48 Hours - Exhuming The Truth

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Two years after his divorce from Cassandra Smith, Bill Flint survived a murder attempt, having been beaten and shot. And then Cassandra’s second husband tried to kill Bill with a hitman. In May 2002, Bill died of an apparent heart attack, but Professor James Starrs, a forensic scientist, believed he was murdered. At his own expense, he had Bill's body exhumed. “48 Hours" Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/19/2006. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are those people who think that it's rather ghoulish or indeed sacrilegious to dig up the graves of people. I don't look at it that way as long as there is a substantial, justifiable reason for doing so. It is the difference between being a grave robber and being a grave digger. I'm a grave digger. My name is James E. Starrs, and I am a professor. I am a professor of forensic sciences at the George Washington University. I knew nothing about Bill Flint or his death or his family until I received a phone call. It was quite clear from the records that Bill Flint was a marked man.

You're not too popular around here. That's why I'm in town to kill you. Who? I am. I'm going to kill you. Coming to kill me? Yes, right. Two different people connected to his former wife, with whom he had been an accustomed

that he just spewed over their child. We used to tell him he was like a cat with nine lives. He was shot twice. He survived it. He was bludgeoned his head and survived that. When that didn't work, they called a hitman. He and his brother-in-law wanted a professional to do it. He was dead serious and very determined.

I mean, he come to do business and that's what he wanted done. Bill Flint was a unique person. It was kind, he was loving. I loved my father very much. Loved his family, very deeply, particularly his daughter. He was my best friend. A friend of ours called and said that Bill had died. I was just told that it was a heart attack,

and I believed that at first. I was sent the autopsy report. It looked to me to be at least inadequate, and worst, sloppy. I think that there was foul play. I think that he was murdered. I made my decision to go forward with a thorough investigation of this case, including an exclamation,

because I was of a strong belief that Bill Flint had been the victim of a homicide. I'm the voice for the dead to try to speak for them when they can't speak for themselves. Secrets from the grave. They'd already shot him. They'd already beat him with a leather. Hi.

Bill Flint spent his life cheating death. Not once, not twice, but three times. The bullet had passed through his neck and exited out near his ear. He was beaten all over his head. So many things happened to that guy. I mean, who could survive all of that? His friends say this is a story of how a lot of bad things happened to a really good person. Oh, he was a wonderful man, very good friend.

A great person, a friend, and like a brother. He was kind enough to support his friends and tough enough to survive his enemies, right up to the end. It got to be kind of a joke, you know, a running joke with all of Bill's friends and everything, but we knew it was serious at the same time. Bill Flynn's life started out simple. He grew up in rural Massachusetts, one of four children. His uncle, Tom Gage, remembers him as an easy-going child.

What do you see in your mind when you think about him? The happy times we had, you know, I mean, when he was growing up, when he was a toddler running around. And always so happy, always so happy. Bill grew up, moved to Texas, and became an industrial electrician. But he always stayed in touch with his family. When he'd greet you, he'd give you a big hug and say, I love you. You know, I love you, Uncle Tom.

And that was just his way of greeting. His simple life started to get complicated in 1988. He met Cassandra Smith at Livingstone's Church. A few months later, they were married. She probably came on to him as a loving, gentle person or something. I'm sure that's what he was looking for, someone like himself. According to Bill's close friends, Liz and Tim Engelow, the true love of Bill's life arrived a year later, his daughter.

Oh, he loved her to death. He was a great father. Hi, Daddy. He brought her with him to work all the time on the weekends and stuff, you know. Took her to dance, took her to the Girl Scouts. Bill's daughter asked us not to use her real name. We'll call her Jane. What sorts of things did you guys do together? He took me to a few circus shows. And we would go to the beach or something, just like hang out and stuff and just like drive around and talk.

You loved her dad, didn't you? Yes, he was my best friend. But not long after Jane was born, Bill and Cassandra's marriage was in trouble. The couple started seeing Larry Deutsch, a marriage counselor. Well, in the beginning, it seemed to work okay. Bonnie. Tell me you love me. Let me put it on camera.

Daddy loves mommy. Bill and Cassandra seemed to be coming together the little. But it just seemed that way. Until December of 1993, when Bill Flint learned, to his great surprise, that he and Cassandra were divorced. What was his first clue that he was divorced? Well, when the sheriff showed up at the door to escort him off the property. That's a good clue. Yes.

Very good clue. That's right. Cassandra Flint not only pursued. sued a divorce without telling her husband or her marriage counselor, she got one. She did that, I don't want to say sneaky, but she did that behind. I think you do want to say sneaky. Behind our backs. Neither Bill or I was aware that she was going for divorce. Okay, I'm coming. According to Betty Yarter, the Texas country lawyer Bill eventually had to hire, Bill never knew a divorce trial had been scheduled because the court only had an old address for him.

And this happened to be his old work address, which he no longer worked at. Bill's absence from the courtroom cost him enormously and set in motion a battle that would rage for the next seven years over their daughter. Cassandra claimed that Jane, when she was two years old, had told her Bill had molested her. Did you believe that? No, sir, I didn't. Did you ever believe it? No, sir. Without Bill there to defend himself, the judge believed Cassandra's charges, granted her a divorce,

and ordered that Bill Flint could have only supervised contact with his daughter. Did you talk to Bill after these charges were made against him? He denied them. And he was very strong, emphatic about the fact that it was lies. So he would never do that to his daughter. And you believed it? Yes, I did. And when the abuse charges were presented to a grand jury, it refused to indict Bill.

Which doesn't happen in Harris County, especially where a sexual assault of a child is concerned. I mean, it just doesn't happen. Even though Bill Flint had been cleared of criminal charges of abuse, the accusations were still on the books in family court. And just as Bill started fighting those charges, trying to win unsupervised visits with his daughter, Cassandra made her next move. She says he'd threatened to kill her. Cassandra didn't just say Bill tried to kill her.

She pressed charges. In state Texas, it's considered a terroristic threat. So he got arrested. That's right. And this time, Bill faced a jury trial, but it didn't take long at all. In fact, almost as soon as the jurors went out, they were back with a verdict. I had not completed smoking my cigarette outside the courthouse before the bailiff was tapping on the window saying,

Jury's back. Sam, can you just talk about how you're feeling? I know this is... The verdict was not guilty, but it was not over for Bill. He decided to fight for full custody of his daughter. And that's when things started getting dangerous. You're not too popular around here. That's while I'm in town to take care of you.

Bill Flint's life was being threatened by his ex-wife's brother, Ralph Smith. I got a nine-millimeter. If that's going to do it, my hands will. It was the first of several threats from several people. Bill was frightened enough to file a complaint with the police, claiming his ex-wife Cassandra had also threatened him, saying he wanted it documented in case anything happened in the future. So he kept a real close eye and was real careful about who he was with

and watched over his shoulder all the time. A month after he filed that complaint, he headed out the door for work and into an ambush. Well, I heard him get the garbage and go out the front door, and about maybe two minutes later, I heard gunshots. And I looked out the front door and here's Bill out here on his knees. Bill's landlord, Howard Hester, says even as Bill lay bleeding on the ground, he wasted no time identifying his attackers,

Sandra's brother Ralph, and the new man in Congress. Cassandra's life, Charlton Andrus, who she had married just four months earlier. He was hollering, Charlton, Andres, and Smith did this to me. I want to make sure that you know who did this to me in case I die. The guy was in just horrible condition. He had lacerations all over his head from being beaten. Detective Kevin Chryslipp was amazed Bill Flint was still alive after being attacked and shot.

A bullet had missed Flint's spinal cord by just two millimeters. The bullet had passed through his neck and exited out near his ear. When he recovered, Bill Flint told a television reporter he was sure his ex-wife was behind the shooting. There's no doubt in my mind. Her brother and her husband came to do it and there was somebody driving the car. Despite his suspicions, Bill never saw Cassandra that morning. When the police went looking for her brother, Ralph Smith, he had vanished. And when they found her husband, Charlton Andrus, he denied everything.

But then, Detective Chris Lipp got a call from Charlton's own daughter, saying he had confessed to her. He finally admitted to her that he had, in fact, shot Mr. Flynn. And Charlton's daughter said something else about Cassandra. She reluctantly signed an affidavit, saying her father, quote, told me that Cassandra had not seen anything because she was two blocks away, but he also told me that she knew what he was going to do to the guy. You think his wife was involved? I believe everything that we investigated pointed to the fact that she was.

Still, there wasn't enough evidence to arrest Cassandra, but police did have enough to arrest her husband, Charlton Andrus, for attempted murder. And when they showed up to bring him in, Cassandra gave them more than enough reason to take her to jail too on a different charge. I walked up to her and she slaps my hand down. And I said, don't put your hands on me, get out of the way. Cassandra slapped Lieutenant Susan Clifton a second time and both women fell to the ground. Clifton tried to arrest Cassandra, but it wasn't easy. And when I hit the ground, all of a sudden I felt that it was rather warm and I realized that, um,

Before we hit the ground, she had urinated. And I'm trying to get out of the puddle of the urine and handcuff her at the same time. Would it be fair to say you were not having a great evening? No, I wasn't. Charlton and Cassandra were both taken into custody and charged. Cassandra with resisting arrest, Charlton with attempted murder. Within a couple of days, they were both released on Bonn.

Despite the charges he was facing, Charlton Andrus was allowed to move back in to the the house he was sharing with Cassandra and with Jane, whose father he had just been accused of trying to kill. Bill was determined to get his daughter out of that house, but once again, he was blocked by those molestation charges Cassandra filed four years earlier. Tom, we got a happy book for you. Even though he had never been indicted, he was still being asked if there was any truth to

the abuse charges. No, no, there's not. And Bill was convinced Cassandra. was turning his daughter against him. Hi, Daddy. We were having good phone conversations. Hi, Mom. Her mom just cut it off.

And then, Jane started to leave messages, very disturbing messages. I don't like you, I hate you. I don't want you in my life, and I'm eating good five. Bill was convinced Jane was being told what to say. The beginning of the recording, There was another voice in the background that said, whispered lightly, okay, it's recording now. This is the one human left, but I want you out of my life. It's very obvious that the conversation was coaxed.

It's just sad for a child to be either brainwashed or fed these things. But there was some good news. police had finally caught up with Cassandra's brother, Ralph Smith. He was charged and convicted of attempted murder. I hit him in a pipe. He's halfway through his 16-year prison sentence. You hit him that hard? How many times did you hit him?

About three times. You hit him with that steel pipe, that... On the head, yes, I did. While he admits his role in the attack on Bill, Ralph, to this day, will not implicate his sister. nor will her husband, Charlton Andrus. I'm here, and I'm telling you, she wasn't there. She wasn't there.

Was she in the neighborhood? Because I was there. You were there. Yeah, I know. Did Cassandra have anything to do with that attack on Bill Flint that morning? Did she ask you to do it? No. Who asked you to do it?

Her husband. Do you remember what he said to you? He basically said that we need to go ahead and, teach his guy a lesson and like beat him up. Cassandra was never charged with Bill's attack, but she was tried for resisting arrest. Murphy Classing prosecuted her. Well, this was the only defendant that I ever prosecuted

that I was actually concerned would retaliate at the end of the case when she was being guilty. Against you? Against me. You always hear stories of people worrying about prosecutors being retaliated against. I never really thought anybody would, but I was concerned that she might. Even the judge told Cassandra, quote,

you scare me very bluntly. And he took the unusual step of telling Cassandra the jury thought she was a pathological liar. He sentenced her to seven months in the county jail. But the real drama was just beginning. Before the state had the chance to prosecute Cassandra's husband, Charlton Andrus, for attempted murder, he went looking for a hit man to finish the judge

job on Bill Flint. I mean, does he come right out and say, I want to kill somebody on the phone? Pretty much, he was saying he needed to get rid of him. What's going on? You're in the court. Cassandra's husband, Charlton Andrus, learned the hard way that finding a good hit man can be tricky. Totally trust this guy.

Yeah, he's real secretive with what he does. He'll do it for three grand. It'll be real clean, won't be sloppy or nothing. Sadly for Andrus, the contact he was phoning from the courthouse hallway was taping the calls and turned everything over to the district attorney. He'll be wearing a red short sleeve, Marlborough shirt. Andres was about to be set up. The DA's chief investigator, Johnny Bonds, had just the man for the job.

He's our resident hitman. Resident hitman? Yeah, when we get worded at somebody, you know, is trying to find a killer. we try to arrange for him to be the person. Well, that's very accommodating. Yes, it is. Gary Johnson is an investigator for the DA's office who is very good at making people believe he's a hitman,

right up to the point where they're arrested. How many have you done? We've investigated over 300, as far as arresting is somewhere 50 to 60. Showing his face, obviously, would be bad for business, and business could be very good if only he was for real. He's been offered nearly a quarter of a million dollars for one hit. What's the least you've ever gotten?

$5.30 and eight Atari tapes and eight Atari tape video game? But they were collectors. Did you take the job? Sure. Luckily for Bill Flint, when Andrus went shopping for an assassin, he bought Gary Johnson's act. Here he is on his way to meet his make-believe hit man in a local Denny's restaurant. Why do you choose Denny's? I like the food.

It's that simple? No, Denny's a reason to film from. Almost all of them have windows, right around windows. Just to spice things up, Johnson told Andres to use a special password when they first met. I was eating pie, and he would walk up to me and say, and my return was, and then he would know for sure it was me. While police cameras were rolling, Andrus and Johnson, who was wearing his white hat, moved to the parking lot to seal the deal. There's always nobody to see you and then he disappears from the face of his earth.

Andrus explains why he wanted Flint dead. He's a child and a woman beater. He fears men. He runs from me. Charlton Andrus offered Johnson $3,000 to kill Bill Flint, more if Bill's body was a woman. Bill's body was never found. I told him that I had some property that had a well on it, and that I was clearing the property and had to fill in the whale anyway.

So I would just take him, drop me in the whale, fill it in, and no one would be the wiser. It was all over in a matter of minutes. Johnson thought he had enough evidence on tape to arrest Andrus and gave the word to police officers to move in. Charlton Andres was charged with soliciting capital murder. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison, and because of the lengthy sentence, the attempted murder charges for shooting Bill Flint were dropped. Bill Flint was safe for the time being, but his problems weren't over.

Since Cassandra now had a criminal record, Bill hoped he would finally get his daughter back. But this time, a judge said both parents were unfit, and explained to Bill there was still no evidence to clear him of those old molestation charges. So in May of 1996, Bill and Cassandra's six-year-old daughter was put in a foster home. What did that do to him? It hurt him deeply.

It hurt him very deeply. He just kept fighting, but, oh, I'm sure it was aggravating, you know. Bill told a reporter back then that he was hurt, but still hopeful. I know that there'll be a day when my daughter comes and sees me. me and I'll be able to present the facts to her and show her that I tried and did the best I could. And that was the outcome. Five years after Bill's battle for his daughter began, a new judge ordered a psychologist to review the custody case.

This time, the psychologist said Bill would be a better parent. So the judge finally awarded Bill full custody of Jane. He would help me sell my cookies and stuff. and he would go to some of the meetings and just help out with the troop any way he could. Jane now says her mother made up the story about Bill molesting her

and talked her into accusing her father when she was younger. I just remember like my mother always like saying that he did abuse me and stuff and so I thought that it was true but after living with him, I know now that it wasn't at all. Because? Because he just wasn't the type of person that would do that.

You loved her dad, didn't you? Yes, he was my best friend. That's the best part, isn't it? Yeah. About a year after Bill Flint had been reunited with his daughter, he cheated death once again. Bill was working for an electrical contractor, and Marine light fell 70 feet, broke his neck and broke his arm.

This was after he'd been shot. That's after he had been shot. After they went to a hit man. Yeah. And then a light fell off. Yeah. This time, everybody believes it really was an accident. And then I started calling him the miracle man.

He wasn't meant to die. That's how I felt. He wasn't meant to die at that time. While recovering from his injuries, Bill had difficulty finding work. And then, at the end of 2001, Bill Flint got in touch with a man he had met about 20 years earlier, Joel Brock. Brock gave Bill a job at his real estate appraisal company, and shortly after that, he moved in with Bill. He just said this is an old friend that I used to go to church with 20 years ago in Alvin, Texas, and called up and needed a place to stay while he's looking for his own place.

But Bill's family and friends thought this old friend was no friend at all. Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailen Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre, true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts Pounding on the Free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. He was always looking over his shoulder if a car backfired, he would jump. After three brushes with death, it's not surprising Bill Flint was suspicious of everyday life. He would watch his house before he left.

He would watch his rear rear mirror if he was driving. And then on the morning of May 3rd, 2002, he went to appraise a house for Joel Brock. And at the age of 44, Bill Flint faced death again for the last time. It was an abandoned house. He had just started measuring it from the notes that we found. Bill was last seen alive when he rushed into this pizza joint, desperate for help.

Witnesses told investigator Johnny Bonds and Flint's friends what happened. He came in, they could tell he was in distress. Sweating profusely. asked if he could use the restroom. And they heard him go in there. They think he threw up. Came back out and he fell on the floor. He asked for water and then asked for the water

to be poured over his body because he felt like he was on fire. Then he went to convulsions. His feet were climbing up the wall. And he blacked out, passed out, and they called animals. An autopsy determined that Bill Flint had clogged arteries and died of a heart attack, but his friends and family

who remembered the ugly custody fight and the previous attempts on Bill's life didn't believe it. When you heard that Bill had died, do you remember what your first thought was? I thought he was murdered. I feel like he was murdered. I know him I heard.

Something happened to him. What do you think happened to your dad? I'm not really sure. I think that there was foul play. What kind of foul play? I think that he was murdered. It was the way he died that troubled them at first. Witnesses told investigators he was clutching his stomach,

feeling like he was burning up. Now, that's not a heart attack. What is that? To me, it sounded like being poisoned. Well, why didn't you believe at the time that Bill Flint just had a heart attack? Happens all the time. The history of attempts on his life.

I mean, there have been two prior attempts to kill him. And then, after Bill's death, his family says the behavior of his roommate, Joel Brock, also seemed odd. After Bill was buried in New England, Bill's mother was given temporary custody of Jane. Come and sit on grandma's lap for me. But Brock, by many accounts, seemed very anxious to reunite Jane with Cassandra. He was calling the family two and three, four, five times a day saying she needs to be with her mother. It's ridiculous.

It's ludicrous. Joel Brock says he never told anyone where he thought Jane should live. I didn't choose one side of the other. But Bill's friends and family wondered whether Cassandra and Brock were secret allies and whether he could be part of a deadly plot to help Cassandra get her daughter back. I came here today basically to prove that I had nothing to do with his death because I never talked to Cassandra. They thought that she and I were in cahoots. In fact, Brock says he has to be.

hadn't even spoken to Cassandra in 13 years, not since Bill married her. I don't believe that I've ever in my lifetime called Cassandra, ever. He says that if Bill's death was a murder, he had nothing to do with it. Brock said the same thing under oath at a custody hearing. You can look me in the eye and tell me you had nothing to do, nothing at all to do with Bill Flynn's death. Absolutely. And I would have done anything to keep him alive if I had an opportunity.

Because? Because he was my friend. And to this day, Brock says, he mourns his lost friend. It hurts me now. I lost friend. You're emotional right now about this. Right. You were that close to him?

Yes, I was. Two years after Bill died, there was no real evidence of foul play. But the doubts lingered, and Johnny Bonds wanted answers. Are you suspicious? Oh, yes. Yes, that's suspicious. But I told them that this absolutely had to be ruled a homicide before we could really do anything. Law enforcement officials have done all they can, so they've turned to one of the few men left who can help.

Tomorrow morning, Professor James Starr's, who's world-renowned for solving some of the toughest cases, will come here and start digging for answers. What is it about this case that attracted you to the middle of nowhere in Massachusetts? In Texas, the Houston's chief investigator called me and asked me if I would look into this. Professor Starrs is a forensic scientist who studied the case and was bothered by what he considers hurried findings from the first autopsy. He believes Bill Flint might not have had a heart attack, even though his arteries were clogged. Was Bill Flint's heart healthy, in your opinion? The coronary arteries were not healthy, but the heart was healthy.

Was there any ever ever? of any damage, any muscle damage in the heart? No. Nothing in the report of the first autopsy. Starrs is prepared to exhume Bill's body because he believes strongly there could be vital evidence in Bill's grave. So strongly, Starrs is putting his money where his mouth is. May I be rude and ask you who's footing the bill for all this? I'm paying the bill right now. You're paying the whole bill?

I'm paying the whole bill. Two and a half years after Bill was buried, the exhumation begins. Top is intact, intact top. It's an eerie scene in this isolated graveyard. Bill's remains are carefully transferred from the casket to a body bag and into a hearse. Starting time, one 40 is there one outcome

that would make you feel better than another outcome? This is half in the chest. Yes. I'm hoping, like I still have that hope in me, that it was just a heart attack. If they have a ruling on that, then it says that it was a natural death, then we'll all have to agree with that. Could you agree with that? I don't know. I try. We're very pleased with we got all of the samples that we wanted.

wanted. We've got ample work to continue to work with from this point on. They've done all they can here. It will be weeks before there are any answers and until then the pressure is odd. If they come up with nothing then I'm going to close this investigation. This is it. This is it. But when Professor Starr studies Bill's X-rays, he finds something, something not included in the autopsy report. So you think they just missed it? I think they missed it, absolutely. The exhumation of Bill Flint was a drastic step.

Two, three. But his family and friends wanted to find out what really killed him. I just want there to be like an ending for it, to find out one way or another, like what happened. My sister needs badly to have closure on this, and his daughter needs closure. I think you kind of do, too. Oh, absolutely. You're still very emotional about this. Certainly.

You miss your nephew. We all miss him. We all miss them. They believe he might have been poisoned. Well, I'm going to say he looks somewhat older than the reported age of 44 years. It is the first thing the experts look for when they perform this second autopsy.

What's your wish list in this case? My wish list was everything. Toxicologist Bruce Goldberger asked for as many samples of Bill Flint's tissues as possible. So we have heart, spleen, brain and liver. We have fingernails. We have fluid from the coffin.

He'll look at them for traces of poison. Well, we'll look for hundreds of different types of drugs. After weeks of testing, Goldberger could find no evidence Bill was poisoned, but he still can't rule it out because Bill's remains weren't preserved well enough. Are Bill Flynn's tissue in good enough shape for you to say that he was not poisoned? No, definitely not. The poison theory might not pan out, but Starrs has a new theory. He's discovered new evidence, and it is tantalizing.

The rib fractures. We have from the x-rays of the chest indications that he, Bill Flint, had suffered fractures of three ribs on the right side. Starrs believes Flint's ribs were broken before he died, but he needs another specialist to confirm that. No callus. These are recent acute fractures. Dr. Gil Brogden is one of the leading experts in reading these types of x-rays, and he believes the ribs were broken shortly before Bill died.

No signs of healing. No signs of healing. I think this is a fresh fracture. It could be stopping, could be a baseball bat. The kind of thing that he could live with for a while and say to his daughter, I've got this pain in my side. No, I think these are new. Starrs says the fractures were too low on Bill's rib cage to have been caused by CPR.

And he believes an injury like this is severe enough to kill someone through what's called a pneumothoracic reaction. It's like pulling the trigger of a gun. The broken ribs can puncture a lung, which can cause fluid to build up, putting pressure on the heart and causing a heart attack. Could he have broken the ribs by accident? Could they have been broken after he died? You know, I don't see there's any chance at all that this could have occurred except from a very forceful blow to that area of his chest. There was nothing in the first autopsy report about broken ribs.

And when Bill Flint stumbled into that pizzeria the day he died, witnesses say he never mentioned being attacked. But it sounds like you're really sort of pushing for this to be a murder, or not pushing... I'm pushing for a conclusion that I can live with. I would be out of this entirely if we could find clear evidence that it was not murder. I'm still in it, and I'm in it up to my mucklux. Starrs wants to run a few more tests before writing his final report. But based on his findings so far, he believes there is enough doubt about Bill Flint's death

for Johnny Bonds to begin a real investigation into whether Flint was murdered. To continue this investigation, I need a definitive ruling that this was a homicide. So you going out to reopen this case? No. What are you doing? I'm wrapping it up. I'm probably going to close this case. That's it.

That's it unless some new information comes far. The Houston Medical Examiner is also waiting for some new information. He's willing to consider making a change in the official cause of death if he finds real evidence of homicide in Starr's final report. When you get into cold cases, the mentality on the part of investigative people is always the same. We want the smoking gun. I don't have a smoking gun that I can give him. Are you satisfied that you know what killed Bill Flint?

No, I'm not satisfied, but I don't have anything to work with. After Bill's death, Cassandra Andres was asked under oath at a custody hearing if she had anything to do with it, and she swore she did not. Cassandra was living about three hours away from Bill, and Charlton Andres had an airtight alibi. At the time Bill died, he was in prison for trying to have him killed earlier. They both refused to talk to us on camera. With Bill gone, Cassandra once again asked for custody of Jane, who was then 12 years old.

But Jane told the judge she was scared of her mother, so she was allowed to stay with Bill's mother, and at age 15, she's still there. She's doing great. She's doing great now. I'm a cheerleader, and I go to school, and I'm a freshman now. I just want to stay where I am. stay where I am and like stop moving around. As of May 2005, Cassandra was once again living in Texas with Charlton Andrus, who was paroled after serving less than eight years of a 25-year sentence for trying to have Bill murdered.

Cassandra has allowed only limited phone and email contact with her daughter. She still is my mother, like no matter what. And I still love her. In spite of everything, Jane holds out a daughter's hope for some kind of future with her mother. What kind of relationship would you like to have with your mom? Like a regular mother-daughter relationship. Do you miss her? Yes, I miss my mom.

But I try not to think about it, and I try to just, like, keep going. But I do want, like, an ending for this. So I can, like, live a normal life. Cassandra Andrus died in 2006. Ralph Smith was released from prison in 2012. You know,