28.039
Gonzalez Senior, and Gonzales Junior. And then you have what

440
00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:32.839
we're gonna call the Fort Walton Beach, Florida group, and

441
00:30:32.920 --> 00:30:40.519
it consisted of Rakeem Florence, Frederick Thornton, who actually those

442
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:43.960
are the guys that called and turned themselves into police,

443
00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:46.079
and a couple of other people that I'm gonna get

444
00:30:46.359 --> 00:30:52.240
into in a minute. But Rakeem Florence and Frederick Thornton,

445
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:57.279
they actually had quite a story to tell. Now, according

446
00:30:57.319 --> 00:31:00.599
to these guys, they were with the guys that broke

447
00:31:00.640 --> 00:31:05.519
into the Billings home and committed these murders. But according

448
00:31:05.559 --> 00:31:08.200
to these guys, they stayed in the van. They were

449
00:31:08.279 --> 00:31:12.079
sleeping the whole time that all this went down, which

450
00:31:12.519 --> 00:31:16.400
come on, police knew that was bullshit. They didn't realize

451
00:31:16.440 --> 00:31:19.519
police had all this surveillance video at that point, and

452
00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:22.200
police let them know that, hey, we've got you on

453
00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:25.680
video actually going in the house. Now. When police dug

454
00:31:25.799 --> 00:31:30.599
into these two individuals were Keen Florence and Frederick Thornton,

455
00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:34.319
they found out they were young. These were just sixteen

456
00:31:34.359 --> 00:31:38.039
and seventeen year old kids by the time of this crime.

457
00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:41.680
But they were already little hulums. They already had their

458
00:31:41.720 --> 00:31:47.160
little scratches with police. If you will, so the ruling

459
00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:50.079
police work. If you're wanting to cut a deal with

460
00:31:50.200 --> 00:31:54.680
the police's squeaky wheel gets the best deal, right. And

461
00:31:54.799 --> 00:32:00.480
these kids they started talking quickly, and police let them know, hey,

462
00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:03.440
we got you all on camera going into the home.

463
00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:06.960
We can charge you with first degree murders just like

464
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:09.960
everybody else. It's up to you if you want to

465
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:12.680
work with us and let us know everybody that was

466
00:32:12.759 --> 00:32:16.359
involved in how all this went down, we're willing to lessen.

467
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:20.880
So these kids talk and they mentioned another guy by

468
00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:24.519
the name of Gary Sumner. Gary Sumner was forty years old.

469
00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:28.440
He owned a body shop in Fort Walton Beach, and

470
00:32:28.519 --> 00:32:34.160
they also mentioned another guy by the name of Donnie Stalwarth,

471
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:38.880
which his involvement kind of shocked everyone because he appeared

472
00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:42.519
to be a pretty stand up guy. He was stationed

473
00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:46.400
at England Air Force Base, which I've actually stayed on

474
00:32:46.640 --> 00:32:49.799
England Air Force Base before. That's a whole nother story,

475
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:52.000
so I want to get into it. But he was

476
00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:55.480
active in the Air Force and not the type of

477
00:32:55.599 --> 00:33:01.000
guy you would think was wrapped up in all of this.

478
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:04.440
This guy had a family, he was much older, he

479
00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:09.160
lived on the base, he was active military. Who would

480
00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:12.319
think that he would be involved in this. But as

481
00:33:12.359 --> 00:33:15.759
I said, these teens they started talking and they spilled

482
00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:20.480
the beans. And here's what they say that actually happened.

483
00:33:20.759 --> 00:33:25.119
They said through other people they met Gonzales Junior and

484
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:29.200
at some point he basically tells them, Hey, I know

485
00:33:29.319 --> 00:33:33.880
this guy. His name is Bud Billings. He's a real asshole.

486
00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:38.359
He abuses his adopted kids, and he's a drug dealer.

487
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:42.920
Just painting Bud Billings as this real piece of shit

488
00:33:43.559 --> 00:33:47.359
that nobody would care if this guy got robbed. And

489
00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:51.359
he goes on to tell these kids that Bud Billings

490
00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:56.160
had thirteen million dollars in cash in a safe at

491
00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:01.359
his house, and these kids by this this entire story

492
00:34:01.759 --> 00:34:06.279
hook line and sinker, and he also tells these kids,

493
00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:10.440
Gonzalees Junior, hey, we're gonna need other people to help

494
00:34:10.519 --> 00:34:14.119
us in this. This needs to be highly coordinated. So

495
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:17.639
these kids recruit the rest of the Fort Walton crew,

496
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:24.079
Stalworth and Florence, and Junior recruits his dad, Gonzalez Senior

497
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:29.719
and Wayne Cauldron. Now, according to the teens, this was

498
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:34.599
never a plan to shoot anyone. The plan was just

499
00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:38.840
to rob the Billings. But according to the teens, as

500
00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:43.000
soon as Gonzalez Junior goes in the house, he shoots

501
00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:46.760
mister Billings in the leg. And hey, they're telling the truth.

502
00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:50.000
It's all on surveillance video. They said. At that time,

503
00:34:50.119 --> 00:34:55.039
all hell broke loose. Gonzales Junior eventually ends up killing

504
00:34:55.079 --> 00:34:59.920
both Bud and Melanie Billings. They steal that small floor, say,

505
00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:02.639
and they are in and out of that house in

506
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:07.199
four minutes. And everything that these teens said matched up

507
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:14.400
to the surveillance video. So everyone gets arrested that were

508
00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:18.119
mentioned by these two teens, And they also find out

509
00:35:18.280 --> 00:35:22.880
during this questioning that the safe could not be opened.

510
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:24.920
They couldn't figure out how to open that safe that

511
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:28.519
they had taken out of that lenen closet, and the

512
00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:32.840
heat was on. So the police are saying, well, where

513
00:35:32.920 --> 00:35:36.599
is the safe and where is the murder weapon? And

514
00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:40.559
they find out from these teens that the murder weapon

515
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:43.599
and the safe were dropped off with a lady who

516
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:47.280
owned a flea market and she was also the landlord

517
00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:52.360
for Gonzales Junior. And her name was Pamela Wiggins. She

518
00:35:52.519 --> 00:35:56.880
was also a real estate agent. Again, a person you

519
00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:00.840
wouldn't think would be involved in something like this. On

520
00:36:00.880 --> 00:36:04.599
the outside, it appeared this lady had the perfect life.

521
00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:08.679
She had it going on. She owned a lot of property, etc.

522
00:36:09.199 --> 00:36:12.719
And she's involved in a double murder. And in this case,

523
00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:17.960
she had rental property that Gonzalez Junior he rented from her.

524
00:36:18.679 --> 00:36:22.079
He was living in one of her rental properties. So

525
00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:25.639
they track her down. They end up arresting her as

526
00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:29.960
she's getting off of a boat in Orange Beach, Florida.

527
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:34.039
She was partying. They come in from partying and whoop,

528
00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:40.119
they're the police. So was her affiliation where police eventually

529
00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:44.559
figured out where all this stuff was. The murder weapon

530
00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:48.760
was the first thing they recovered, and they actually recovered

531
00:36:48.760 --> 00:36:53.199
that murder weapon. It was inside of a vehicle that

532
00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:58.079
was on a car dealership lot, and it was hidden

533
00:36:58.199 --> 00:37:01.440
pretty good. It was nine milimeter hand and it was

534
00:37:01.559 --> 00:37:07.519
actually somehow the seat covers were taken off of a

535
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:11.440
vehicle and it was shoved in between the foam and

536
00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:15.840
the springs, and then the seat cover was sewed back

537
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.679
on to this vehicle. But they did eventually find it.

538
00:37:19.800 --> 00:37:23.440
Someone obviously went through a lot of painstaking work to

539
00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:27.559
hide it. And they also learn where the safe is

540
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:32.159
and that safe was actually buried in the ground at

541
00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:37.559
one of the properties that Pamela Wiggins owned, So they

542
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:40.760
dig that up, and when they dig it up, they

543
00:37:40.840 --> 00:37:45.840
noticed the safe is still locked. So police they're able

544
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:51.519
to crack open that safe and guess how much of

545
00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:58.840
that thirteen million was in it? You're ready for this. Zero? None,

546
00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:05.880
just this personal paperwork, et cetera. So these two amazing

547
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:12.000
people were killed, and these perpetrators would have zero money

548
00:38:12.400 --> 00:38:15.559
to show for it. There was nothing in that safe.

549
00:38:15.559 --> 00:38:19.079
They were killed for absolutely nothing. Nothing. There was ever

550
00:38:19.119 --> 00:38:22.920
a reason to kill somebody. But there was another safe

551
00:38:23.079 --> 00:38:27.320
that the perpetrators overlooked. They didn't know about. It was

552
00:38:27.360 --> 00:38:30.440
actually a wall safe in the home of the Billings,

553
00:38:31.039 --> 00:38:34.800
and they did have a substantial amount of cash in

554
00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:38.360
that wall safe that those guys overlooked, but it was

555
00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:42.360
like four hundred thousand dollars something like that. Substantial, but

556
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:49.760
nowhere near the sixteen million dollars that Gonzales Junior had claimed.

557
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:54.119
So after all of that, what happens to these six

558
00:38:54.239 --> 00:39:01.559
guys in that female real estate agent. Well, Leonard Gonzales

559
00:39:01.639 --> 00:39:05.920
Junior he gets the death penalty and he's currently on

560
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:11.480
death row for that double murder. Donnie Stalworth he gets

561
00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:18.920
two life sentences. Wayne Cauldron gets two life sentences. Now

562
00:39:19.039 --> 00:39:23.840
Gonzales Senior he only got seventeen years in prison, but

563
00:39:24.679 --> 00:39:27.639
due to his age, that was pretty much a life

564
00:39:27.719 --> 00:39:32.400
sentence to him. He actually died in prison in twenty

565
00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:36.119
fifteen where King Florence he took a plea deal one

566
00:39:36.119 --> 00:39:39.440
of those teens and he ended up getting forty five years.

567
00:39:39.840 --> 00:39:44.039
Frederick Forton also took a plea deal. He ended up

568
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:50.599
getting forty years. Pamela Wiggins she got twenty eight years

569
00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:54.719
for accessory after the fact. However, again it was a

570
00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:58.639
life sentence for her because she died in prison in

571
00:39:58.679 --> 00:40:01.840
twenty fifteen, and she wasn't old. I mean she was

572
00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:06.960
in like her forties. Gary Sumner, who was what they

573
00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:11.239
called the back of the house getaway driver, he got

574
00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:15.119
twenty years in prison. He was the only one that

575
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:18.679
didn't actually enter the house. So what happened to all

576
00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:23.119
these kids that were in the house that horrific day

577
00:40:23.320 --> 00:40:28.440
when Bud and Melanie Billings were killed. Well, the biological

578
00:40:28.639 --> 00:40:32.320
daughter of Bud Billings that I told you about way

579
00:40:32.599 --> 00:40:35.960
back at the beginning at the start of this one,

580
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:44.159
Ashley Markham. She actually took custody of all thirteen of

581
00:40:44.199 --> 00:40:49.320
those adopted special needs children, which really spoke to me

582
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:52.920
about what kind of person she was. But there you

583
00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:57.840
have it, another edition Fatal Fortune, and I hope you

584
00:40:58.039 --> 00:41:03.519
enjoyed that one. Now quickly, during this episode, you heard

585
00:41:03.719 --> 00:41:06.760
a promotion for a new series coming out. It's a

586
00:41:06.920 --> 00:41:12.480
docuseriies told by Kelly Jennings and executive produced by yours truly.

587
00:41:12.679 --> 00:41:16.880
It's called DTL. I promise you it is unlike anything

588
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:23.119
you've ever heard. I actually affectionately call this a listening experience.

589
00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:28.199
Go follow Kelly Jennings podcast if you don't already do so.

590
00:41:28.800 --> 00:41:32.559
It's Unspeakable a true crime podcast by Kelly Jennings. I

591
00:41:32.599 --> 00:41:37.199
will link it in the description of this podcast. Just

592
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:43.400
an amazing storyteller. Honored to executive produce everything Kelly does.

593
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:50.039
And until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite,

594
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.840
I'm your host, Jim Chaban. Much love,