48 Hours - Secrets of the Well

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Criminal investigator Clay Bryant helped solve two separate cases with strange similarities: the murder case of Gwendolyn Moore, a 30-year-old mother whose body was pulled from a well, and the disappearance of fire chief Fred Wilkerson. He became known as ‘cold case Clay’ because of his obsession with uncovering long-buried secrets. "48 Hours" correspondent Susan Spencer reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 7/30/2005. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays and stream on demand on Paramount+.

My name is Clay Bryant, and I'm a criminal investigator for the District Attorney's Office in La Grange, Georgia. The Gwendolyn Moore case, Ms. Moore was killed on the night of August 3rd, 1970. It was just phenomenal the way the tech case came back into my life. 33 years later, I was a 15-year-old boy, wide-eyed at the horror of what I was looking at. She was found in a well just outside the city limits of Hoganville, Georgia. One of the sheriff's deputies went down on the hook of the wrecker and wrapped a rope around the lady's torso and pulled her up out of the well. She was suspended over that well and spinning around on that cable. The face was swollen and blue.

I'll never forget as long as I live. Even at 15, I was able to understand that there were going to be some lives that were going to be profoundly affected by this. It finally dawned on me then that mama was dead and I wouldn't ever see her again. I wouldn't ever see her again. This was a case that should have found resolution in a matter of days. Nobody ever talked about it. Everything was all covered up. Her case was just totally discarded.

The lady was dead when she went in the well. Murder. Murder. Was there ever a second of doubt as to who had done this? No, ma'am. The truth would bear itself to be. There will be a day of reckoning. We're here. We're here.

All right. Police, anybody home? 50-year-old investigator Clay Bryant goes after leads, like a dog goes after a bone. I've tried other things in my life, and I haven't been happy. I couldn't think of doing anything else. Nobody home? He has a law degree, years of police experience. I don't know if we're going to find anybody here.

And a new nickname, Cold Case Clay. That's our man. That's him. A joking reference to his success in helping the DA in LaGrange, Georgia, solve cases long forgotten. I found a tremendous amount of satisfaction to right a longstanding wrong. He had the right to remain silent. He says he was born to the job.

I was raised on the front seat of a police call. By probably the best criminal investigator was, my father. Buddy Bryant, Clay's father, was the police chief of a tiny town nearby, Hogan'sville, and Clay idolized him. My dad was the greatest guy in the world. We spent as much time in the Chattahoochee Rivers. It was about as much times I did at school. But to 15-year-old Clay, the most fun was going out with his dad on police calls.

Every waking moment that I wasn't having to cut grass or do some of the things I had to do, I spent right behind my daddy. And that's exactly where he was on a hot August morning in 1970. This was a little different. I was a little closer to this situation. When Buddy Bryant responded to a call from the sheriff's department. It involved the mother of kids that I was raised with. A child had spotted a woman's body at the bottom of an abandoned well a lot like this one.

They brought her up out of the well. I'll never forget it was awful. It was macabre. And the poor woman spinning around on that cable. That image has haunted Clay Bryant for 34 years. It was surreal. It was so removed from what life ought to be. Her name was Gwendolyn Moore, and she'd gone missing the night before.

Married at 15 with four kids, she was dead at 30. She was just really a beautiful person. Easy-going, sweet. Pat Terry is Gwendolyn's sister. She was willing to do anything to help anyone. The sparkle in her eyes, her laugh, her smile. Gwendolyn's oldest son, Alan Moore. I had probably the most wonderful mother in the world.

I remember her fixing Kool-Aid for us. I remember her fixing sandwiches for us as we played. But Gwendolyn Moore's smile hit a lifetime of abuse. I knew that there was a lot of talk about the Moore House. the father was known as a rough individual. I've been spanked with everything from a hose pipe to a chain to a tree limb, belts. And this was just routine occurrence in your house? If Daddy got mad, he got mad.

And he took it out on your mother? Yes, ma'am. Quite a few times. We'd hear the beatings going on at night, and we'd just fall asleep crying. She tried to leave him, but he would always find her. She was physically taken back? He threatened to kill the children. if she didn't come back with him.

This was a refuge. Gwendolyn Moore often hid here in a crawl space under a neighbor's house. That's where Alan last saw his mother. Her left eye was swollen shut, and he barely could see out of her right eye. And you could tell it she was in a lot of pain. She's in the crawl space underneath this house. Yes, ma'am. In the dark?

Yes, ma'am. By herself. She said she was leaving. She told me that she loved us very much. much that she'd be back to get us. And I left her there. Gwendolyn Moore's body was found the next day. For the last 34 years, I've honestly thought that it was me that called my mama to die because I felt like if I'd been man enough to grab her by the hand and take her down the road to the police department. You were 14 years old. I was scared to death.

You thought your father had done this from the minute you knew what had happened. Yes, ma'am. Suspicion immediately fell on Gwendolyn Moore's husband Marshall, who admitted he had hit her the day before. He was interviewed by police. He passed a lie detector test, and Clay Bryant says Marshall Moore also knew some very important people in town. For whatever reason, somebody did not want to solve this case. So-and-so knows so-and-so, and he's going to protect some. so-and-so and just your basic corruption?

That's exactly right. It was just a tragic ending to a tragic existence. No one ever was charged, and Clay's dad was helpless to do anything, because the well was just over the city line. This is where the well was right here. Exactly. And out of Buddy Bryant's jurisdiction. An inch as good as a mile.

It's either in or it's out. My daddy had some very strong feelings about this case, and I heard him talk about it all the way up to his death. It was one of the injustices that he really just, he never got over. The years passed, but the son never forgot his father's frustration. Marshall Moore, meanwhile, went on with his life, remarrying within a few months of his wife's death and living in the same house he'd lived in with Gwendolyn. And that's where things stood in 2002, when Clay Bryant got a phone call from a local sheriff's deputy, a remarkable call. He asked me about a case happening in the Hoganville area where a lady had been thrown in a well.

A call that would give him a chance to do what his father had been unable to do. There has to been some type of divine intervention that put it this way. Find justice for Gwendolyn Moore. Clay's like a bloodhound. I mean, when he gets that bite in you, you can hang it up. Clay Bryant is a proud man. We got to go. But not too proud to drive all the local kids to a high school track meet. I was lucky enough to be raised by a mother and father that instilled me the basic principle

that a man has to be accountable for his action. And I hope that I instill that belief in my children. My very consistent son, forgot his shoe. He and wife Beth, a court clerk in LaGrange, have two children, 16-year-old Emily and 14-year-old Clayton. You know what I told you. Your strength's going to be in the middle of the race. Come on, Clayton, pick it up, son.

You got to go, go get it! But the times they spend together are a far cry from the times Clay spent with his dad. At crime scenes, experiences that haunt him still. I'll never forget the sight of them recovering him is more from that well. from that well. Nor will he ever forget the day the Moore case came back into his life. Remarkably, it was on his father's birthday.

There are connections to some things that we just can't explain. I got chills on me now thinking about it. None of it would have happened without Leslie Ionuzzi, a distant relative of Gwendolyn Moore. It all started after she found a photo of a woman she didn't recognize, in a family album. Did you have any idea that you even... that you even had a great-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a.

Her mother Millie explained who Gwendolyn was and her tragic end. What was it about this that piqued your interest any further than that? I guess because nobody ever talked about it, it was just like everything was all covered up, and I just wanted to know what happened. I saw something in her face when she saw Gwendolyn's picture, that I knew she was going to pursue that. Not everyone in the family. Everyone in the family was happy about it, Gwen's sister Pat.

At first I thought, no, don't dig this up. It's in the past. You know, just let well enough along. But Leslie wanted answers. She combed the internet, looking for obituaries. She called Sheriff's Departments, checked out the local county archives, and finally struck pay dirt here at Atlanta's Vital Records Office, where she found Gwendolyn Moore. death certificate.

Once I got the death certificate, that was just, that was the best part for me. It showed not only that the death was no accident, but that everyone back then knew it. Does the death certificate actually say homicide on it? Well, it has the choices, and it has, you know, the little blocks beside it, whether it's a homicide accident, and it is marked as a homicide. So your question then was... Where's the police report? was what I wanted to see at that point.

And? And no one could ever give me one. I kept getting different people with, you know, we'll see what we can find, we'll see what we could find, but nobody could ever give me anything. Leslie was convinced someone had gotten away with murder. There you are. I mean, kind of at a standstill. Right. What broke the logjam?

Clay Bryant. Back, right. Leslie's persistence finally led to Clay being assigned to the case. What you got for me? And then he had a surprise for her. Before we talk about anything, he says, I just wanted you to know I was there. And I said, what do you mean? And he says, I was there when they pulled her up out of the well that day.

He was there with his father. Could you believe that? No. Nope. It was something he carried with him for a long time. It had so much age on it. But as far as developing a suspect, it wasn't any problem. You knew who you were going after.

Oh, absolutely. You just needed to bill the case that would support it. A case against Marshall Moore, Gwendolyn Moore's husband. But Moore was 67 and ailing. Many of the cops from back then were dead, as was the medical examiner who had checked homicide on the death certificate. To prosecute Marshall Moore, Clay knew that he needed new evidence. He needed to exhume the body of Gwendolyn Moore.

We met with the family and told them what we were up against, and we told him it was a long shot. I said, man, I said, I really don't want to do this. I said, Mama's at peace. He told me, he says, Al, he says, I wouldn't ask you to do this if we didn't really need to do this. And he said, the only thing that I ask you to do, if you're going to bring us up again, it's going to hurt all over again.

He said, please promise me that you'll have the conviction to see it through. Clay was at the grave site for the exhumation, and he was with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Pathologist for the Autist. He was cleaning up the skeletal remains and he was looking and he looked at, you know, at the cranium and they said, I just don't see anything that resulted in her death. And without his finding something, we were through. Your case isn't nowhere. It was over. And then all of a sudden, as Dr. Sperry is rebuilding skeletal remains on a table adjacent to the coffin, he says, oops, this is provocative.

Oops, indeed. The bone just in front of the voice box, called the hyoid bone, was fractured. There's not the one way for it to be fractured in its traditional manner, and that's with a thumbs and a manual strangulation. So the lady was dead when she went in the well. Murder? Murder. Three decades after a teenaged Clay Bryant watched Gwendolyn Moore's body being pulled from the well,

the DA charged Marshall Moore with first-degree murder. I didn't think it would go as far as it did. No, this wouldn't have come to be without clay. That's just all there is to it. Marshall Moore went free on bond, insisting through his attorney, William Stemberger, that he is innocent. And as far as your cancer,

he's saying it's still in remission. Yeah. Okay. His trial was delayed by illness and by a illness. appeal. He argued he couldn't get a fair trial after all this time. The defense, as you know, says, good Lord, you know, nobody's alive anymore. I can't call witnesses. How am I supposed to defend this guy? He's sick. You know, why are they persecuting this man? It's not a question of persecution. It's a question of 34 years ago

a tremendous wrong was inflicted on this poor woman. And it began a long time before then. More lost his appeal. He would have to stand trial. What is it going to be like for you to sit in that courtroom and look across and see him sitting there? I know what my mother went through. I'm a big boy now, and I look at him dead in the eyes and say, you were wrong. You want to put your hands on somebody now and come put him on me. I'm old enough and big enough now that I can defend my mama's reputation. But that showdown wasn't to be. Allen's father, Marshall Moore, died in 2005,

just before his murder trial was to begin. I really felt cheated. Once it had went to trial and all the evidence had been shown, everybody would have known that my mother was murdered. Everybody. Do you feel any closure? No, ma'am. I'll wind up taking that to my grave.

Even so, Clay Bryant feels he got his man and that some measure of justice has been served. There is no doubt in my mind that the day that an arrest was made in this case, somewhere, somehow my dad looked down at me and smiled. And fate will intervene again, but this time, literally with a bolt from the blue. Handing Clay Bryant another cold case and another mystery. And guess where the answer just might lie. Has anybody ever accused you of going to the well too often? May 2003.

A freak thunderstorm rolls through western Georgia. Sirens started blaring and then came the rain and lightning. Divine intervention for cold case clay, and his boss, D.A. Pete Scandilaccas. My boss has just bought a brand new Dodge pickup truck. Flame, fire, red, four-door, Dodge Ram, 1,500 pickup truck. And a pine tree broke off. Flatened it, just like a pancake.

It was an act of God bringing everyone together at the same time. The district attorney took his truck to a LaGrange repair shop, owned by Tim Wilkerson. This is Pete's truck. As you can see, the tree had actually fallen across it. Tim had heard about Clay's success with the Gwendolyn Moore case, and he was very interested, because he, too, was haunted by a long-forgotten case. Tim was driving me home and asked me what I opened up his father's case.

And at that point, I said, well, who is your father? And he said, Fred Wilkerson. 49-year-old Fred Wilkerson had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth in November 1987 they had it in their head that he was a truck driver he was on the road and he had skipped town but even though he was in debt Tim and his sister Tracy couldn't see their dad just leaving them we knew that he wouldn't have just gone away on his own that's just not his nature he would not have just left he was the fire chief He was, you know, a community guy and family man.

He was always a part of anything that we did. He came to dance recitals, piano recitals, all those types of things. As you approach the Wilkerson case, what did you see as the biggest problem you had? Fred. Couldn't find Fred. The only clue left behind, Fred's car, the same model as this one, found at the Atlanta airport a month after he disappeared. There were no fingerprints in this car, period. None.

In the words of the investigator at the time, the car was clean as a hounds to. Even more suspicious, two uncashed payroll checks in the glove compartment. A man that's fixing to go assume a new identity. Surely he's not going to leave $500 or $600 uncashed. Apart from the car, Clay Bryant had very little to work with. But the deeper he dug... The pieces started to come together. The more he kept hearing one name, that of Connie Quedens, Fred's ex-girlfriend.

Does she know how to work that funny? Yes, it's recording, love. This home video shows Fred and Connie together at a Wilkerson family gathering. Tim and Tracy blamed Connie for their parents' divorce. They never did like her. He'd brought her to several Christmas gatherings and family reunions. And if we were going to see him, we had to tolerate her. Connie Quedens was divorcing her husband when she and Fred bought this property together in 1987.

Clay Bryant says Fred built the house himself. This is the dream house. This was it. This was going to be their marital residence. This was his gift to her. Fred was infatuated, even carving their initials in a tree. He loved her. As a matter of fact, he deeded the property over to her. her for love and affection.

Written on the day. On the day. But Clay says that shortly after they moved in together, Connie wanted out of the relationship, and she wanted Fred out of the house. By now, Fred was broke, and he wanted his half of the property back. On November 25, 1987, Fred sued Connie Quedens. Two days later, she had him over here to the house to talk about it. And that's the last time anybody ever saw Fred Wilkerson.

Was she ever considered a suspect? I think they interviewed her one time, and they really didn't have any hard evidence against her. I have nothing to hide, nothing. Today, Connie Cueeden says she can't imagine why anyone would think that she was involved in Fred's disappearance. I consider myself a devout Christian. I am a very compassionate person. I love animals. I love people.

You said you were going to have it moved up from Friday, damn you. Well, you didn't say you just hung up. You son of a bitch, you I hate your damn gut. But this would seem to show a somewhat less Christian side to Connie, who like to tape phone conversations. Here, she and Fred argue over dividing their property. This morning, I was ready to do anything to make an amyval settlement with you. Well.

But damn you, you bastard. Outbursts like this don't surprise Michelle James, a former friend of Connie's. She sucks you in. She has a very gentle demeanor, this caring, nurturing type until you cross her. And when you cross her, oh boy. Angry or not, Connie insists there was no reason for her to want to get rid of Fred. You're saying that you owed Fred nothing and that Fred's lawsuit in trying to recover this money was totally without any basis. That's right. It's totally without bases.

Connie even denies that she and Fred ever were romantically involved. You're saying you only had a business relationship with him? That's correct. I was under the impression that he basically had built this house for you. No, that's not true. She enticed him over there

with the intention of killing him. And it's exactly what she did. But if so, where was the body? Everybody told us that his body was in the well on her property. Fred had to be in a place that was deep enough where he could go totally undisturbed. But Clay's suspicions weren't enough to get a search warrant and the case stalled.

Until a tip led him to Lisa Holderman. Bring it here. An old friend of Connie's. I was at work and he tracked me down. She'd given authorities her dynamite information nine years earlier. But somehow, it fell through the cracks. Lisa says the day after Fred disappeared, Connie asked her to come over to her house. She was outside waiting on me with the garage door down, which was odd.

Connie said she needed to deliver a car to the Atlanta airport, and she asked Lisa. If I could drive her car to the airport and pick her up and bring her back. She was at the airport at the terminal waiting when I got there. I never seen the car she drove at all. But Clay believed he knew whose car that was. Clay came back, excited, said, I have found a witness that drove Connie to the airport to drop off Fred's car. I said, you are kidding.

He goes, we've got it. I said, get a search warrant. In September 2003, the Troop County Sheriff's Department descended on Connie's house. What happened then when you showed up here all those years later? It was, gee, I can't imagine what y'all want to look for. I've told this story before. Just cool as a cucumber, so to speak. You didn't have a clue what they were there for?

Not a clue. We told him we were going to start to search at the location of the old well. And at that point, she says, if he's down there, I don't know anything about it. If he's down there. If he's down there, I don't know anything about it, just what she said. While Connie waited inside with Clay, Tracy and Tim waited outside. with curious neighbors. I was scared to death.

It was something that I had to see. I needed to see this. They started digging at 10.30. For 90 minutes, crime scene technicians searched for any sign of Fred. And all of a sudden, Agent Hunt called and said, Clay, we've found human remains. I was stunned, and I said, you're gonna be joking.

Connie was arrested on the spot. I just remember yelling, it's about time. And charged with first-degree murder. I had no reason in the world to ever assume that Fred was dead, none whatsoever. How did Fred Wilkerson end up in your well? I don't know, and that's something I'd like to know. 17 years after Fred's disappearance, Connie Quedens is about to go on trial, about to face a surprising body of evidence.

And it determined Clay Bryant. He said he thought you were the most evil person he had ever met. I happen to think that Mr. Bryant wears horns. I think they've tried to build him up as a super cop. I would like nothing better than to bring him down. The murder, we believe, occurred right inside the lighted window in the laundry room downstairs. The piece of pipe marks the location of where the well was. And the day that we excavated a well, actually it was just as you see it here.

There was no well that was visible. The well had been covered in the middle, completely covered in the middle 90s. Connie Quedon's again, very resourceful. She knew what she needed to do. She engineered her a plan. She got their body to the well. And she couldn't have had a better, more convenient place to put a body. And that was the end of Fred Wilkes.

For 17 years, that's. where he rested. It's been a year since Cold Case Clay hauled what he believes is Fred Wilkerson's body out of Connie Quedon's well. I'm innocent of this crime. In fact, she says, I think we should still be looking for him. Too many people have come forward and said they saw him after that date. I told my wife, I said, that is Fred Wilkerson. People like Harvey Woodham, a childhood friend of Fred's, who insists he saw Fred at a Los Angeles hotel in July 2003. I was shocked. So shocked that he asked hotel security for a copy of the surveillance photo.

Right there is free at going in the elevator. But District Attorney Pete Scandalakas says he will prove Fred couldn't have been in L.A. Since he was at the bottom of Cuedon's well. She lured him in there and she killed him. And she did it, he said. And she did it, he says, out of greed. What this case boils down to is a woman who is not going to give up her land, is going to do anything she can to prevent her ex-lover from getting her land.

That's the motive. That's the motive. Connie's attorney, Skin Edge. Could she possibly be so cold-blooded as to basically execute her ex-lover and throw him in a well? Exactly. I mean, that's the question. Is she the type that would do that? We think no.

The prosecution's first job at trial is to nail down the victim's real identity because DNA tests can't identify the bones positively as Fred's. Since 1987, have you heard from your father? No. Fred's son Tim takes the stand. What type of person was your father? He was well liked. Easy going. I guess everybody liked him. Describe his temperament for the jury. It took a lot for a day to lose his temper.

I mean, he was, like I said, he was easy going. And Tim gives details that might help identify his father. Can you tell us that were you familiar if your dad wore dentures or not? He did have dangers. Tell us what type of things your father would carry in his pockets? Chapstick everywhere he went. Call your next witness, please. Clay Bryant recalls the discovery at Connie's Well.

Agent Hunt called and he said, we feel. found human remains. It's something the prosecutor apparently thinks jurors should see for themselves. Your Honor, it's about to introduce an exhibit that is the contents of the well, which includes the remains of Fred Wilkerson. And, in fact, over-defense objections. We object to them being brought into the courtroom. Objection's overrood.

Clay wheels in what he believes is none other than Fred Wilkerson. Have you ever been associated with this? case where the remains of the victim were brought into the courtroom? In my 20 years as a prosecutor, this is the first time I've done that. That was pretty amazing. Well, we thought that the jurors should see it and we thought we could explain that this was Mr. Wilkerson in the grave. Forensic anthropologist and war crimes expert Dr. Jay Snow begins by describing the physical

evidence he found. This is a pretty good male. We have fairly strong brow ridges coming across here. And the DA makes the connection. to Tim's earlier testimony. Doctor, one of the things that the family had told us is that Mr. Wilkerson wore dentures. Did you find dentures when you were excavating the well site?

I did. These are the dentures for the mandible, the jaw. And it fits quite nicely on the jaw. Did you find any chapstick when you were excavated? I did. This is found in the pants pocket. Doctor, wear the pants. Do you have the pants there?

Pants are right here. Would you please hold those up? when the body was found, were the skeletal remains still inside those pants? Or did that work? Okay. And he says the cause of death is obvious. We have an oblong defect in the top of the skull. And I've seen these many, many times over BASM, primarily they are victims of an execution.

Go back in your mind, it's November 27th, 1987. What exactly do you think happened in this room? Ms. Queens has made the statement that she was cutting off closet rods. And the area behind me back here, you can see the, up on the wall up here. This wall was lined with closet rods. He's down on his hands and knees, and he's cutting the pipe off on the carpet, and she walks up over his head and shoots him in top of the head. This is called a keyhole defect, a keyhole gunshot wound. The bullet went from this direction, from the back.

direction from the back of the head, about four o'clock position in this direction here. Doctor, did you find any other things around the body? We found some pipe. It seems like a very neat fit, but prosecutors have one big problem. If Connie Quedens, in fact, murdered Fred down here in the laundry room, as they insist she did, then how did she, a small woman, managed to move him the entire length of a football field, 140 yards, all the over to hear the site of the old well. We're talking about 170-pound man, 5-10, dead weight, if you believe what they're saying, and that's not an easy thing to do. We want to demonstrate to the jury that it's just, it's not that simple. The defense's demonstration comes at the expense

of Chief Investigator Willis Grizzard. Mr. Grizzard, this is a dummy we put together. The weight's between 155, 160 pounds. That's fine. To duplicate the weight as close we could, that you've testified Mr. Wilkson away. It makes the point. You had a lot of difficulty moving that dummy from here and over it. Well, I've carried him before, but that's a lot different. Clay insists there's a simple explanation. Connie was basically the same size as he was.

Connie could use a chainsaw, she'd tow fence posts, she'd do whatever she needed to do. Plus, she had horses, an ATV, and almost a day to move the body. Actually, for her to move it a hundred yards with the time that she had, I don't think she would have had any problem. That calls Gary Quedens. Back in court, the prosecutor calls Connie's estranged husband Gary Quedens, who describes what he found the night after Fred disappeared. When I went downstairs, I came right across a pistol that was laying on the floor on the carpet. What kind of pistol was it?

A PPC that I had given my wife for protection, a couple of things. years before. Connie's ex-husband, why was his testimony important? Well, he found the gun. He found the gun that we believe was used in the murder. In fact, years later, investigators couldn't find it. Score one for the defense. Ms. Scandalikas called your next witness. But that does little to blunt the prosecution's parade of devastating character witnesses. She always said she don't get mad, she gets even. Anybody that has crossed her path has ended up in jail. are dead. Stay called Gary Queens. Even Connie's own son, Garen, testifies against her. Have you ever seen your mother become violent towards your father towards Gary Quedens?

Um, they would get into like real bad arguments and stuff and, and, you know, slamming doors and stuff like that. When my son got on the stand and said that, I couldn't believe it. Because- This is your son. I know. I know. And it really hurt. Kill them and put him in the well. The case is circumstantial, but in the end, the prosecutor seems confident. Have you heard one piece of evidence here that proves she's innocent? Ladies and gentlemen, if I've ever seen a case riddled with reasonable doubt, this is it. Why did you decide not to testify?

I think that this was more of a character assassination than it was to find me guilty of the crime. Connie Quedon's fate is now in the jury's hands. We're going to get justice here, okay? All right? You know I love you. If 12 enlightened jurors look at this circumstance, there's no doubt in my mind,

they will come to the conclusion that Fred Wilkerson was murdered that night and that he was placed in that well and that Connie Quedens did that. There's no doubt Connie Quedens killed Fred Wilkerson and put him in his well 17 years ago. But as she awaits the jury's verdict, Fred's ex-lover, Connie Quedens, maintains that Clay Bryant has got it all wrong. I did not kill anyone, and I did not know of that body and that well. The jury deliberates for just three hours.

If they come back and say that I'm acquitted, that I'm not guilty, I will thank God and my attorney. You have a verdict, Madam, for them? Yes, Your Honor. The State of Georgia versus Connie King, Quedens. Count one, we the jury find the defendant guilty. The words Fred Wilkerson's children, Tim and Tracy, have waited a lifetime to hear. Count two, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty.

And it's a life sentence for Connie Quedens. I need to file, please. Deputy, this lady in the custody, please. I didn't get my hopes up. I was just scared. She got away so much. For so many years. So many years.

Your sister has said several times that, you know, a bad thing happened to a good man. Oh, yeah. Your thoughts are still with him? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, don't bring him. But, uh, for sure.

But, you know, we're happy, though. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you so much. Tracy thanks the jurors one by one. This was my day's day in court, and this was for him, and for my mother.

They both would miss up around. Two days after the trial, Tracy and Tim give their father the proper burial that Connie Quedon's denied him. It's been a burden lifted off of us. She's in jail, where she belongs, and just hopes she'll never be able to be able. It's hopes she'll never be able to get out. For Clay, it's a fitting end. What is it about going back and solving these old crimes that is so satisfying? It's just so gratifying to be able to step in and set the record straight

and give them, if there is such a thing as closure to something like this, at least give it some finality. His father, perhaps, would be proud. One thing that he tried instill in me was, that justice was something that in the end we have control over. Do a little work and diligence that you could find right. And Clay Bryant always seems to know where to find it. It's been to bruntle several jokes around about you need to go outside and check if you've got an old well on your property,

if you see me out there, you know you've got a problem. Nothing could make me any happy than what I do. Connie Cuedens was denied parole in 2013 and is currently serving a life sentence.