Casefile True Crime - Case 198: Tami Reay

Episode Date: November 27, 2021

When Kmart employee Tami Reay failed to show up at work in Pierre, South Dakota on the morning of Wednesday, February 8 2006, her co-worker Brian Clark called the police to report her missing. Brian had reason to suspect that Tami might have fallen victim of foul play. He and Tami had been having an affair, and her husband had just found out. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn This episode's sponsors: Searching for Sarah MacDiarmid – New podcast from Casefile Presents SimpliSafe – Get 50% off the entire security system The Jordan Harbinger Show – Learn the stories, secrets, and skills of the world’s most brilliant and interesting people Noom – The last weight loss program you’ll need. Start your trial today BetterHelp – Get 10% off your first month of professional counselling with a licensed therapist Daily Harvest – Get up to $40 off your first box with promo code ‘CASEFILE’ For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-198-tami-reay

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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. On the morning of Wednesday, February 8, 2006, Wyoming resident Bonnie Burns sat by her telephone, willing it to ring. Minutes ticked by, but the phone remained silent. With each passing moment, Bonnie's growing sense of unease increased further. She was waiting for a call from her daughter, 41-year-old Tammy Rhea, who lived interstate in the small South Dakota city of Peer. Every single morning without fail, Tammy would call Bonnie for an early catch up.

Sometimes the calls were brief, other times they were long, but not a morning went by without one. This was the first morning that Tammy hadn't called. Unable to contain her concern any longer, Bonnie picked up the receiver and dialed Tammy's home number. She sat listening as the call rang out with no answer. Bonnie hung up and tried Tammy's cell phone. This time the call went to voicemail. Bonnie informed her husband and other two daughters that she was unable to get a hold of Tammy, and they too began taking turns trying to reach her. But, no matter how many times they tried, every single call went unanswered.

There was a one-hour time difference between Bonnie's home in Lander, Wyoming, and Tammy's home in Peer, South Dakota. When Bonnie realized it was almost 9am where Tammy lived, she decided to try her daughter at work. Tammy was employed part-time in the shoe department of a Kmart store. Bonnie soon got a hold of one of Tammy's colleagues who paged Tammy over the store's loudspeaker system. Bonnie listened closely as her daughter's name echoed throughout the store, but there was no response. Tammy wasn't there. Bonnie's concerns swelled into panic. There were approximately 550 miles between her and Tammy, and she had no way of searching for her daughter from such a distance.

Wondering what to do next, Bonnie suddenly remembered the name of one of Tammy's work colleagues, Brian Clark. Tammy had recently told her mother that she and Brian had become good friends, so Bonnie thought he might have some insight as to where Tammy might be. Bonnie dialed the Kmart's phone number again, this time asking if there was a Brian there. Brian Clark had just started his shift when Bonnie's call came through. He picked up the phone and listened as Bonnie introduced herself and asked if he knew where Tammy was. Brian said that he didn't. He had last seen Tammy at about 5 o'clock the previous afternoon. However, he did offer one new piece of information.

Tammy was supposed to be starting a new job at a nearby pharmacy that day. Brian offered to call the pharmacy to see if Tammy had arrived. Bonnie gratefully accepted and waited eagerly for the phone to ring. Within a few minutes, he called back, but not with the news Bonnie wanted to hear. There was no sign of Tammy at the pharmacy either. Bonnie's anxiety peaked. She decided it was time to call the police. Brian offered to make the call himself.

He hung up, then dialed 911. When the operator answered, Brian told them he needed to file a missing persons report. He gave them a brief description of what Tammy was wearing the previous afternoon. A black turtleneck. He then added, Foul play could be suspected here. The operator asked Brian why he would think such a thing. Brian answered,

Hopefully this is discreet, but me and her have been having an affair and apparently her husband has found out about it. Earlier that morning, when 12-year-old Hayley Rhea sat down to eat breakfast, something was off. Her father Brad Rhea was milling about, but her mother Tammy was nowhere to be seen. Tammy was usually bustling about in the kitchen and preparing for the day ahead, but on this particular morning, the house was strangely quiet. Hayley headed to her mother's bedroom. The bed was unmade and Tammy's cell phone was on the dresser, but Tammy wasn't there.

Hayley went into the garage and saw that her mother's car was still parked there. Confused, she walked back into the kitchen. She noticed that Tammy's purse and keys were sitting on the counter. Hayley wasn't sure what was happening. Her mother was always home in the morning and it made no sense that she'd be out without her car, purse, phone or keys. The two had spent the previous evening together while Brad had been working late. It had been a normal, uneventful evening. Tammy had watched Hayley play volleyball at her middle school, then they'd gone grocery shopping and grabbed some Mexican takeaway for dinner.

At no point did Tammy mention anything about going anywhere the next day. Baffled as to where her mother might be, Hayley asked her father what was going on. In a quiet voice, Brad replied, Honey, she's probably at her boyfriend's house. She'll be back in a couple of days. Tammy Burns had met her future husband, Brad Rhea, when she was a 27-year-old living in Billings, Montana. The pair had been introduced by Tammy's sister, who worked alongside Brad at a restaurant. Tammy and Brad immediately hit it off and within a year, Tammy was pregnant. She couldn't have been happier. It had been her dream to get married and have a daughter.

Tammy and Brad tied the knot and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl they named Hayley. Tammy absolutely adored being a mother. She thrived in the role, taking care of Hayley and the home while Brad focused on building his career. He got a job at Walmart and slowly climbed his way up the ranks. Although he was busy, he always made time for Tammy and Hayley. In 2004, Brad's hard work paid off. He was offered a promotion to assistant manager, but it required the family to relocate interstate to Peer. Although Peer was the capital of South Dakota, it was home to less than 14,000 people and there wasn't a lot of action. Its biggest attraction was the O'Wahee Dam and its adjoining lake, which was a hotspot for fishing and hunting.

Regardless, Peer offered a scenic and safe place to raise a family, so Brad accepted the promotion. The news wasn't well received by Hayley, who didn't want to leave her school and friends. Tammy's feelings were mixed. She wanted to support her husband's career, but was reluctant to leave her life in billings behind. Regardless, the move went ahead and within a few months of the Rhea family's arrival in Peer, things started looking up. Hayley joined several sporting teams, which opened the doors for her and Tammy to meet new people. Things improved further when Tammy applied for a part-time job at Kmart. It was there that she met Brian Clark. When Hayley couldn't find Tammy on the morning of Wednesday, February 8, 2006, she was shocked when Brad said she was likely at her boyfriend's house.

This was the first Hayley had heard about her mother having a boyfriend, although she was aware that her parents' relationship was in trouble. Two weeks earlier, Brad and Tammy had sat her down to break the news that they were getting a divorce. Brad had been working incredibly long shifts, sometimes up to 100 hours a week, and had taken a toll on their marriage. Brad and Tammy assured their daughter that everything was going to be okay, and they would do their best to ensure things didn't change too much. The couple planned on staying together until the end of the school year, so that the transition didn't impact Hayley's education. Brad would then move out, while Tammy and Hayley continued living in the family home. Tammy had already found a full-time job doing Medicare billing for a local pharmacy, so she could provide as a single mother. The news of the divorce caught Hayley completely off guard.

Her parents never fought, and she had no reason to believe that a divorce was on the horizon. She was devastated. With Brad now revealing that Tammy had a boyfriend, Hayley didn't know what to think. Why hadn't her mother mentioned anything? The two were incredibly close, and shared similar personality traits. Tammy was a strong athlete who'd earned a volleyball scholarship as a teenager. Hayley had inherited her mother's love of sports, as well as her fun and outgoing manner. The two had never kept secrets from one another before.

Hayley continued getting ready for school, but all she could think about was her mother. After dropping Hayley off at school, Brad Rea made his way to work. He hadn't been there long when two detectives suddenly entered the building and asked to speak with him. They had received the missing person report from Brian Clarke and hoped that Brad might have information about Tammy's whereabouts. When Brad heard that Tammy hadn't shown up for work and police suspected she was missing, he was visibly shocked. He explained that he hadn't seen Tammy since the day before. Brad had arrived home from work just after 10pm to find Hayley asleep in bed, but strangely, Tammy wasn't at home. Several hours passed with no sign of her.

Then, at around 1am, Brad heard a car pull up outside. He peered through a window and saw Tammy park her car, a black Dodge Durango SUV. Another car then pulled up behind her and Tammy got out of her Durango and into the other vehicle. Brad had recently learned that Tammy was seeing another man, so he assumed that's who the other car belonged to. Acting on impulse, he hopped into Tammy's Durango and attempted to follow them. However, after driving a short distance, the Durango broke down and Brad had to pull over to the side of the road. A passing highway patrol officer noticed him and pulled over to provide assistance. By the time Brad got the car started again, he'd long lost sight of Tammy, so he drove back home and went to bed.

When he woke in the morning to find Tammy still wasn't at home, he just assumed she had taken off with her boyfriend and would be home in a couple of days. The detectives listened attentively to Brad's account of the previous night's events. At just 5'7 and 115 pounds, he didn't look like a dangerous man, and there was nothing in his demeanor to suggest he was lying. The detectives asked whether it was possible that Tammy had since returned to the family home. Perhaps she'd decided to pack some belongings, knowing her husband was at work. Brad offered to escort them to the house in case Tammy was there. What he didn't know was that the detectives had already stopped off at his home before going to visit him at work. One of them had peered through the garage window and noticed something that caught his eye.

Brad and the detectives drove to the residence where Brad signed a form consenting to a search of the property. He waited outside while one detective entered to look for Tammy and the other went to search her vehicle. Upon entering the garage, the detectives saw a reddish-brown stain on the door of Tammy's Durango. This is what he'd noticed earlier when looking through the window and had suspected it was blood. As he moved closer, he also saw what appeared to be blood dripping from the vehicle's side running board. Each drop fell in a small pool on the concrete floor below at a rate that indicated someone had lost a significant amount of blood. The detective opened the Durango's back door and was overwhelmed by the strong stench of bleach. He noticed swirls on the vehicle's upholstery that suggested someone had tried to wipe something up.

Everything about the situation suggested foul play, but the detective didn't want to alert Brad to what he'd found. Brad could withdraw his consent for the search at any time, and the detective wanted to secure an official search warrant before the homeowner changed his mind. Instead, the two detectives asked Brad to join them at the station to answer some questions. While he was away from home, they would covertly apply for a search warrant. Meanwhile, Haley was sitting in class worrying about her mother when a message suddenly blared over the loudspeaker summoning her to the front office. Haley's mind started to race. She nervously walked to the office and was greeted by a police officer who wanted to ask her some questions about her parents' relationship. Haley said that her mom and dad didn't fight and there had never been any violence between them.

Because of this, the recent news of their divorce had been very unexpected. When she had gone to bed the night before, Tammy was at home and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. While Haley was being questioned, police contacted some of Tammy's friends and family to see if they knew where Tammy could be. There was a reason why Tammy's mother hadn't contacted Brad when Tammy missed their early morning phone call. During the recent Christmas break, Tammy had visited her family in Wyoming and told them she planned on leaving her husband. Tammy's family suspected she might have been seeing someone else as she had mentioned Brian's name several times, but they had impressed her on the matter. Brad had even called Tammy's mother Bonnie asking for her help to save their marriage, but it was clear that Tammy had already made up her mind. Back at the peer police station, Brad was cooperative as detectives sat him down for a chat.

He told them that Tammy had recently revealed she was dating another man and wanted a divorce, but Brad didn't know who the other man was or where he lived. He said that he didn't want to know and wasn't curious to find out. Brad strongly denied having anything to do with Tammy's disappearance and insisted he had no idea where she could be. When the detectives told Brad that blood had been found on the running board of Tammy's Durango, he was visibly shocked. He admitted he was the last person to drive the vehicle when attempting to trail Tammy the night before, repeating his story about breaking down and a highway patrol officer offering assistance. Brad insisted that after restarting the car, he drove straight home. He didn't recall hitting an animal or anything else.

When he got home, he parked the Durango in the garage. If Tammy or anyone else had returned to retrieve the vehicle, he didn't know about it. While Brad was questioned, the search warrant for his house was approved. Police examined each room, but nothing appeared to be out of place. The beds were all made and the washer and dryer were filled with clean laundry. There was no sign of Tammy and no indication that anything untoward had happened. Other than the blood in Tammy's vehicle, it appeared to be a warm and loving family home. Yet, when investigators swabbed the Durango for forensic evidence,

they realized that there was much more blood than they initially thought. Samples were sent to a forensic lab along with some of Tammy's personal belongings to confirm whether it was a match for her DNA. The interviewing detectives were at a loss. Brad didn't have a criminal record and there was no evidence to suggest he was responsible for Tammy's disappearance. However, the amount of blood found in her car indicated she had been seriously harmed and most likely killed. If this was the case, Brad was the most likely suspect. He had access to Tammy's car and her desire for a divorce suggested an obvious motive.

The problem was, without a body, they couldn't even be certain that Tammy was dead. Brad was interrogated for five hours, with detectives slowly increasing the pressure. Despite their persistent questioning, Brad continued to deny having any knowledge of Tammy's whereabouts. Desperate for answers, the detectives flatly accused him of lying. This accusation was the final straw for Brad. He asked for a lawyer. Now, the detectives were faced with a difficult decision. They still couldn't be 100% certain that Tammy was dead, but all signs pointed to homicide. If Brad was responsible and they let him go, it would give him an opportunity to destroy any potential evidence.

Under pressure to make a call, they abruptly arrested Brad for first-degree murder, setting bail at $100,000. Brad was incredulous and staunchly maintained his innocence. Haley was placed in foster care overnight as Tammy's family in Wyoming were brought up to speed with what was going on. Unable to bear the thought of Haley being on her own, Tammy's father got in his car and began the nearly nine-hour drive to be with his granddaughter. Brad's friends were stunned to learn he'd been arrested for murder. Brad was a gentle family man, and they couldn't imagine him ever raising a hand to his wife, let alone launching a vicious and deadly attack. However, they weren't surprised to hear that he hadn't pushed Tammy for information about the other man she was seeing. Brad was a mild-mannered person, hounding Tammy wouldn't be in his nature.

With Brad in custody, the next step for detectives was to question Tammy's boyfriend, Brian Clark. He was summoned to the police station and arrived with a lawyer by his side. Like Tammy, Brian was also married with a daughter. The two co-workers had initially hit it off as friends, but their friendship had slowly become physical and blossomed into a romance. Brian told detectives the last time he saw Tammy was on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 7, the day before she went missing. The two had met at the Fawn Motel in Peer. Afterwards, Brian dropped Tammy home at around 5pm. From there, he attended a local basketball game with his wife and daughter.

When the game finished, he went home with his family and didn't leave the house again until going to work the next morning. Brian said his wife could verify his alibi. The only problem was that she didn't know about his affair with Tammy and he didn't want her to know. He was reluctant for police to question her as there would be no way to do so without revealing this information. Once again, the detectives weren't sure what to think. Brian seemed genuine, but the fact that he'd already retained and brought a lawyer with him seemed suspicious. If he was innocent, why did he feel compelled to seek legal counsel from the get-go? The fact that Brian's wife didn't know about his affair with Tammy also gave Brian a strong motive for murder.

Perhaps after Tammy came clean to Brad about her relationship with Brian, she had pushed Brian to do the same with his spouse. Maybe she wanted Brian to get a divorce, but he wasn't prepared to do so. Tammy might have threatened to approach Brian's wife herself, which could have pushed him over the edge. The blood pointed towards Brad, who undisputedly had access to Tammy's vehicle. However, if Brad was telling the truth about trailing Tammy and her boyfriend in the early morning hours of Wednesday, February 8, it was possible that Brian had killed Tammy and then planted blood on her vehicle in an attempt to frame Brad. Both men had a motive, but only one of them could be telling the truth. Inquiries were made with the Highway Patrol Unit to check Brad's claim that he'd broken down while trailing Tammy.

Dashcam footage confirmed that at 1.40am, a state trooper had found the derango pulled over on the side of the road with Brad rear behind the wheel. The trooper asked Brad for ID, but he said he didn't have any as he was just ducking out to grab something from the store. He willingly provided his full name, and the trooper didn't notice anything suspicious about his behaviour. Nor did he see anything strange in or on the car. Once Brad got the car started again, he drove off in the direction of his home. The detectives now had confirmation of the story he had consistently told them from the beginning. With so many unanswered questions, the case couldn't progress any further until Tammy was found. When morning broke on Thursday, February 9, a search party made up of police officers, firefighters and local volunteers

gathered to comb the vast countryside surrounding Peer. Time was of the essence. The hills around the city saw very little foot traffic, except for the hunters who flocked to the area between October and January. Hunting season had just concluded. This meant that if Tammy was lying undiscovered in the area, it was highly unlikely that anyone would come across her body until the next hunting season began in eight months time. By that point, wild animals would have likely found her first. On foot and with the help of cadaver dogs, the search party covered mile upon mile of the rolling hills and prairies. Law enforcement managed to secure a helicopter from the National Guard to cover the area overhead, but even with the advantage of a bird's eye view, there was no sign of Tammy anywhere.

As the sun began to descend for the day, the helicopter pilot decided to do one last sweep of an isolated prairie approximately 10 miles north of Peer. As they passed over a spillway running off the Awahi dam, they noticed something in the rugged terrain below. It was the naked body of Tammy Rhea. Tammy had been stabbed upwards of 35 times and her throat had been slashed. It appeared that some of the injuries had been made after she was already dead, sometime after the initial attack. Her hands were covered in knife wounds, indicating she had attempted to fight off her killer. One cut was so deep that the bone had been exposed, as though Tammy had taken hold of the knife during the attack. It was the most extreme case of overkill that attending detectives had ever witnessed.

Yet, there was no blood on the scene, meaning that the attack itself had occurred elsewhere. Officers searched the area for clues and found a t-shirt shredded with knife cuts, as well as a pair of blood-stained gloves. Nothing was found that identified the killer. Tammy's father, Don, was nearing Peer on his drive from Wyoming when his cell phone rang and a police officer broke the dreaded news that Tammy's body had been found. To save him the pain of seeing her injuries, Don was told he wouldn't need to formally identify his daughter. Haley had been hoping with all her might that her mother would be found alive. When she received the terrible news, she refused to believe that Brad could be responsible. There was no way that the father she knew could be capable of such a heinous crime.

Tammy's body was autopsyed, but it didn't reveal any forensic evidence tying either Brad or Brian to her murder. Police returned to the Rhea property and conducted another search, this time testing surfaces around the house with luminal. Once again, they found nothing. Tammy and Brad had been sleeping in separate bedrooms and both their beds were microscopically examined, but there was no trace of blood anywhere. Investigators began to wonder if they had arrested an innocent man. The evidence simply wasn't adding up against Brad Rhea. Instead, they turned their attention to Brian Clark. They had no choice but to question Brian's wife, Kerry, not her real name, in turn forcing Brian to break the news to her about his affair with Tammy.

Kerry was obviously crushed, but when the detectives asked her about Brian's whereabouts on the night of Tuesday, February 7, she confirmed that he had been with her and their daughter at a local basketball game. Afterwards, they spent the rest of the night at home. But there was one problem. Although Kerry and Brian shared at the same bedroom, Kerry suffered from ongoing back pain and sometimes slept in a recliner chair downstairs. The night Tammy was killed, she had slept in the recliner. This meant it was possible that Brian had sneaked out in the middle of the night without his wife's knowledge. Brad remained in custody while the investigation continued. Haley hoped the police would find the evidence to clear her father so that she wouldn't have to live without both of her parents.

But investigators still didn't have any evidence to charge Brian and there were no other suspects. However, with no crime scene and no hard proof who the killer was, the case couldn't proceed to trial until the prosecution could build a solid case against Brad. Then on March 9, one month after Tammy's murder, an envelope arrived at the office of the Attorney General that contained some startling revelations. Inside the envelope was a letter written by one of Brian Clark's cousins. He had information that he needed to get off his chest. According to the letter, Brian had confided that on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 7, he and Tammy had met at the Fawn Motel where they had sex. They wanted to meet up again later so that night, Brian drove to Tammy's house for a second rendezvous. The couple took some blankets and drove Tammy's derango out to a remote area. They laid the blankets down and Tammy removed all of her clothes except for her t-shirt.

She then asked Brian to use a condom but Brian didn't want to. Tammy insisted which triggered a surge of rage in Brian. They began fighting and Brian forced himself on Tammy, raping her. She tried to fight him off, losing her wedding ring in the process. During the attack, the condom came off inside of Tammy's body. In a violent frenzy, Brian took out a knife and began stabbing Tammy. She tried to get up and run away but Brian chased after her and fatally stabbed her in the back. He then wrapped her body in the blankets they had brought and loaded her into the derango.

After dumping Tammy's body, he drove the vehicle back to her house and parked it in the garage. Brian had subsequently confided the details of this attack to his cousin who helped him get rid of evidence. The information provided throughout the letter matched several known aspects of the crime that hadn't been released to the public. There was no way the letter's author could have known these details unless they had intimate knowledge from the killer themselves. But there was one detail that didn't quite make sense. Tammy's body had been autopsied and there was no condom found inside her as Brian's cousin claimed. Determined to find out the truth, investigators called for a second autopsy. Upon re-examination, the pathologist discovered that there was indeed a used condom lodged inside Tammy's body.

A crucial piece of evidence that had somehow been missed during the first post-mortem examination. It appeared that Brian's cousin was telling the truth. The condom promised to be the major breakthrough the investigators had been waiting for. It was forensically tested in the hopes it would identify Tammy's killer once and for all. Unfortunately, due to the amount of time it had spent inside Tammy's body, all traces of DNA had degraded and couldn't be identified. What had looked like a promising piece of evidence was now raising even more questions. Whoever wrote the letter clearly had inside a knowledge of Tammy's murder, but there still wasn't any physical evidence to back their claim that Brian Clark was the killer.

The biggest problem was that investigators still had no idea where the murder had been committed. Police returned to the Rhea home to conduct yet another search, hoping to find even the smallest of clues. As one officer rummaged through Brad's dresser drawers, they came across something of interest. It was a small digital audio recorder. As they pressed play, a static noise filled the air. The officer waited, but nothing else followed. Finally, after about 15 minutes of static, Tammy's voice filled the room. It sounded as though the recording had captured her side of a phone conversation.

The officer listened as Tammy asked to speak to Brian Clark. When Brian presumably picked up the other line, Tammy told him, It's just me, I just needed to hear your voice. They chatted for a few minutes before Tammy said, I love you very, very much. From the beginning of the investigation, Brad had maintained that he didn't know who Tammy was dating, but the recording clearly featured Brian's first and last names. If the audio recorder belonged to Brad, then this was irrefutable proof that he'd been lying.

However, the officers were aware that just because the device was found in Brad's drawer, it didn't necessarily mean it belonged to him or that he knew what was on it. Investigators got to work trying to figure out when the phone calling question had been recorded. They discovered that the recording was made just four days prior to Tammy's murder. The police were also able to recover some deleted digital files. When an investigator hit play on one of the files, a voice spoke over static airspace, testing to see whether the recorder worked by slowly saying, One, two, three, four.

It was Brad Rhea. It was clear that Brad had been the one to record Tammy's phone conversation with Brian. With police now able to prove that he was lying about knowing who Tammy's boyfriend was, they had to consider what else he could be lying about. The transcripts of his initial police interrogation were reviewed, and one investigator noted something that stuck out as odd. When the heat was placed on him for Tammy's murder, Brad said, All this evidence points at me, but I'm hoping that the body is found,

because there'll be something to set me free. Maybe DNA, something like that. Investigators believed this suggested Brad knew the used condom would be found inside Tammy's body, most likely because he had planted it there in an attempt to frame Brian Clark. But if this was the case, how would he have obtained a condom with Brian's DNA on it? Investigators questioned Brian and learned that he would sometimes dispose of used condoms by throwing them out of his car window. Investigators began to suspect that Brad had tailed Tammy and Brian on more than one occasion. He had already admitted to having done so on the night of his wife's murder.

Police believed he had most likely followed them before and saw Brian throw away the condom, prompting him to hatch a plan to frame Brian by planting his DNA on Tammy's body. He likely didn't know that the DNA could disintegrate over time when exposed to bodily acids. Brad had probably been confident that the condom would exonerate him. For some time, investigators had been recording Brad's phone conversations in jail in the hopes they might hear something that would finally solve the case. Brad had a twin brother named Brett Rayer, whom he spoke to regularly. During one conversation between the brothers, Brad had told Brett to bring a notepad next time he came to visit. Detectives thought this seemed suspicious, so they set up a covert video camera to capture the meeting.

Brett sat down opposite Brad in a meeting room separated by plexiglass. Brad told his brother that he wanted him to send some letters on his behalf. Then he pressed a piece of paper up against the glass. Brett examined the paper and took out a yellow notebook, quickly scribbling down some notes. Brad said, there's a reason behind it. Do you see where I'm going with this stuff? After Brett left the jail, police trailed his car. They watched as he posted some letters. Later that day, they eventually pulled Brett over three hours west of Peer in the South Dakota town of Spearfish.

They searched his car and found the yellow notebook. In it were notes containing the same details that appeared in the letter that eventually arrived at the office of the Attorney General claiming to be from a cousin of Brian Clark. Brett Rhea was arrested and charged with being an accessory to a felony. Brad denied asking his brother to write a letter framing Brian. He claimed the visit in jail was simply because he owned some valuable baseball cards that he wanted Brett to secure for him. Given that the letter contained details only the killer could know, investigators now knew for certain that Brad was the real perpetrator. However, from a legal standpoint, there still wasn't any physical evidence tying him to Tammy's murder. If the case went to court, state prosecutors couldn't be sure there was enough for a jury to find him guilty.

Then investigators came across another letter. This one was written by Brad to his twin brother, Brett. In it, Brad described some good fishing spots near Peer. He drew a map directing Brett to several locations around the O'wahy Dam. With Brad facing charges for murder, investigators thought it unlikely that he was focused on something as trivial as fishing. They were convinced these locations held some other kind of significance. With the help of sniffer dogs, a search team went to check the locations Brad had pinpointed on his map. At an area near the O'wahy Dam power station, they foraged through the scrub and came upon a cluster of juniper bushes.

Hidden among them were three black garbage bags. Inside were several items of bedding, including sheets, blankets, quilts and pillowcases. All were soaked with blood. One of the bags also contained a pair of bloody rubber gloves, women's underwear and an open box of condoms. One was missing. The bedding and blood were confirmed to be Tammies. Amongst the linens was another particularly interesting item, a large bloodstained tarpaulin. Given there was no blood evidence found inside the rear home, the tarp allowed investigators to piece together a probable scenario.

They deduced that Brad had likely fitted the tarp over Tammies mattress without her knowledge, then lined it with several sheets so she wouldn't be able to feel it was there. After she went to bed on the night of February 7, Brad walked in and launched a brutal attack, stabbing her five times in the back and slitting her throat while she slept. The amount of blankets on the bed would have instantly soaked up the blood and prevented any spatter, explaining why there was no blood found at the crime scene. Afterwards, Brad had wrapped Tammies body in the blankets and tarp, then carried her out to the garage, which was only five feet away from her bedroom. He loaded her into the Durango and planted the used condom inside her. Either while they were in the vehicle or when they arrived at the Awahi Dam spillway, Brad decided to launch another attack, inflicting multiple stab wounds to Tammies chest. Finally, he disposed of her body and the garbage bags full of evidence. As for Brad's story about breaking down on the side of the road and having a conversation with a highway patrol officer, investigators theorized that this was likely a close call.

Brad had been driving in the direction of Brian Clark's house, and it was possible that he had been heading there with the intention of planting evidence. He'd likely assumed the condom would be found and DNA testing would link it back to Brian, thereby framing him for the murder. But, once Brad realized this key piece of evidence was missed during Tammies autopsy, he hatched a scheme to write false confession letters and enlisted his twin brother's help to send them from outside of jail. At the time of Brad's arrest, traces of vegetation were found on his shoes. These were tested and confirmed to match the Juniper bushes where the blood-soaked evidence was dumped. Furthermore, the garbage bags used to dispose of the evidence were the exact same kind as others found inside the Rhea home. This is undisputedly placed here at the crime scene, and the existence of the tarp indicated premeditation. With all of these elements combined, the prosecution finally felt they had a strong enough case to take Brad to trial.

The trial commenced in January of 2007, with Brad Rhea pleading not guilty to first-degree murder. Considering the death penalty wasn't being sought, South Dakota law dictated that if Brad was convicted, he'd automatically receive a mandatory life sentence. The prosecution anticipated a short trial for what they believed to be an open and shut case, but Brad made a rare decision for a defendant. He agreed to take the stand in his own defense. No one quite knew what to expect when it came time for him to testify. What he said shocked the courtroom, especially members of Tammy's family. Unable to conceal the lies any longer, Brad felt he finally had to come clean. It wasn't him who killed Tammy, but he's now 13-year-old daughter Haley.

He testified that the trouble began when he and Tammy told Haley they were getting a divorce. Haley was devastated. She liked her house and her family and didn't want anything to change. She was furious that her parents didn't want to work things out and had been depressed about the impending divorce for days. On the night of Tuesday, February 7, Brad came home late from work to find both Tammy and Haley already asleep. He went to bed himself, only to be awoken around midnight by the family's cat. He heard some noise from Tammy's room and went to see what it was. To his shock, he saw Haley standing over Tammy's body. She was covered in blood and holding a knife.

Her nose was also bleeding as a result of being hit by Tammy as she fought back. Brad cried out, asking Haley what she'd done, but Haley didn't respond. She was catatonic. Brad jumped on Tammy and tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but it was no use. She was already dead. Haley showed no emotion or reaction and seemed barely conscious. It was then that Brad realized she was sleepwalking. In a panic, he carried Haley back to bed and wiped all the blood off of her.

Then he tried to clean up the crime scene. He bundled up the blood-soaked bed linens, threw their bloodied clothing in the washing machine, and carried Tammy's body into her car. Wanting to protect his daughter, he made the snap decision to plant the condom in an attempt to blame the man Tammy was dating. When Haley woke the next day, she acted completely normal, and it was clear to Brad that she had no recollection of what had happened. His initial plan had been to take Haley and flee to Mexico, but he was arrested before he could act on it. Brad said Haley had always exhibited some troubling behaviors, claiming that when she was a child, she used to stab her stuffed animals. Brad knew his daughter needed psychological treatment, but didn't think she'd get it if she was sent to prison, so he decided to lie to authorities to protect her. He acknowledged that he'd broken the law and should be charged accordingly.

But because his lies were based on the desire to protect his daughter, he urged the jury not to find him guilty of murder. Brad's lawyer argued that because Haley was unconscious when she stabbed Tammy, she couldn't be held legally responsible, telling the jury, there's a lot that could have been going on between Haley and Tammy without us knowing about it. He referenced Haley's strong athletic abilities, with particular focus on her volleyball skills, indicating that her overarm serving style was similar to the downward stabbing motion used in Tammy's murder. The defense lawyer said, if Brad Rhea is telling us the truth, shame on us all. Brad watched intently as Haley was put on the stand. She vehemently denied his accusations. Haley spoke of her deep love for her mother and said she would never have done anything to hurt her. This contrasted with her relationship to her father. Haley had never been very close to Brad and was now afraid of him. On the night of Tammy's murder, Haley went to sleep with her bedroom door open.

At around midnight, she woke up to find it was closed. Her father opened the door and was holding an armful of clothing. Haley asked what he was doing, to which Brad replied, nothing. He put the clothes down and laid down in Haley's bed, telling her he loved her. Haley fell back asleep and when she woke the next morning, her mother was gone and her father was doing laundry. When she had asked him where her mother was, Brad had initially claimed she was in her room. But Haley had checked the entire house and there was no trace of Tammy. As for the lawyer's inference that she was capable of stabbing her mother based on her volleyball serve, Haley said she didn't use an overarm serve at all, but an underarm one. The prosecution was outraged by Brad's claim that Haley was the killer.

The stab wounds on Tammy's body were incredibly deep, some two inches longer than the blade of the weapon itself. The sheer force of the knife wounds alone couldn't have been afflicted by someone of Haley's size, nor did she have any history of sleepwalking. During cross-examination, Brad said that he and Tammy had a happy marriage, but his long work hours had ultimately driven her away. Arguing against Haley's claim that she wasn't close with him, Brad claimed they were so close that he was willing to go to prison for her. Brad's testimony only served to hurt his defense, as he gave inconsistent answers to facts that had already been established. He claimed he didn't know Tammy was having an affair until after he was arrested, even though he'd already admitted this fact to detectives when Tammy was first reported missing. He also claimed that the blood Haley was covered in was predominantly from her bloody nose, not Tammy's injuries. Given how many wounds were inflicted, this seemed highly unlikely.

Similarly, he said that when giving Tammy mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, he didn't notice any stab wounds, just blood. Given the amount of injuries to Tammy's chest, the prosecution argued it would have been impossible not to notice the wounds if Brad really did attempt to revive her. Brad's attempt to place the blame on his daughter was fruitless. His brother, Brett, had already admitted to writing the letters aimed at framing Brian Clark. After his arrest, Brett had cooperated fully with investigators, agreeing to testify against his twin in exchange for being released from jail after serving 172 days. Brett said he was genuinely sorry for the part he played and regretted trying to help Brad. Brett told the court his brother deserved to be sent to prison. He was released immediately after testifying.

The judge believed he had already suffered enough. The twins' mother had recently passed away from an aneurysm after visiting her sons in jail. It was also revealed just how Brad had figured out who Tammy was dating. He'd bugged her car with the audio recording device and then placed a bunch of flowers in the vehicle along with a letter that read, I'm sorry, let's make up. Just as Brad had hoped, Tammy thought the flowers were from her boyfriend and called Brian to thank him, thus revealing his identity to Brad. It took the jury just three hours to find Brad Rhea guilty of first-degree murder.

His attempt to place the blame on Hailey had made him look more guilty and only served to anger members of the jury. The prosecutor stated, Brad was one of the best witnesses I had. His testimony hurt him a bunch. Following the verdict, Tammy's family released a statement that read, Justice was finally served and all the lies can stop. Tammy was such a wonderful person with such a zest for life. Unfortunately, she was not given an opportunity to make a better life for herself and Hailey.

Despite the mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder, an official sentencing date was set so that Tammy's loved ones could have their moment to speak about the impact the murder had on their lives. Hailey chose not to speak, instead providing the judge with an undisclosed written statement. As Tammy's mother Bonnie addressed the courtroom, Brad Rhea stood with his eyes glued to the floor. Bonnie said, We trusted you for so many years and you deceived us. You have taken all that you can from this family. On this earth, you will not receive enough punishment for your heinous crime.

She added that Brad should be ashamed of himself for trying to blame his own daughter, quipping, I'm surprised you didn't try to blame the cat. A video slideshow celebrating Tammy's life was played, but Brad showed zero emotion. At no point did he apologize. He seemed intent on sticking to his story that Hailey was the real killer, telling the court, I gave up my life because I love her. The judge concluded that Brad was a calculated, cold-blooded murderer, motivated to kill Tammy out of revenge for her having an affair and wanting a divorce.

She told Brad he had unsuccessfully attempted to paint himself as the victim. Quote, You are not a victim, you are a predator. Along with a life sentence, the judge ordered that Brad be forbidden from having contact with Hailey or Tammy's family ever again. Brad tried to appeal the conviction and called for a retrial. He argued that Hailey's DNA was never compared to DNA found at the crime scene, and that his defense lawyer had failed him by not pursuing any other DNA evidence. He also claimed that investigators had falsified evidence against him.

His appeal was unanimously rejected. Hailey Rhea lost both parents on the day her father made the decision to murder her mother. She went to live with Tammy's family in Wyoming and never saw Brad again. In the wake of the crime, Tammy's sister Holly told NBC reporter Josh Mankiewicz, Quote, The best you can do is try to stay strong forever. Quote, The best you can do is try to stay strong for Hailey.

It's really like having someone cut your arm off. I mean, it's a piece of you that you never get back. And thank goodness we still have Hailey, because she is so much like her mum. Tammy's family successfully filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Brad for $5.3 million, while Brad didn't have that much money. The ruling allowed them to sell off his personal property and give the proceeds to Hailey. Growing up without Tammy was incredibly difficult for Hailey, but she refused to let the tragedy define her.

After graduating high school, she studied criminal justice at university before getting married and having a son of her own. The unconditional love her mother gave her has been an ongoing motivator for Hailey, who continues to look up to Tammy and aspire to be the type of parent she was. Looking back, Hailey now realizes that just because her father wasn't physically violent, it doesn't mean he wasn't abusing Tammy in other ways. Brad was known to constantly hover over Tammy, often not letting her out of his sight.

His controlling behavior bordered on obsessive. When he wasn't at work, he'd often show up unannounced wherever Tammy was. When the couple would visit Tammy's family in Wyoming, Tammy's sisters and mother noticed that Brad would sit so close to Tammy that no one else could come near her. While Brad had sulked and barely ate for days after the couple told Hailey they were getting divorced, Tammy had appeared unaffected. It was as though her weight had finally been lifted.

Wanting to make sure her mother didn't lose her life in vain, Hailey has used her experience to educate others on the early warning signs of domestic violence. She has worked with various charities and organizations, traveling the United States to speak about victims' rights and the red flags to look out for. Hailey shares her journey on a Facebook page titled, In Memory of Tammy Burns-Rhea. In a 2016 TED Talk, Hailey said, Hailey said,

However, what I can do is be her voice. I will speak out for her and so many others who did not get the chance. Just because my mum didn't have physical scars that everyone could see, she had emotional scars, ones that never go away. Not every situation has to end the way ours did, but I will continue to be my mum's voice, because silence will not break the violence. you