48 Hours - Eleven Hundred Miles to Murder

Episode Date: February 19, 2017

A Florida doctor brutally murdered See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Real people. Real crimes. Real life drama

when you first started on this case would you have ever imagined it would end up to where it is right now? No. When I got into work that day, we were getting word that this 46-year-old doctor was dead. This beloved woman in our community had been brutally killed inside her own house. And then once you started to unwrap it a little bit, it was nutty, it was weird, and it was hard to keep track of it all. This is Dr. Theresa Sievers, high profile doctor, did a lot of holistic medicine, and people said that she was just a little spitfire, just a short little thing, and always wearing

four inch heels, clocking around. I would describe her as radiant, almost. She had a column that appeared in my newspaper and she was on the front of local magazines. Ladies, remember when walking into a room meant turning heads? She was telegenic, energetic. She's funny. And who's this? Teresa and Mark at a gala. Mark and Teresa have been a couple since 2003 when they got married in a beachside ceremony

in St. Petersburg. She was sort of the breadwinner and he was the office manager at her practice and he helped raise the kids. They had a trip planned to New York to spend the whole weekend with her brothers and sisters and her mom, and Teresa would fly home that Sunday night to be at work Monday morning to open up her practice. So on Sunday night, she comes back here to the Southwest Florida International Airport. There's security footage of her rolling her suitcase through the terminal.

She calls Mark, tells him she's safe, and then gets in her car and heads back to their house. The next morning her office staff got in. It's now 9 o'clock, now it's 9.05, now it's 9.15. I said, where's doctor? I was texting back and forth trying to see if, you know, where are you at? And no response called, no answer. Mark's out of town. He says, I can't get a hold of her either. How unusual was it for Dr. Sievers not to show up?

Even if it was 9 o'clock and three seconds after, you would hear her heels coming in. 911, what is your emergency? I'm at a friend's house. Mark had a friend come and check up on her. He's out of town, and she's dead on the floor. And there's a hammer at the side, and she's bashed in the back of the head.

And do you know how many times she was hit? 17. I came home from work, and I looked up at the television, and my heart dropped, and I thought, this is my son's house and his wife, and their two children, who is dead. When you first heard Hal Teresa die, what did you think? Must be some madman out there.

Who was this? Where did they come from? Why would they do such a thing? I'm Erin Moriarty. Tonight on 48 Hours. 1,100 miles to murder. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly?

Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye?

Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just the best idea yet. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney,

I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C True Crime shows early and ad-free right now. I think anytime there is a beautiful, successful woman who is murdered, that's sort of what society pays attention to, for better or for worse.

The shocking murder of Dr. Teresa Seavers in Bonita Springs, Florida, was a huge story, especially for Jessica Lipscomb, who covered crime for the Naples Daily News. This mother of two who was killed brutally inside her home was horrifying to people. The doctor had cut short a family vacation in upstate New York and had flown home alone on Sunday night, June 28, 2015, so she could see patients the next morning. You kind of put yourself in her shoes, rolling your suitcase through the door, and then to be attacked by someone from behind, it's hard to imagine. Investigators believe that as soon as Dr. Seavers walked into her kitchen,

she was killed, struck repeatedly with a hammer. I remain astonished by why it had to be done with such savagery. Amy Bennett Williams wrote about the Seavers murder for the news press. It's passionate. It's premeditated it's it's it's cold and angry very angry it was just so unbelievable when connie reese heard the tragic news she contacted her stepbrother mark sie Severs, the doctor's husband. How did he react to the death of his wife? He couldn't speak. He's not the kind of guy that's been overly emotional on the outside,

but he couldn't speak. Connie and Mark became family when her mother married his father. I asked him what happened to Teresa. And what did he say? No idea. Mark met his future wife in 2003 when he was visiting St. Petersburg, Florida. Pretty much love at first sight. Well, I think by the time that he introduced her to Mom, I think he was pretty much done. He was off the market officially.

Yeah, really. He was working as a nurse while she was a recently divorced physician. Teresa hung the moon. She was a remarkable human being and very special, and that's the way Mark treated it from the beginning. You could hear it in his voice. They were married on the beach, surrounded by friends and family, including stepmother Jenny Weckelman. It was a sunset wedding, and she had a beautiful gown. It was very nice. Was he happy on that day?

Oh, my gosh. He was very happy. Six months later, their daughter Josephine was born. The Seavers built a large house in Bonita Springs, and in 2007 welcomed another daughter, Carmela. How did Mark feel about being a dad? It was everything to him. They were his reason for being, but he was also all about Teresa and her mission. We talk about our physical health, mental health. That mission was to open a holistic practice where she could heal patients by blending traditional and alternative medicine.

She also spread her message in speeches and videos. There's our spiritual and energetic health. We would have patients from all over the world. They would come to us after they failed everything else. Sandra Hoskins was Teresa Seaver's longtime medical assistant. She wouldn't take no for an answer. Talking about the doctor still makes Sandra emotional. And as a patient, she wouldn't allow you to say, ìI'm never going to get better.î While patients loved the doctor,

Sandra and her husband, Frank Pays, who also worked at the practice, admit it wasn't always easy working for Severs. She had a short fuse. I would hear doctors screaming and yelling in the back office. Dr. Severs would yell at the patients? She was there to help you get better. Didn't have what they call the bedside manner.

Would she yell at you? Yes. Yeah, a wrist is a problem. She expected perfection, and if it wasn't perfect, she would get upset. I need to maintain my mental sharpness. She was a big presence, and sometimes that meant that she got really feisty with people. She was the biggest figure in the room. While Teresa took care of her patients, Mark took care of their daughters. The girls were his pride and joy. And managed his wife's office.

I've also heard it described that he allowed her to have her life. He made her life happen. Very much so. Yes, because he was the support system and, you know, saw to the day-to-day details so that she could do what she wanted to do. But even Mark couldn't escape his wife's wrath. Mark, get back here right now. Get out. Mark, get out and leave Sandra alone. I'm like, oh, great.

And how often would Dr. Seavers yell at her husband? Was it a pretty frequent thing? Every time. Unfortunately, that was the norm. It's almost like he had, like, a thick skin. He just didn't care. It's the same thing that Teresa's close sister, Annie Lisa, told investigators, that Mark put up with his wife's anger because he adored her. She could finish ripping him out like, Mark, I told you about your f***ing times.

Don't let the dogs out. I'm sorry, honey. And then she would be doing something. He'd go, sweetie, let me get that for you. Mark, worship the ground. Teresa walked out. And according to Annie, her sister was equally devoted to Mark. Teresa always said, I'll never leave Mark.

I won't ever do that to my girls. Nevertheless, within days, Mark Seavers became a person of interest. Was that just because whenever someone is killed, the first person you look at is the spouse? I think that it's become a cliche. It has to be the husband. Did he cooperate initially? Oh, yes. I think he thought he was doing the right thing. initially? Oh, yes. I think he thought he was doing the right thing.

Mark spoke to investigators without a lawyer present and even handed over his cell phone and allowed them to download the contents. Was he worried he might be arrested? He thought, why would they? What kind of evidence could they possibly have? Because I didn't do anything. In fact, Mark Seavers had an airtight alibi. Remember, at the time of Teresa's murder, he and their two girls were with Teresa's family, 1,300 miles away.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in a Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there,

and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. We're going to talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that was still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Eight days after Dr. Teresa Seavers was murdered, friends and family came together for her funeral, including Mark's stepmother, Jenny Weckelman. There were a lot of people. Yes. And it was sad, of course.

Almost all her patients were there. I was numb. As we were going down to try to get to the casket, we were seeing her sisters on one side. And the look that we were getting wasn't a look of sadness. It was a look of hatred. Frank Pays and his wife Sandra say the look didn't just come from Dr. Seaver's sisters. They were getting the same look from the grieving widower.

I hugged him. What do you say? I said, Mark, I am so sorry. I don't have words to say to you. And he squeezed me so tight and nothing came out of his mouth. Then Sandra hugged him. And when Mark hugged Sandra, his teeth gritted. And it wasn't nothing of sorrow or sadness. The look was hatred. I stepped back. I said, holy crap.

And they weren't the only mourners who had an odd encounter with Dr. Seaver's spouse. Her ex-husband, her first husband, Kenny Cousins, was there and he went to hug Mark and bumped into a gun that Mark had strapped to his waist. And he thought that was a jarring note on that day that Mark came to the funeral with a gun under his jacket. Strange? Well, perhaps. But Dr. Teresa Seaver's killer hadn't yet been arrested, and according to stepsister Connie Reese, Mark was on edge. He was very much in protective mode. When you say protective mode, what do you mean?

Well, I think, you know, he always keeps an eye and an ear to the ground, so to speak, and is aware of his surroundings, and, you. And he was concerned for their safety. I think it was in the back of his mind that there might be some danger to his daughters because of what happened to their mother. It just didn't make any sense. Who would want the vibrant and dedicated Dr. Theresa Seavers dead?

And why kill her with such anger and force. Could have been anybody. I really thought maybe it was just somebody that was in the area and broke in or something. There were signs of a forced entry, pry marks on a side door, but Mark's extensive gun collection and $40,000 in cash discovered inside the Seavers' home hadn't been touched.

So when this happened, everyone wanted to know what happened with the alarm. And as it turns out, it hadn't been activated. While the family was on vacation, Mark had asked his mother, Bonnie Seavers, to feed the family pets. She had trouble setting the alarm that Sunday and told detectives her son Mark said not to worry about it. Monday morning, Dr. Severs was discovered dead on her kitchen floor. So I really feel that it's my fault. You cannot blame yourself. Around the time of Dr. Seaver's murder,

the Internet was buzzing with reports about the suspicious deaths of other alternative doctors in the U.S. Did Mark think that her death might be connected with that? Yes, yes, he did. For a while, right after she was killed, the blogosphere sort of erupted with, oh my goodness, there was a doctor here who was killed and a chiropractor here who was killed, and is this some conspiracy by big pharma to eliminate doctors who were challenging the pharmaceutical establishment.

But with no real evidence to back up that theory, investigators turned their attention to the people who might have had an ax to grind with the energetic, often abrasive, Dr. Sievers. I think the theory that I heard was that maybe it was a patient. Obviously they were interviewing all of her friends and family members. So it was pretty much like a wide open field of suspects at that point. I also heard her say over the years that, you know, Sandra was badmouthing Teresa. A surprising name emerged. In her police interview, Dr. Sievert's sister, Annie Lisa,

interview, Dr. Seavers' sister, Annie Lisa, said she heard Sandra Hoskins was a disgruntled employee. That's the same Sandra who seems so upset by Dr. Seavers' death. You may not like your boss, but you don't badmouth them to patients that are coming in the doors like Dr. Seavers. You know, she's a bitch. I'm like, oh my God. They think I did it. Sandra, who claimed she had been treated harshly by Dr. Severs in the past, had planned to hand in a resignation that very Monday the doctor was found dead. According to Sandra, the doctor told her she was bringing bad energy to the office. Now I know why I was not received very well at her

memorial. Why would anyone think that you did this? That is shocking to me. A lot of the patients didn't know the way she treated me. And so people thought maybe you just had enough. And when a detective called her husband, Frank... He greeted me. He took me into this little room, and he left me there. I'll be right back then, all right? And I sat in the room 5, 10 minutes, maybe even 15 minutes. Suddenly, he realized all eyes were on him.

And then all of a sudden, it dawned on me. I go, holy crap, I'm being watched. I saw a piece of dust on the floor, and I started counting Mississippi. On Mississippi to... I got to 120-ish, and then the detective walked in. And he asked me, point blank, did you have a sexual relationship with a doctor outside the office? Never had a relationship with her outside of work or anything like that.

Dr. Seavers ever come on to you? And he goes, did you have a sexual relationship with a doctor inside the office? I said, absolutely not. Police were suspicious because Frank had been let go from his job at Dr. Seavers' practice by her husband, Mark, nine months before she was murdered. But why did they think that you could have killed Teresa Seavers? I don't know.

I mean, were you worried about Frank? I wasn't worried about him, because I know he didn't do it. And Frank says he had an alibi. Then, in late August 2015, nearly two months after Dr. Teresa Seavers was murdered in her Florida home, a stunning break in the case. Police made arrests, and the suspects were not from Florida. So we showed up to a press conference, I believe that August, and the sheriff gets up there and tells us simply the name of the first suspect, Jimmy Rogers.

And he says he's from Missouri and he's been booked for the murder of Teresa Severs. Never heard of him. So I thought, oh, well, who is he and what's he got to do with this? And then about an hour later, he calls us in again and says, we've now picked up a second suspect, also from Missouri. It was so shocking. To solve this murder, investigators would travel more than 1,000 miles, and they were in for a wild ride. They would soon discover this case had as many twists and turns as the Missouri River.

Teresa Seavers was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Neighbors are still waiting for answers. The two arrests for Teresa Seavers' murder, made 1,100 miles away in Missouri, seemed to come out of the blue. Mark's stepmother, Jenny Weckelman. Why? You know, what's going on? Just seemed like such a disconnect. No one had ever heard of the suspect, Jimmy Ray Rogers,

but it was the mugshot of the other suspect, Wayne Wright, that struck everyone. He had an uncanny resemblance to the victim's husband, Mark Seavers. All I can say is that their physical similarity was the subject of plenty of newsroom talk. Local reporter Amy Bennett-Williams. We would show photos of them side by side and say, you know, is there some blood bond here of which we're not aware? They look alike. At least in pictures, they look like twins.

That's when I started to believe, you know, that definitely there is not something right with Curtis Wayne Wright. As it turns out, Curtis Wayne Wright, he goes by Wayne, was no stranger to Mark's family. It was Mark's very good friends from ages and ages. So I didn't believe it. I didn't. It just didn't make sense. Wayne and Mark had grown up together in Missouri. Wayne was at Teresa's funeral. He had celebrated Mark and Teresa's wedding with them. And just two months before the murder, Mark had been Wayne's best man at his wedding.

Wayne was also quite literally a familiar face around the office. Did you two know Wayne Wright? How did you know him? He was the computer guy that was just like Mark. Wayne would travel from Missouri to Florida to work on the computers in Dr. Seaver's office. How would you describe Wayne? He was geeky. All he wanted to do was get the computers up and running, focus. But to me, he just seemed like a very geeky creepster. Did he make you nervous? A little bit. I can't explain it. It's just a woman's intuition. How would you describe Mark and Wayne's relationship? They appear to be close friends? Yeah.

He always said he's my brother from another mother. Yeah, that was his lingo. Back in Hillsborough, Missouri, Greg Bolin knew both Mark and Wayne when they both had hair. This here is Hillsborough Elementary School. This is where me and Wayne met for the very first time in third grade. Greg Bolin remembers his high school classmate, Wayne, as a tech whiz, the kid voted most dependable, and as a fun guy to hang around with. He actually ran for and became our class president. Smart?

Very smart. Quite honestly, he was one of the smartest people with computers that I ever met. But it wasn't long before Greg suspected Wayne Wright had a dark side. In 1996, Greg's brother, Ronnie Boland, a preacher, mysteriously disappeared. His body has never been found.

And according to police, Ronnie was last seen with Wayne. Do you believe Wainwright killed your brother? Yes, I do. You have no question about that? I have no doubt in my mind. Greg believes the motive was money that Wayne owed Ronnie. Reporter Jessica Lipscomb. They found his car with the car keys still in the ignition in a car wash in St. Louis.

Wayne has never been charged in Ronnie's disappearance, but he is listed in a police report as a person of interest. And Wayne's no stranger to the criminal justice system. In 2011, he was serving time for drug possession when he befriended the other suspect in Dr. Seaver's murder, a young inmate named Jimmy Ray Rogers, who was doing time on a weapons charge. You could just tell he needed a job. He wanted a job, you know. Jimmy was released from jail. Tyler Juliet and Jeff Conway hired him to work at a contracting company. He liked to tell a lot of stories. A lot of things he told at the time, nobody really believed Jimmy. He liked to tell a lot of stories. A lot of things he told at the time, nobody really

believed Jimmy. He liked to brag a little bit about the things he had done in the past. A colorful criminal past. He says Jimmy would brag about con jobs ranging from stolen merchandise to counterfeit money. I never felt Jimmy was a dangerous guy. I just felt like he was a blowhard, honestly. You know, I really felt like he was just a talker. Conway recalls that he had asked Jimmy to work on Monday, June 29th. But Jimmy texted him back and said he wasn't available. All it said was, I can't do that. I'm still in Florida. It was on June 29th that Dr. Teresa Seavers was discovered bludgeoned to death with a hammer inside her Florida home.

And it didn't go unnoticed to investigators that Jimmy Ray Rogers had a unique nickname. Supposedly, Jimmy Rogers' nickname was The Hammer, but I think that was more of like a self-given nickname. If you talk to some of his friends from high school, they say nobody really called him that. But I think maybe going to jail for the first time, you know, trying to make a name for himself, maybe that's something he sort of assigned himself to fit in. Why was Jimmy The Hammer Rogers in Florida that fateful weekend? Why was Jimmy the Hammer Rogers in Florida that fateful weekend? Was Wainwright with him?

And what led authorities to believe they were involved in a doctor's murder? Back in June 2015, practically everyone in Hillsborough, Missouri, knew that Wainwright was planning a weekend trip out of town. Reporters Amy Bennett-Williams and Jessica Lipscomb. He let it slip to lots of people that he was going down to Florida, told some people he was even going to visit the Severs. Word was out, and it wasn't long before police got a tip that Wayne had been in Florida at the time of Dr. Severs' murder. And he hadn't gone there alone. He went with his jailhouse pal, Jimmy, the Hammer Rogers.

He had actually told me a couple weeks before that that he might be going to Florida. Yeah, I've been working on this today. Jimmy's boss, Jeff Conway. He told me a story that his brother had graduated from law school and that he had invited Jimmy down to Florida for the weekend, all expenses paid. But he told his pregnant girlfriend, Taylor Shoemaker, another story, that he was going out of town for a few days to work with Wayne. He had told her that he was going down to make some money.

Detectives from Florida arrived in Hillsborough, Missouri, weeks after Jimmy and Wayne returned from their trip. They confronted Wayne about that tip placing him in Florida. He shut them down. But a GPS exposed a lot of what they needed to know. On the morning of June 27, 2015, Wainwright got into a rental car here in Hillsborough, Missouri, and then went to pick up Jimmy Ray Rogers. At some point, this address was put into the GPS, and then the two men took off for the 1,100-mile ride to Bonita Springs, Florida. After driving all day and all night on Sunday, June 28th, Wayne and Jimmy arrived at the Seavers' home, the Bonita Springs address.

It's all right there in the GPS, a digital footprint for investigators. When Jimmy and Wayne arrived around 6 a.m., authorities believe they turned off the house alarm. That may explain why Mark's mother, Bonnie, was so confused about the alarm system. I wasn't out there at 6.09 in the morning. It was 10 after 6.09. You were able to 8.01. Someone was in there? That's what we were trying there at 6.09 in the morning. He was turning for 6.09. He said he was in there. That's what we're trying to work on.

Oh, my God. Then, according to the GPS, Jimmy and Wayne left the Seavers' home and typed in another address for a Walmart to do some shopping. Obviously, looking at that security footage from the Walmart, they're able to pretty quickly determine that that's who was with Wayne.

They made no effort to cover their faces, disguise themselves. They just waltzed through like they were anyone else. They bought, among other things, trash bags, flushable wet wipes, black towels, black shoes, and a lock picking kit. They paid cash for their purchase with a $100 bill. After shopping at Walmart, Jimmy and Wayne continued using the navigation system to find the beach. Does it make any sense that this guy who was so good with computers would have left such a trail? It does, but it doesn't.

Greg Bolin, who firmly believes Wainwright killed his brother, knows Wayne's world is far from predictable. To a lot of people looking at it, it kind of makes it look like, you know, these guys were just dumb and dumber. It kind of makes it look like, you know, these guys were just dumb and dumber. After soaking in some sun at the beach, according to police affidavits, Wayne and Jimmy returned to the Seavers' home, where they hung out for hours in the garage, lying in wait for an unsuspecting Dr. Seavers to arrive. Which one do investigators believe actually did the killing? There was a story or two in which Wayne said that he started and Jimmy finished.

Less than an hour later, in the early morning hours of Monday, June 29, the GPS shows Jimmy and Wayne on the highway headed northbound for the 17-hour drive back to Missouri. The electronic trail would eventually lead detectives to Jimmy Ray Rogers' door. Just like Wayne, he denied being involved. But when they pulled in Jimmy's girlfriend, Taylor, which means you're going to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, correct? Yes. What a story she had to tell.

Jimmy Ray Rogers took his girlfriend, Taylor, for a ride right along here, Route 47 in rural Missouri. And along this road, he asked her to throw out parts of his cell phone, which he had smashed earlier, some gloves, and a jumpsuit. He said, throw this in the river, and it took me a minute to click in. And then I threw the gloves out, and I waited a minute, and then I threw out the jumpsuit. Okay. Did you ask why, or you just did it? No, I just did it. I was scared.

Okay. Okay. Did you ask why or you just did it? No, I just did it. I was scared. Okay. Taylor told police that's when she pushed Jimmy to tell her exactly what happened in Florida. He ends up telling her that he went with Wayne and they killed Mark Seaver's wife. And he told me about using a hammer on her. Okay. And he said that he killed Teresa Seavers, Mark's wife, with a hammer?

Yes. Detectives now knew who killed Teresa Seavers, but they were missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. Why would Wayne Wright want to kill his best friend's wife. Did everyone then say, oh my gosh, Mark had to be involved? Definitely. I mean, there was really no putting Wayne in Florida in Bonita Springs inside their house without Mark knowing about it. Or was there. When you heard that Teresa had been murdered, did it occur to either one of you that Mark might be involved?

No. Not even a thought in the back of your mind? No, no, absolutely not. Mark Seavers' family can't accept what just about everyone else had long suspected. There were a lot of things that made Mark Seavers seem suspect to people. He wasn't talking with investigators anymore.

He wouldn't give media interviews. There were rumors that he had lawyered up. But didn't Mark Seavers have an airtight alibi? Even with the alibi of being with his two daughters, people just couldn't find what a possible motive could be for anyone else to be interested in killing this woman. As reporters Amy Bennett-Williams and Jessica Lipscomb discovered, the Seavers' public life

was very different from their private life. I heard rumors very early on that they were swingers. And when investigators downloaded Mark's cell phone, they found text messages, emails, photos and videos revealing salacious details about the Seavers and their open marriage. It was a surprise to Frank Pays. They had a different marriage than we thought. They had a different lifestyle. What they did behind closed doors, no one knew about.

They both were having relationships with other people. The Seavers may have looked wealthy with their big house and successful medical practice, but they had serious money problems. There's a significant IRS lien on the home. Mark said that they often lived paycheck to paycheck. I think that there was sometimes almost panic about money. When investigators uncovered five life insurance policies for Teresa, totaling more than $4 million.

It was a red flag. So was that trip Mark made to Missouri to be Wainwright's best man. And as it turns out, the other suspect, Jimmy Ray Rogers, was also a wedding guest. Investigators wondered if that's where Mark hatched a plan with the two men. Taylor Shoemaker, Jimmy's girlfriend, claimed this was a murder for hire and that Jimmy was supposed to be paid $10,000. And then asked him how he was going to make money and it was murdering Mark's wife. He said that Mark hired Wayne. Yes, and Wayne hired him. Mark didn't know anything about Jimmy being hired.

Where's the money supposed to come from? Insurance from her death. Okay, and did he ever get paid? No. And yet, Mark was not arrested. After conducting dozens of interviews... What about Mark? He would come in and we would joke. ...examining thousands of documents and arresting Wayne and Jimmy,

detectives still didn't have the proof they needed to connect Mark to his wife Teresa's murder. And then, almost eight months after Teresa Seavers was killed, Wayne Wright, facing a possible death sentence, suddenly turned on his brother from another mother, and he took a deal. Mr. Wright, why are you pleading guilty today to second-degree murder? Self-preservation is a powerful thing.

Wayne admitted killing Teresa. second-degree murder. Self-preservation is a powerful thing. Wayne admitted killing Teresa. I'm pleading guilty because of my role in the planning and participating of the murders, Teresa Severs. And he accused Mark Severs of being the mastermind. That's all police needed. Mark, did you hire Wayne Wright to kill your wife? Mark Seavers was charged with the murder of his wife. Did you hire anyone to kill your wife?

It is clear to me that he had nothing to do with this murder. Mark's attorney, Antonio Faga. At the end of the day, when Wayne was faced with the death penalty, he said, I've got to involve somebody else, and that somebody else had to be Mark. Is there any direct evidence that connects Mark with the death of his wife? Not that we have seen yet. And yet, he's charged with first-degree murder

and faces the death penalty. Based on the testimony of Wayne Wright. And Mark's family believes Wayne killed Teresa on his own, without Mark's knowledge. Why would Wayne killed Teresa on his own, without Mark's knowledge. Why would Wayne kill Teresa? Because he's a sick man. Do you think Wayne was jealous of Mark? I think it's possible.

Whether he's jealous of Mark or wanted to be Mark, I don't have any clue. They say it was Wayne who began to model himself after Mark, even shaving his head when Mark began to bald. They didn't look alike when we were younger. Missouri friend Greg Bolin. They morphed into each other over the years. If it was by chance or by their plan, I don't know. If it was by chance or by their plan, I don't know. But if Wayne killed Teresa Seavers on his own, how would he have known she was coming home alone that Sunday evening? Is it possible at all that Wayne Wright in Missouri could have known what Teresa was up to, her schedule?

Absolutely. He didn't need to talk with Mark. He could have found that out on his own. Yes. It turns out Wayne may have been eavesdropping on the Seavers for years. He set up their office computer system and would troubleshoot.

According to Sandra and Frank, they say the Seavers allowed Wayne to access everything from his home in Missouri. He can creep on the computer anytime he wanted and do whatever he wanted. He saw everything that was going on in the office. Is it possible that Wayne knew more about what Teresa was doing than her own husband knew? Possible. Connie Reese can't imagine Mark could have had anything to do with the death

of his wife. I love my brother. You know, I know that terrible things do happen and people do things to people that they love. And I try to be open-minded about that, but he's not a sociopath. He wouldn't do this to his children. Just not possible. Did Mark Seavers want his wife dead because of jealousy or money? Or was he betrayed by his best friend? That is an astonishing photo. Yeah.

In their jail uniforms, it looks like a mirror image. Mark, accused of planning his wife's brutal murder. Wayne, the admitted killer. Jimmy the Hammer Rogers and Mark Seavers both have pleaded not guilty and will be tried together. A jury will have to find the truth behind Dr. Teresa Seavers' murder. Dr. Seavers lived dramatically and she died dramatically. Nobody really got what they wanted here. Her husband didn't get what he wanted.

He's in jail, you know, facing death. Her children lost both their parents, so it seems pointless that it happened, and it's just hard to make sense of. Mark Seavers and Wayne Wright are being held in different jails. right are being held in different jails. Teresa's mother is now guardian of the Seavers' children. No trial date has been set. For more of Taylor Shoemaker's police interview, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.