Cold Case Files - DNA SPEAKS: Death of a Yellow Rose

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

When Susan Woods, 30, is found beaten and drowned in her tub in America's cowboy capital, suspicion falls on her estranged husband; with a suspect's DNA in hand, detectives go back to the basics to unmask a killer cowboy living in plain sight.MINT MOBILE - To get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to MINTMOBILE.com/coldcase.ZOC DOC - Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to ZocDoc.com/CCF to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today!QUALIA - Go to Qualialife.com/COLDCASE for up to 50% off and use code COLDCASE at checkout for an additional 15% off!This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance! 

The following episode contains disturbing accounts of violence and sexual assault that may be triggering. Listener discretion is advised. I felt like Susan and I were like sisters. Very close. Susan would be the first person you would want to talk to if something bad happened. It was really tragic. How can something this bad happen in our lives? Just by the carnage he left in Susan Wood's house,

I knew this guy was the devil. I bought an extra gun and started leaving my porch light on. We knew that DNA was getting started. Didn't know where it was going to go. It just eats at you day in and day out. Eats at your soul. I had virtually no hope that it would be solved.

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. My name is Shannon Myers Barrientos. is one of those rare stories. My name is Shannon Myers Barrientos. I look back, and I'm like, how did I survive? When I got into the vehicle, I knew I messed up immediately. He had a cold look in his eyes. My gut was telling me, this isn't right.

I did not know where we were going it was excluded to Roadside Park and that's when the rape started happening immediately he would hit me and shove my head into the ground and would stop and then smoke a cigarette when he was sitting there smoking a cigarette he made the comment, I've killed before, and I'm not afraid to kill again. It's July 28, 1987, in Stephenville, Texas, one year before Shannon Myers is sexually assaulted. It's a hot summer night in Stephenville, Texas. Cindy Hayes and her boyfriend Roy are heading to visit Cindy's best friend, 30-year-old Susan Woods. I said, go by Susan's house.

I said, I haven't heard from her in, you know, in a little while. As they approach Susan's home, the couple sees that something is very wrong. This is Roy Hayes. We could see the strobes from emergency vehicles up ahead. And we're like, what's going on? And then we see the crime tape. There was police on Susan's porch inside her house. I saw her dad, and he said, she's dead, Cindy, she's dead.

And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, she can't be. He said, I found her body. I found her in the house, and she's dead. He was just hysterical. Richard Pringle is a former sergeant with the Stephenville Police Department. I can still see it. Her hands were tied probably about that far apart. And it looked like it was maybe a tank top or a knit shirt or something that had been twisted up.

The upper part of her chest and her head were under the water. The water was kind of pinkish color, probably due to the decomposition. It's a smell that is hard to get out of your mind. She'd been there a day or two. Don Miller is a former lieutenant. By the looks of that scene that she had been sexually assaulted, obviously it was a murder. Immediately to the left of the bathroom was her bedroom and the bedroom was in total disarray. Something horrible had happened in the bedroom and eventually culminated into the bathroom. As police process the scene inside, outside, Susan's distraught father, Joe Atkins, faces a difficult task.

Gloria Martin is Susan's close friend. Joe looked at me and he said, Cindy, you're going to have to go with me and tell her mother. And I said, Joe, I can't. There's no way. I can't. And he's like, Cindy, I can't go by myself. You're going to have to go with me and tell her mother. And I said, Joe, I can't. There's no way I can. And he's like, Cindy, I can't go by myself. You're going to have to go with me. Joe went in the door ahead of me and told his wife that she was dead. I remember her saying, no, Joe, no.

And she looked at me and she goes, is that right, Cindy? And I said, that's what they tell me, Irma. They tell me she's not here. She started just bawling and crying and just beside herself. She ran to her bedroom, shut the door and cried and cried. That was her only daughter. Me and Susan met in band in high school. We both played clarinet, and our band director had made a booklet of everybody's names and

birthdays. I saw the name Susan Atkins, and I went up to her and I said, I believe me and you have the same birthday. And she said, yes, we do. And then, you know know we fast became friends she was just very very honest sincere person Susan was sweet shy quiet and had a hilarious sense of humor steamville is full of cowboy types it's now known as the cowboy capital of the world but we called him goat ropers back then.

There wasn't a whole lot to do in Stephenville back in the old days, but we were very happy with just going to the Dairy Queen. My favorite memory of Susan would be making the drag. You would go from one Dairy Queen to the next Dairy Queen, back and forth. There were no cell phones, so if you wanted to know who was out, you had to ride up and down the road. I don't think I ever saw her any happier. Susan didn't date a whole lot. She was leery of guys. She'd have to get to know him a while before she'd go out with him. That changes in 1980, when 23-year-old Susan meets a young musician new to Stephenville. Michael Woods was a free spirit, kind of a hippie type.

Loved to play his guitar. When Susan and Mike met, it seemed to me they were head over heels almost immediately. They were never apart. After a few short months, Susan and Michael get married that June, yet the couple's happiness is fleeting. My only downside really on Mike was that he didn't seem to want to work. I think he was looking more to try to find a job where he could play music. That's probably what caused a lot of conflict in Susan and Mike's lives.

It made me sorry for Susan, because she did pretty much all the housework. She worked long, long hours at the sandpaper factory. Susan was the breadwinner, and I could kind of tell that there was a little bit of resentment going on. I don't know how many times exactly Mike left her, and then they get back together. Toward the end, she had just, you know, she had it. I think he was wanting to go back to Indiana to help his brother with some construction

on a house. Susan said, if you leave this time, I'm going to divorce you. It's either me or your brother. After seven years of marriage, Michael moves to Indiana, and he doesn't leave empty-handed. I went by Susan's house, and she was crying her eyes out. The house was a wreck. Michael had taken so much of her stuff. And he had left terrible notes all over her house, things I can't even say.

Mike did leave behind a cassette tape when he left. It was just horrible. It was everything he hated about Stephenville, everything he hated about her. Every fifth word was a cuss word. It reeked of disrespect. Susan had had enough after this breakup, and that's when she finally got divorce papers.

She was really just coming out of her shell when she died. I looked at the scene, tried to read the scene as to what had happened. This was a small bathroom. I lifted some prints from the sink and from the mirror and then went to the tub. On the left side of her body, the way it was positioned told me right off the bat that there's probably going to be some handprints or something on that tub around her where somebody was holding on for leverage.

Well, this one, it was pretty good print from the whole hand. In my mind, I had the prints of the killer. Their prints are right there on each side of the body. I went into the living room, and there was a TV set that was on, and then right across from it was a chair with a table beside it. There was some items on it, a soft drink can and chips and cigarette ashtray. There was several cigarette butts in it,

like somebody had been sitting there watching TV. I just noticed that. Seemed odd. We were just starting to hear about DNA. It wasn't something that was routine, but just from an investigator's point of view, you collect everything that's there and you keep it. We went around the windows and the doors outside to see if there's any forced entry.

We didn't find any. The rest of the place was locked up tight. So that told us that she knew whoever it was. She had let him in the house. There was no forced entry. The six cigarette butts seemed like that it might have been somebody she was friends with. Everything pointed to somebody that she knew. I just knew it was Mike.

I had no doubt that it was Michael. I could not think of a single other person that it could be. The investigators did exactly what they're supposed to do. You go from the victim to who's close to the victim, who's next closest to the victim. Everybody pointed their finger at Michael. As police look into Susan Wood's ex-husband, Michael, a disturbing picture of erratic behavior emerges. I tried as much as I could to help the police and give my statements. I told them after Mike left, I started spending the night on her couch in her living room.

I wasn't that sure he wasn't going to come back and try to do something. This guy could be a loose cannon. Cindy called me up and said, hey, will you come over here and help nail all her windows shut? Sure. So I went over there, and I did nail all the windows shut. Her dad already came over and changed out the front and the back door locks.

Whoever it was, she had let them in. They didn't sneak in, they didn't break in, and that could only be Michael because she didn't let men in her house. July 30th, 1987, two days after Susan is found murdered. Indianapolis Police Department was contacted with a request to contact Michael Woods and notify him that his ex-wife had been killed. They got him into the police department just to see if he could shed any light on what happened to her.

At first, during the interview with Indianapolis police, Michael seemed very cooperative. By the time the Stephenville detectives arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana, Michael had shut down and was not cooperating with anybody. That immediately shed more light on him being the one who committed the homicide. Michael Woods refuses to provide information or his fingerprints. Without his help, the investigation reaches a dead end. After Susan was killed, I didn't sleep.

I just cried uncontrollably. The last time I spoke to Susan was Friday night. I told her I was going to go to the lake on Sunday and I'd swing by and see her after I left the lake. And I started having fun at the lake and didn't make it by there. I couldn't stand thinking about how if I had done what I said, she'd still be alive.

Susan wasn't a very physically strong person and would be easy to overpower. And back in those days, I was a weightlifter and I would have been very difficult to overpower. If I had just been there, I don't think she would have been killed. And that weighed heavy on me for a very long time. I love a great deal as much as the next person, but I'm not going to wrestle a bunch of moms to get the last wicked Stanley collab on sale. It has to be easy. No hoops, no BS.

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I was just numb, just sitting in one of the back pews. I remember seeing all these police everywhere, watching everyone. Yet one person is conspicuous by his absence. When Michael Woods didn't show up for her funeral, it was just another nail in the coffin of his guilt. Police canvassed the neighborhood for leads. One tip hits close to home. A neighbor had told the police that she saw a large-frame man leave her place. And my husband's a large-frame man. When I first met the investigator, I wanted to cooperate. I told him what all I knew,

and unfortunately, I threw in my thoughts and speculation and everything else. When you're your own sleuth, you're probably the worst person to sit here and talk to the police because they sit here and think, how did you know this? Investigators ask Roy where he was the night of Susan's murder. Back then, I was an avid Dungeons and Dragons player. And on that night, I had got together with my other little friends, and we were playing Dungeons and Dragons until 10.30. When I was in the interrogation room, I really felt like I was just down there giving a statement, all the way up till when they asked for my fingerprints. Would you mind doing a lie detector test?

I said, well, I don't think so, but let me talk to a lawyer first. I was starting to get a little bothered. I could not understand in the least why they were after my boyfriend. They were trying to convince me that he could have done it and that I could be dating a killer. And I'm like, he didn't do this.

But they had his fingerprints at her house where he had nailed the windows down. We drove down to Waco to the Texas Rangers headquarters. And they strapped me in and everything. They questioned me. I guess I'm in there for an hour and a half, two hours. The investigator who's investigating the case, he meets me right there at the door. He said, you failed the lie detector test.

You might as well go ahead and confess. It shows you did it. Interrogation rooms, they're really kind of a special place. No windows, just a table, a couple chairs, one way in, one way out. I said, there must be some mistake. He said, there's not any mistake at all, Mr. Hayes. The lie detector tests do not make mistakes. He says, you're guilty of this. I'm sitting here pretty panic-stricken about it.

I might be going to jail for something I hadn't done. And about that time, the person who had given me the lie detector steps forward and says, Mr. Hayes, from what I can tell from my readings and everything, you had nothing to do with this. With Roy crossed off their list, police once again focused their attention on their original suspect, Susan's ex-husband, Michael Woods. Another investigator and I went to Indianapolis to contact Michael Woods specifically to get his palm prints. We were able to get a search warrant. After a search of the house, police bring Michael Woods in for questioning. We just opened the conversation with, we're here discussing the death of Susan

Woods and we'd like to ask you some questions. And at that point, he refused to answer any questions and wanted a lawyer. Despite Michael's refusal to cooperate, investigators obtained his prints. We got his prints and compared the prints. But his palm prints didn't match the ones that we had lifted at the scene. I was surprised that it wasn't him because everything had pointed to him. Everybody thought if Michael Woods didn't do it, then he had somebody do it and that's why his palm prints weren't on either side of the body.

But the bottom line is, nobody knew what happened. With no new leads, the case goes cold. Until 1992, five years after Susan is murdered. Susan's parents were very nice people. To find your daughter in that horrible state, like her father did, I don't think he was ever the same. And I know her mother wasn't. I thought about Susan every day. It was really brutal to celebrate my birthday because it was always our birthday, me and Susan's, on April 6th every year. I would spend my morning going out to the cemetery

and putting fresh flowers on her grave and talk to her and tell her how much I love her and how much I miss her. I had resolved myself to the fact that Susan was not going to get justice. It's now May 2002, 15 years after Susan is murdered. I was working another cold case homicide. I remembered we had a ton of evidence on the Susan Woods murder. With technology the way it was, I just wanted to look at it from a whole different perspective than previous investigators had. Part of the evidence that I submitted was six cigarette butts with the hope that we could find DNA on the cigarette butts.

The problem is when the cigarette butts were collected from the Susan Woods crime scene, we didn't know anything at all about preserving DNA evidence. Your DNA is carbon-based, and like anything else, it decomposes pretty quick. So if the humidity's too high, if the temperature's too high, and especially in a plastic bag, mold can form and the DNA goes away. I was hoping we had DNA, but I didn't think we would have. Six weeks pass as Detective Miller waits,

hoping for positive news. The lab was able to extrapolate DNA off of all cigarette butts, and as a matter of fact, it was male DNA. It was a miracle that the DNA was still preserved. The DNA profile is entered into the CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, a national database. I was hoping that that DNA could hit the CODIS files

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by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. Years pass with the investigation in neutral when the case heats up again, 18 years after Susan is murdered. It comes from the unlikeliest of sources, Susan's ex-husband, Michael. I called Michael. I said, Michael, I want to reopen the case. I'd like to come up and talk to you. And he said, OK, yeah, by all means, I'll help you.

I got my partner and made plane reservations. And then Michael called me back. And he said, Miller, I can't help you. Don't come. I don't trust the police, and I just can't go through with this. My partner said, well, what are you going to do? I said, we're going to go to Indianapolis. I got with the Indianapolis police. They showed us where Michael Woods lived, and I went up, knocked on his door,

thinking he's not going to answer the door. But miraculously, he did. My name is Michael Woods. I was married to Susan Woods when she died. And for 20 years after that, I was the only suspect. And I couldn't live with the idea that her killer would get away with it. So I decided to take the risk and talk to him.

I needed Michael Woods for a whole lot of reasons. I told Michael, you're going to have to help me with this case. You knew her better than anybody. Susan was very quiet and shy. She had a very good sense of humor. Her laugh was like music to me and I just loved being with her, but I couldn't stand Stephenville. I had a lot of

trouble keeping work and I couldn't play music anywhere. It became a deeper and deeper crevasse and eventually we just couldn't get along anymore. I moved to Indianapolis to play music, and she threatened to divorce me if I didn't come back to Stephenville. I left the tape, and I cussed her out on the tape, and she took the tape to her friends, and they listened to it and said it was full of threats.

I looked back at the tape and wished that I hadn't done it. The Indianapolis police kept the conversation lighthearted and warm and friendly right up until the time they told me that Susan was dead, that I'd murdered her, and they were going to put me in a gas chamber. I couldn't even go to her funeral because had I set foot in the state, I would have been immediately arrested. And to have that continue on for 20 years drove me into a deep depression. That fear of her killer going free was enough to break through the shell.

And I started talking with him. I had to have Michael's DNA. Miraculously, he agreed. It didn't take long. The DNA results came back. And the DNA did not match Michael Woods at all. It was a great relief for me to know would exonerate me because I had to know who her killer was.

With Michael Woods finally cleared, Lieutenant Miller is free to pursue a new direction. There's a national data bank of everybody's fingerprints who has ever been arrested and it's called APHIS Automatic Fingerprint Identification System. It wasn't going in the 80s or maybe even early 90s, but by 2006, they were online. Going back through the evidence locker, and I found the prints. So I had submitted the fingerprints to be compared in the APHIS files,

and that's when we got the hit. The fingerprints on the beer can, soda can, and mirror came back to a man named Joseph Scott Hatley. I had no idea who he was. The only thing I knew was a guy named Joseph Scott Hatley. He had an arrest out of Las Vegas, Nevada for robbery. So I called the district attorney, and I said, have you ever heard of a guy named Joseph Scott Hatley?

He said, yes, I know exactly who he is. And I said, well, enlighten me. Went to the district attorney's office, and he had the file of Joseph Scott Hatley when he sexually assaulted Shannon Myers. Scott was 22 at the time. I was 15. I didn't know any different.

I was like, oh, he's kind of cool. He's funny. he's clever. Scott and I dated for a few months before things started turning ugly. He became controlling. Like, I became, you know, a possession of his. And I just told Scott, hey, you know, I just think it's time for us to go separate ways.

He was pressuring me to see him. When I got in the vehicle with Scott, hey, you know, I just think it's time for us to go separate ways. He was pressuring me to see him. When I got in the vehicle with Scott, I knew I messed up immediately. I did not know where we were going. When Scott and I pulled into the roadside park, Scott started drinking. And that's when the rape started happening immediately. I ran by a creek, which led to him pushing my head into the creek water and raping me by the creek. He would hit me and shove my head into the ground.

I would stop and then smoke a cigarette. When he was sitting there smoking a cigarette, he made the comment, I've killed before, and I'm not afraid to kill again. That's when I knew in order to survive, I'm going to have to change. I had to convince him that I wasn't going to say anything. The ride home was very quiet.

He wanted me right beside him. He put his arms around me. And the whole time, I'm dying inside. And we drove back. As soon as Scott dropped me off, I probably ran the fastest I've ever ran in my entire life. And I just fell into my stepfather's arms. And I said, Scott did this to me.

The next morning, Shannon did report the rape, and Hatley did see the police cars at Shannon's house, so he knew he was in trouble. The DA's office files charges, but it must wait for a grand jury to indict Hatley before proceeding to trial. In a stunning turn of events, the grand jury disregards Shannon's testimony.

It was weeks later, I get this letter in the mail saying that he was not indicted. How could he not be indicted? This man raped me. He took a part of me away. I became a victim of the justice system because of the grand jury not believing. Shannon said several times, Hatley would smoke a cigarette,

and if she came back around, the carnage would start all over again. When I heard that, I was thinking, now I know why I have six cigarette butts in the ashtray. Whatever happened to Susan Woods didn't happen in a matter of minutes. It was hours and hours. He held her head underwater in a creek,

rang true with the bathroom scene. There was no doubt in my mind the Susan Woods murder had just gotten solved. I knew it. I needed to get Hatley's story. I needed to get his DNA, and I needed to get his fingerprints and his palm prints. My next stop is, let's go talk to Joseph Scott Hatley.

So I found out he was living in Round Rock, Texas. And we were headed to Round Rock, and the date was June 6 of 06. I turned to my partner, and I said, today, the date is 6-6 of 06. I turned to my partner and I said, today's date is 6-6 of 06 and we were fixing to meet the devil himself. Investigators ask Scott Hadley to speak with them at the station. Did the police ever interview you back then? No, they didn't back then.

Okay. I mean, I had nothing to do with this personally. I just got out of bed, so I'm not in the best of mood, but. He was very disinterested, just kind of nonchalant. That's the wrong demeanor to portray, because he should have been lit up. I'm just going to straight up ask you, did you kill her? I didn't kill her.

OK, did you have sex with her? It's possible. I had sex with one of the people. Right. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, this is a homicide. You know, Susan is dead. Police are circling around, asking questions. You know, you would remember if you had sex with her or not.

Would you mind if we did a sample of your DNA today? I don't know. you should see it. I mean, you started here and you told me that your DNA is not anywhere around his body, so there shouldn't be any hesitancy. I think there's always a hesitancy to get some DNA. So far, there hasn't been. Do you and Lachlan give me his DNA?

Yeah, I do, Ben. And fingerprints, palm prints? That's right. Within short order, we had a confirmation Yeah, I do that. And fingerprints, palm prints? Yeah, sure. Within short order, we had a confirmation that the fingerprints lifted at the crime scene were Hatley's. The palm prints on either side of Susan Wood's body were Hatley's. And the DNA that I extrapolated off the cigarette butts

was indeed Hatley's. Forensically, we had him tied up. He's ours. He's bought. He's paid for. After two decades for the case to finally be solved, it was cleansing. It was wonderful. Once we got over the initial shock of who it was and who it wasn't. Scott Hatley was more than just a stephenville local he was also the cousin of susan's best friend cindy hayes

lieutenant miller called me one morning and he said we've got the proof scott hatley your cousin is the one that killed your best friend. And I was like, oh, no, no. You've got to have made a mistake. And I thought, now they're trying to accuse Scott of doing it because he was never around her. I mean, he might see her if me and her were together out running around or whatever. I just couldn't believe it that he had killed her.

About eight months after Susan's murder, I had my 23rd birthday party. Cindy Hayes and Roy Hayes came, and they brought her cousin, Scott Hatley. And Scott Hatley is smiling and proud in every picture, even though he knows he's the one that killed her. He's just having the best time at this party while everybody talks about his victim.

This is Susan's killer, Scott Hatley, celebrating at my party. Scott did watch us suffer. Every single time I saw him, like at a family function or holiday or whatever, he would always say, so, Cindy, tell me, how are the cops doing on Susan's case?

Felt like a complete fool, hook, line, and sinker. Lieutenant Miller called me. He told me, we have Joseph Scott Hatley behind bars. I took my first breath of air, of relief. Fear just left. I could live again. I took my first breath of air, of relief. Fear just left. I could live again. Miller said, I want to know your story.

When I told him what happened, he said something that still kind of brings tears to my eyes. He goes, Shannon, I believe you. I believe you, and I'm sorry. That changed my life forever because he believed in me. I was in a lot of discussion with the DA as we were preparing for the case. We were gonna go to trial, and we were gonna get him. I contact Don Miller, and I said, I'm in the family.

If I hear anything that implicates Scott, I will let you know. I will do whatever I can to help y'all solve this case. But some people said, y'all need to leave this alone. Y'all need to quit messing with this. And we said, no, that's not how this works. Justice needs to be served. Just because he was a member of my family,

that wasn't going to stop me. It was very difficult having to plan this trial. I had family, and no, they didn't want me to testify against my cousin. It's now October 9th, 2007, 30 years and two months after Susan Woods is murdered. I was anxious to testify against Scott Hatley. I was raring to go. But Scott Hatley has an ace up his sleeve. He offers to testify in an unsolved homicide case

in exchange for a plea deal. Hatley had a cellmate when he was in jail confess to a double murder here in Erath County that the district attorney didn't have a whole lot of information about and needed Hatley's testimony to convict those people. Susan's father didn't really want this to go to court. So based on the fact that the family didn't really want this to go to trial and based on the fact that Hatley had information that the state needed on another case,

the plea deal was struck. Hatley is sentenced to 30 years in prison. Joseph Scott's penalty went down hard in my throat, but I really didn't have any choice in the matter. I just had to live with it. Life resumes in Stephenville with Susan's killer finally behind bars. August 2018, Scott was going before the parole boards.

We have written letters vehemently to the parole board telling them not to let him out. Joseph Scott Hatley gets out of prison after 11 years. I had a pretty good cuss fit when they let Scott Hatley out. I also bought an extra gun and started leaving my porch light on because I didn't know that he wasn't going to come knocking on my door, and I wanted to be ready for him. Immediately, fear went over me because I knew Scott was out. He's a monster out on the street. I called Miller lots of times. Where's Scott? Where is he at? I just had that feeling that he was around.

In December 2021, it's the holiday season in Stephenville. For many, there's little cause for celebration with Scott Hatley, a free man. Then, good tidings arrive. Right before Christmas in December of 2021, I'd heard through the rumor mill that Hatley had passed away. I confirmed that with the Justice of Peace. They did say that he had died in his trailer. I took that second breath.

I don't have to live in fear. And that was the best feeling ever. When Scott Hatley died, there was some justice. But he died 30 years too late. I never received a measure of justice until Scott Hatley died. And that's the only justice I've really had besides what Don Miller has given me.

And he's my hero. Funny thing, a cop. I did feel some guilt about the hatred and venom And he's my hero. Funny thing, a cop. I did feel some guilt about the hatred and venom I had for Michael. I had spent nearly 20 years hating the ground he walked on. And suddenly, he was a victim. It took a while to process that.

I would give anything to have Susan back in my life. I miss our long talks. I miss our long talks. I miss our time together. She's just one of a kind. She's a precious, precious soul. Scott Hatley robbed me of the sweetest friend I've ever had. And I guess you could say he took away a whole bunch of people's safety and innocence. I want to empower victims to come forward.

I'm a voice for victims that cannot talk or are not ready to talk. And it's OK. You can live your life. She was the most beautiful thing in my life. And I made the mistake of choosing my music over my relationship in Texas. If I could do it all over again, I would never have left Susan.

I picked a yellow rose. I picked a yellow rose for my yellow rose in Texas. I love you, honey. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Cold Case Files is hosted by I'm so sorry. Check out more cold case files at ANETV.com. all for free. There's something suspicious going on here. Nothing suspicious. Just hundreds of free crime shows. On Pluto TV, crime never pays, and neither do I. Pluto TV.

Stream now. Pay never. For years, Tim Ballard has been championed as a modern day superhero. The first time I saw one of the kids from the video, and it like changed my life. He was the face of Operation Underground Railroad, a movement that inspired hope around the world by rescuing children from human traffickers. However, Ballard's crusade to save innocent lives has always hidden a darker secret. Oh, I think he's a pathological liar. Beneath the accolades and the applause, a dark storm has been brewing.

I mean, I can't find a time that he's told the truth about anything. Shocking allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced, casting a shadow over his once unquestioned reputation. I am host Sarah James McLachlan, and in this new season of The Opportunist, we explore the rise and the fall of Tim Ballard. Join us this October for Tim Ballard, Unmasking a Hero.

Subscribe to a new season of The Opportunist now, wherever you get your podcasts.