Cold Case Files - Secret in the Well

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

In the fall of 1987, Fred Wilkerson disappeared. He didn't leave a note. There was no sign of foul play. And yet his son, Tim, knew in his heart what the whole town came to suspect - that Fred had been murdered. Sixteen years later, investigators take up the case, and look to get to the bottom of the town's biggest mystery. Treat your hair with MADISON REED! Get 10% off plus FREE SHIPPING on your first Color Kit with code "COLDCASE" at www.madison-reed.com   Find affordable online therapy with TALKSPACE. Match with your perfect therapist at www.Talkspace.com or download the app. Use promo code COLDCASE to get $100 off your first month. Get a quote online at www.Progressive.com in as little as 5 minutes and see how much you could be saving!

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It was late November 1987. Willie Fred Wilkerson was a 49-year-old resident of the city of LaGrange, Georgia, about 60 miles southwest of Atlanta. LaGrange is called a city, but it's really more like a small town. The population at the time was fewer than 25,000. In addition to working as a truck driver, Fred was also chief of the Troop County Volunteer Rescue Squad and a loving father to his son, Tim, and daughter, Tracy. But on that late fall day, the day after Thanksgiving, Fred disappeared. He didn't tell anyone where he was going. He didn't leave a note. He didn't even take a bag or clothes or his wristwatch. He just vanished and didn't come back.

What happened to Fred became the talk of the town. Rumors flew. People had suspicions, but the truth remained a mystery for 16 years. From A&E, this is Cold Case Files, the podcast. I'm Brooke. And to tell you the story of this classic case, The Secret in the Well, here's Bill Curtis. In 1987, Tim Wilkerson is 18 years old,

the night his father Fred goes missing. I knew something was wrong, you know, immediately. When I got inside and saw there was no note or anything. Of course, he was gone, his car was gone, and I thought it was very odd because we always left each other notes if we left to go somewhere. Of course, the next morning when he still hadn't shown up, you know, as time progressed, I knew more and more that something had happened to him. Investigator Mike Newsom responds to the missing persons call.

I went to the apartment where Tim and Mr. Wilkinson lived to try to make a determination whether there was any clothing or personal items missing to where it might have looked like he had voluntarily left on his own. I mean, he hadn't taken anything. He even left his pocket knife and watch, such as that, you know, as if he was just going to run out for a few minutes and, you know, come back. By Monday morning, Fred Wilkerson has missed two days of work.

His son fears the worst. I knew by him missing work, you know, he was getting more and more serious every day, you know. You know, we were calling any friends or family that we had to see if anybody had seen him. I was pretty much panicking, you know. And of course, Tim and his sister both really felt like he wasn't strictly a missing person, that something had happened to their father that they felt like he'd been killed. Four weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Fred Wilkerson's car is discovered at the Atlanta airport. Okay, right now we're located in the middle deck of the Atlanta airport,

south parking, south terminal. Special Agent Roy Olinger works the scene. When I approached the vehicle, the very first thing I saw was the whole vehicle was covered with a thick coat of dust. And I walked around to the driver's side of the vehicle and... Crime scene technicians process the car for fingerprints investigators are surprised when the vehicle comes up clean it's pretty unusual not to find fingerprints someplace in the vehicle because anytime

you if you change drivers you automatically reach up and change the mirror you leave your fingerprints on the door handle you've got to close the door you've got to open the door you've got usually leave your fingerprints behind they would make you think somebody wiped the car down inside the On the door handle, you've got to close the door, you've got to open the door, you've got to usually leave your fingerprints behind. It would make you think somebody wiped the car down. Inside the car, investigators find two more pieces of evidence. Pretty sure it was two payroll checks that were to Mr. Wilkinson from the company he was employed by, which had been left in the vehicle, which of course makes you assume that if he had left on his own, most likely

he would have cashed those checks. Financially, he was in bad shape, so I knew he wouldn't leave payroll checks laying there uncashed, but the investigator at the time said, you know, people do that just to throw you off, you know. I thought, well, possibly he had gotten on a plane by himself and get away for a while. Detectives can find no record of Fred Wilkerson taking a flight, and ultimately the discovery of his car raises more questions than answers. He was leaving money behind.

So that was swaying me more and more and more towards foul play. When talking to Tim, the question, of course, was posed to Tim Tim if he met harm at someone's hand, who would have done it? And Tim related the story about Connie Quedens. We're all under a lot of stress right now. Thankfully, Talkspace Online Therapy is here to help. They'll match you with a licensed therapist from the lot of stress right now. Thankfully, Talkspace Online Therapy is here to help. They'll match you with a licensed therapist from the comfort of your own home. Get the support you need on whatever schedule works for you. Go to Talkspace.com or download the app and use promo code COLDCASE to get $100 off your first month. Talk to your therapist 24-7 from your phone or computer and hear back daily.

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universe. Flashback from the iHeartRadio podcast network in Aussie is a chart-topping new podcast that reveals the surprising stories that the history books never told you about. Aussie's Sean Braswell takes you on a journey through history that will change how you look at the world today. Discover how the invention of air conditioning changed U.S. politics, how Henry Ford instigated the Oklahoma City bombing, and how the YMCA kick-started the black market and cigarette smuggling. Listen to Flashback on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Connie Quaidens is Fred Wilkerson's ex-girlfriend. Really immediately we knew that Connie was involved, wherever he was at, whatever had happened.

At the time of the disappearance, according to Tim, Connie and Fred's relationship had dissolved into a bitter dispute over this ranch house, resting atop 14 acres of rolling Georgia countryside. Daddy bought the property, and then they had it both in both of their names. Tim tells police that the feud began after his father had struck a deal with Cunney, signing over his share of the property to her to help her get custody of her children. And he told me that as soon as she got custody to the kids, she would sign that back over.

Shortly after Fred signed over his share of the property, Tim tells investigators Connie double-crossed him. He told me about the relationship, how it went sour, how she kicked him out, called the sheriff's department and kicked him out, and wanted nothing to do with Fred. I knew that he'd filed suit against her and she was served. Two days before he disappeared, Fred Wilkerson had sued Connie Quiggins, seeking to recoup his investment in the home. Tim believes this to be a motive for murder. You know, I knew that something had happened when I served her with those suit papers. We talked to everyone.

Investigators sit down with Connie Quedens to gather her side of the story. Connie Quedens denied that she had seen Fred since the 13th of November. Connie tells police her relationship with Fred Wilkerson was strictly business. She denied having a sexual relationship with Fred Wilkerson was strictly business. She denied having a sexual relationship with Fred. She said that she allowed Fred to move into her house to be close to his work so he could work on the house as the contractor. From the start, though, the home was to be hers according to her, and Fred Wilkerson knew that he had no ownership to it. She was claiming the opposite of what Tim was saying. She was calm, cool, matter-of-fact,

gave no indicators that she was lying. Detectives have their suspicions about Quedens, but no hard evidence tying her to Fred Wilkerson's disappearance. Like you say, there's always some information coming up where somebody saw him here, saw him there. In time, she is placed on the back burner, and the investigation begins to look elsewhere for answers. They assumed that he had financial problems,

and he was a truck driver, so he had a lot of connections, that he just kind of hit the road, you know, just to get away. We always had to leave that little door open, but no, no, we knew he was not that type of guy. I mean, we just knew that he wouldn't have done that to us. In the months that follow, records checks show no activity on accounts or the social security number belonging to Fred Wilkerson, and a number of sightings turn out to be false leads. Time passes. Wilkerson's fate remains a mystery, and soon evolves into the stuff of local legend.

Everybody in town, I guess I say that, most people that I talk to. Lee West is a newspaper man. In the spring of 1995, he picks up on a hint of rumor about Fred Wilkerson. The talk around town was that Connie Quedens actually killed him or had him killed or something because of the squabble over the property out there. The chatter about Fred picked up after Connie hired a crew to fill in

an old abandoned well on the back of her property. That immediately made us think she's covering something up. And that's everybody's talk was, you know, Fred's in the well. The local gossip soon becomes local headlines when Connie Quiddens takes legal action to declare Fred Wilkerson dead. Oh, we were very upset because, I mean, we had nothing to gain by declaring him dead, you know. Connie, on the other hand, has thousands at stake

after making seven years of payments on a life insurance policy for Wilkerson. My question was, why would somebody keep paying it each month if they didn't know the person was dead? Because if he'd lived to be 90 years old, they would have, you know, they'd have paid more than they would have collected.

But we hired an attorney and learned that there was nothing we could do to stop it. On May 24, 1995, Fred Wilkerson is declared dead by a Georgia county judge. A few months later, Connie Quedens cashes a life insurance check for $12,000. At that time, we contacted Connie. Willis Grizzard is an investigator with the Troop County Sheriff.

He still has his doubts about Quedens and asks her to come into the station for a date with his polygraph machine. So when we set the schedule up and we scheduled everything, polygraph, she did a no-show. Connie Quiddens declines to cooperate with the investigation. We just did not have enough evidence to put us on the property for a search. I mean, like I say, the libel laws get you.

I couldn't say that Fred's in the well. Fred is in the well. That is the prevailing sentiment in the town of LaGrange, Georgia, where over the years, Wilkerson's fate remains a favorite topic of discussion. Until a rainy night in Georgia, when a burst of lightning turns the local legend into flesh and bone. We had a storm come through LaGrange, Georgia. All of a sudden the lights went off in my house. Pete Scandalakis is the district attorney working in Troup County, Georgia. In the spring of 2003, a thunderstorm toppled a pine tree, crushing his brand new pickup truck.

I walked out, I saw my truck had been crushed by the tree, and I started laughing, and I said, OK, God, why me? Why is this going to happen? I know there's some reason. The reason remains a mystery until Scandalakis pilots his crippled truck to a nearby body shop owned by Tim Wilkerson, the same Tim Wilkerson whose father Fred went missing in 1987 and has not been seen since. Tim was aware of the fact that we had recently solved another cold case file. The Troop County DA's office had recently made headlines after cracking a 33-year-old murder case in the nearby town of Hogansville. I didn't know any of the real details, but when I knew that it was 20-something years old,

you know, I felt for the family. I mean, I thought that was great. When Wilkerson mentions his father's disappearance, Scandalakis listens and remembers. I was familiar with that case because I was an assistant DA when Mr. Wilkerson disappeared. Plus, I was not satisfied with the conclusion that some people had that Mr. Wilkerson had run away and had simply abandoned his family. He was not the kind of man that would leave his family. Clay Bryant is a special investigator with the Troop County D.A. At the request of Pete Skandalakis, Bryant pulls out the Wilkerson file and meets with the Wilkerson family.

That's a good picture of y'all today. After an hour with them, I was very well satisfied that the man had met with an untimely demise. Clay begins his investigation with a focus on the only suspects mentioned in piles of casework. Connie Quaidens was our number one suspect. Fred disappeared in the midst of a legal battle with Connie over the house they once shared. Seven years later, Connie petitioned the court to have Fred Wilkerson declared dead.

She then collected on a life insurance policy in his name. Everybody suspected Connie, but there was never a physical tie of Fred to Connie at the time of his disappearance. In search of that connection, Bryant digs into the cold files and finds a handful of unresolved leads, including one that's been bugging Tim Wilkerson for eight years. I'm sure the first day I told him Lisa Holderman.

Lisa Holderman is a former friend of Connie Queden's. In 1995, she contacted the Wilkerson family attorney, claiming to have information about Fred's disappearance. At the time, efforts to follow up with Lisa for an interview failed. At that point, I said, we got to talk with her. Freaked me out. I was so not expecting that call. On September 5, 2003,

investigator Bryant tracks down Lisa Halderman, now Lisa Halderman Miles, and listens to her story. This is the article. It begins eight years earlier on the front page of the LaGrange Daily News. My mom and I, we were reading the newspaper. Like most of LaGrange, the Haldermans were buzzing about Fred Wilkerson and Connie Quedens. That's been a rumor around town. Yeah. Fred's down Quedens' well. Specifically, Connie's push to have Fred declared legally dead.

You don't declare someone dead unless you know they're dead. That would be my thought on it, too. It said in the paper that they had found Fred's car at the airport because it kind of just gave a background about what had happened and how it transpired and that they had found his car at the airport. A champagne-colored 1987 Honda was... When I heard that, you know, it was like, oh, you know, I drove to the airport for her at that time. According to Lisa, in 1987, at around the time Fred Wilkerson disappeared,

she made a trip to the Atlanta airport at the request of Connie Quedens. She just asked me to come up and pick her up, just pick her up at the terminals, and she'd be out there waiting for me. She was standing at the pickup waiting for me. She was by herself, just standing there waiting. I seen her, I picked her up, and we drove back to LaGrange.

Probably took me about an hour. Lisa never gave the road trip a second thought until eight years later in 1995, when she read about the discovery of Fred Wilkerson's car at the Atlanta airport. That's when I really started thinking, oh man, you know, she could have done this. She took the car. She had to have taken the car. The car was found within 200 yards of where Connie was standing. Lisa's tip gives investigators the link they need to break the stalemate with Connie Quetons. Her statement was the one thing that we used to tie

her to Fred's disappearance. Clay had even asked me, he's like, well, you know, do you have any idea where you think he is? I said, I have the same idea everybody else has. He's in the well on her property. We're all spending a lot of time at home right now, which means we're experimenting with different routines and habits, watching different shows, learning how to cook, wearing our pajamas all day.

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It was an old hand-dug well. Armed with a search warrant, a team of detectives begins digging up Connie Cweeton's well. And I told Connie, I said, we're going to search your property, and we're going to start at the location of the old well. And her statement was, if he's in there, I don't know anything about him. By 10 a.m., the excavation is well underway.

Meanwhile, inside the home, investigator Bryant is digging at Connie Cweeton's. I said, well, Connie, we have a young lady that's come forward that says, While inside the home, Investigator Bryant is digging at Connie Quetons. I said, well, Connie, we have a young lady that's come forward that says, she picked you up at the airport when you drove Fred's car up there. At that point, she came unglued. She said, I took the car to the airport, but I didn't kill him. Less than 40 minutes after Connie's admission, placing her in Fred Wilkerson's car,

investigators unearth what appears to be Wilkerson himself in Connie's well. We're about 20 foot down, and we've made a discovery at this point, and so we've stopped operations at this time about 12 o'clock to find out exactly what we got. We think we found human remains. As I walked up to the well site, the excavation itself was massive. And in the center of the excavation, down the cylinder of the well, there was a single human, what appeared to be a human femur, sticking up. The skeleton is wrapped in a roll of carpet and carries a number of personal items that lead investigators to Investigators to believe it is indeed Fred Wilkerson. They reached in the pocket and pulled out a chapstick, and that was one of the things that he, he told it everywhere he went, you know.

Found his chapstick, his dentures, the pants were the correct size for Fred Wilkerson. I mean, it was hard to see. It was hard. I mean, we were, that was a rollercoaster day. We were happy one moment and crying the next. An examination of the skull reveals evidence of a single gunshot to the back of the head. Connie Quiddens is handcuffed and spirited away in a sheriff's car. With a human skeleton pulled from her well,

she has a lot of explaining to do. Mr. Quiddens had, I think, two defenses. With a human skeleton pulled from her well, she has a lot of explaining to do. Ms. Quedens had, I think, two defenses. One defense was it wasn't Mr. Wilkerson in the well, and number two, if it was Fred Wilkerson in the well, she didn't put him there. The state attacks Quedens' first line of defense with a combination of circumstantial evidence and the results of mitochondrial DNA testing performed on the skeleton. The remains in the well were from a descendant

of Fred Wilkerson's family. And since there were no other members of Fred Wilkerson's family missing, we knew that was Fred Wilkerson. With Fred Wilkerson resting at the bottom of Connie Queden's well, entitled to his home now conveniently resting in Connie's hands, all Scandalakis has to do is ask the jury to connect the dots.

What we wanted to show is that Miss Queden's was a conniving type person and that she was going to get this property by whatever means possible. And once it became apparent that Mr. Wilkerson was going to sue to get his piece of the property back or at least get monetary damages, that put the motive on Ms. Quedens to eliminate Mr. Wilkerson. You know, I was worried to the end. I mean, I just kept thinking she would pull some way to pull out of it. You know, she always had for so many years.

For the Wilkerson family, 17 years of waiting for justice comes down to two hours of waiting for a Troop County jury to find Connie Quedens guilty of their father's murder. Quedens draws a life sentence, but under Georgia statutes, in effect, at the time of the crime, she will be eligible for parole in seven years. However, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has discretion on whether or not to parole her.

And what they would do in this case is look at the fact that for 17 years she has gotten away with murder, and I doubt very seriously if the Board of Pardons and Paroles will release Ms. Quedens in the near future, if ever at all. The end to this case not only brings a killer to justice, but brings a father home. It's wonderful to have a place to come and just remember him. A family once haunted by questions now holds answers. And while those answers may never bring a father back to life, it does bring

a small bit of peace. That's why we chose the doves for the marker, because it just seemed appropriate for peace, finally. For investigators, Fred Wilkerson's case was as much a matter of fate as it was evidence.

God has a plan for everything. There's no other way to describe it except divine intervention. A thunderstorm and a felled pine tree guiding a prosecutor to a son who needed help with his father's murder.

It is divine intervention. I'm a firm believer that God moves us in different ways, and this is the way that the good Lord brought me to Tim Wilkerson and brought Tim Wilkerson to me, and we were able to solve this murder. Connie Quedence was found guilty of murder and possession of a firearm during a crime in November of 2004, nearly 17 years after Fred Wilkerson's disappearance and death. Connie appealed her case to the Supreme Court of Georgia, which upheld the initial ruling. In 2006, Fred's children, Tim and Tracy, filed a wrongful death civil suit against Connie and her husband Gary, demanding $22 million in damages. They claimed Gary had

been involved with Fred's disappearance from the beginning, as he had sold a.38 caliber pistol believed to be the murder weapon just a few days after Fred disappeared. A Troop County judge dismissed the case saying that it fell outside the statute of limitations. As it turned out, Connie was not eligible for parole seven years after her conviction. According to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, parole-eligible offenders serving a life sentence for a serious violent felony, such as murder,

committed prior to July 1, 2006, are initially considered for parole after serving 14 years. As of this recording, Connie Queenence is still actively serving her sentence in Pulaski State Prison. She's not currently scheduled to come up for parole. Whether or not that will change remains to be seen. Cold Case Files, the podcast, is hosted by Brooke Giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Scott Brody. Our executive producer is Ted Butler.

We're edited by Steve Dolomater and distributed by Podcast One. Cold Case Files Classic was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by the one and only Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com and by downloading the A&E app.