Cold Case Files - The Secrets In The Well

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Near what's known as the hanging tree, the mutilated body of Timothy Coggins is found in late 1983. The investigation stalls and goes cold for over 30 years, until a newly elected sheriff vows to bring the killers to justice, and he does. Check out our great sponsors! 1-800 Contacts: Order online at 1800contacts.com - download their free app - OR call 1-800-266-8228 Shopify: Go to Shopify.com/coldcase for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features! SimpliSafe: Save 20% on your home security system when you sign up for an Interactive Monitoring plan and get your first month FREE at SimpliSafe.com/coldcase  ZocDoc: Go to Zocdoc.com/ccf and download the Zocdoc app for FREE! June's Journey: Download June’s Journey for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as on PC through Facebook Games. Progressive: Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 27 million drivers who trust Progressive!

An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised. My family, we come from some deep spiritual backgrounds, going through so many barriers in the Deep South and with what happened to Tim. Solving Tim's murder with the Klan and the Sheriff Department being infiltrated,

there was no intention to have an investigation. Nothing's going to happen, because after all these years, why would it? You know, sometimes you feel beat down. We always prayed. We never gave up hope. There are 120,000 unsolved murders in America. Each one is a cold case. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's around 11 p.m. on Friday, the 7th of October, 1983. Fall is in the air and 23-year-old Timothy Coggins is looking to have some fun.

Timothy and his younger sister Talisa head out to their favorite club in their hometown of Griffin, Georgia. Back in 1983, nearly 40 years ago, racial tension was still very high in the South. And especially so in the small Georgia town. Timothy's niece, Heather Coggins, remembers the club well. The People's Choice was a predominantly African-American club. It was the hot spot. At the club, Timothy heads right to the dance floor as Talisa goes to the ladies' room. Timothy's cousin, Cynthia Ward, describes what happened next. When Talisa came back, she couldn't find her brother. Somebody told her that Tim was dancing with the white woman. Every once

in a while, maybe you see a few white women pop up out there, but dancing with them was not always accepted at the time. Talisa searches the entire club, but she can't find Timothy. After speaking with some other guests at the club, she learns that some white men were searching for Timothy outside the club. Others tell Talisa that Timothy left the club in a vehicle accompanied by the white woman he was dancing with and two white men. But by the time Talisa reaches the front door, Timothy is gone. She returns to the club to enjoy the rest of her night,

assuming Timothy will show up sooner or later. At 4 a.m., Talisa returns home, expecting to find Timothy fast asleep, but the home is empty. She isn't really worried. Cynthia explains why. There was no need for concern. Tim would go two or three days sometimes and wouldn't come home, but he would eventually show up. Timothy Coggins was born on August 29, 1960, in Griffin, Georgia. His niece, Heather Coggins, describes what it was like to grow up in the small town just south of Atlanta. Growing up in Griffin as a child was wonderful because we grew up with our aunts, uncles, grandparents, and everybody was just one huge family. You would see the Confederate flag,

but we live on our side of the tracks. They live on their side of the tracks, and you don't intermingle unless you have to. I don't remember racism as a child because we always stayed on our own side. Timothy's family described the special relationship they shared with him. My Uncle Tim was a dancer, was an entertainer, and just a fun

loving person. Tim was hit by a car when he was younger. He almost died. But when he recovered, he was just a normal, happy-go-lucky boy. So he got a lot more attention. Tim was special, and he had a very close relationship with his mom.

He loved her dearly, and she loved him. The hours continued to pass by with no word from Timothy. Eventually, the hours transform into days, and the family becomes concerned for Timothy's welfare. Tim was a hustler. If an opportunity came, he might jump on it. He was friends with the owner at the People's Choice Club. He would do odd and end jobs at the club.

A couple of days went by and nobody heard anything from Tim. And then we kind of started asking, well, maybe Tim would show up soon. It's now been two days since Timothy was last seen leaving the club. As the family conducts its own search, Detective Oscar Jordan is called out to a crime scene in northern Spalding County. In 1983, I was a uniformed patrol officer at the Spalding County Sheriff's Department.

Up in northern Spalding County, there was a huge big tree, commonly referred to as the Hanging Tree. Some hunters had come across the body of a young black male close to that tree. The unknown male had been stabbed repeatedly. He was wearing only pants and underwear that had been pulled down to his thighs, exposing the lower half of his body. Detective Jordan approaches and observes the body by the tree. He was unable to identify him due to

the condition of the body. He observes that there are drag marks from the roadway into a nearby field. On the drag marks, he finds a sweater that is pulled inside out. Based on the scene before him, Detective Jordan determines that the unknown man had been chained to the back of a truck. Detective Jared Coleman details the grim scene. That truck then drug him feet first around in a square pattern, and there were sites of blood at each corner. On the side of the road, the officers discover a six-inch circle of blood.

It's around two inches deep. Near the roadway, we believe that he was told to get out of the car. We think that he was struck over the top of his head with some type of club. And then after that, there was one stab mark at his knees that we believe was to cut the tendon so that he was unable to run.

Detectives collect what little evidence they find at the scene, including the victim's pants, a Jack Daniels whiskey bottle, and a wooden table leg with black electrical tape wrapped around the end of it. They speculate that the wooden table leg had been used to bludgeon the victim, but they can't find the weapon used to make the sharp force injuries. Sheriff Butch Freeman puts Detective Jordan in charge of the investigation. There was a lot of tension between Black people and white law enforcement officers. So Blacks were not talking to the white investigators from fear and distrust.

I remember receiving a photo. I showed the picture to a lot of people. I remember going to the People's Choice Club. There was a detective with the City of Griffin Police Department. He looked at that picture, and he took his finger, and he tapped on the picture. He said, that looks like that Coggins boy, that Timothy Coggins boy.

Detective Jordan shows a photograph of the body to Timothy's family. At first, they couldn't identify him due to the brutal nature of his murder. His face is almost unrecognizable. I remember when they came to our house, they showed a picture. My mother identified it as my Uncle Tim, and I remember her breaking down, crying and screaming in disbelief that this is her brother. Everybody was just so upset and really scared because who would do this? Who would kill Tim?

Investigators and the family hope that the autopsy can provide some answers. The medical examiner determines that Timothy's skull has been crushed in. He also sustained seven stab wounds to the chest and a plethora of other slash and stab wounds. The autopsy proves the investigator's suspicions. Timothy had been dragged from a vehicle. We learned that he was alive when they left him in a cold field. Who does that? Who deserves that?

Your worst enemy don't deserve that. If you live in a world where you think racism does not exist, then you're in a very shaded bubble. The only way that you can solve racism is to admit that it exists. There was also a large cross cut into Timothy's chest. racism is to admit that it exists. There was also a large cross cut into Timothy's chest. Investigators have a theory on this macabre detail. There was a cross cut across his chest.

I later learned that that was supposed to have been indicative of the rebel flag, whoever it was. They were trying to send a message what happened, why it was Tim killed. So I started going out into the community and talking to people. Detective Jordan asks witnesses at the People's Choice Club if they know the white woman that Timothy was reportedly dancing with on the night that he vanished. Back in 1980, for a black man to date a white woman, it's going to lead to some trouble. Griffin is a nice town, but it had its problems. Police officers of the local chapter of Griffin's Ku Klux Klan would march in the Christmas

parade under those sheets. They were still trying to send a message out there. Unfortunately, nobody inside the club could identify the woman. But Detective Jordan hears some rumors about the events of that night. Rumors were circulating that there were several white men standing across the street at the front of the club. Timothy was allegedly seen speaking with these men. It appeared as though he knew them. According to some witnesses, they saw Timothy get into a car with the men,

and this was the last time he was ever seen alive. The story that was told to me was that Tim and his friend, Danny, were given $600 to go and buy marijuana for these two white guys that came into Griffin. But Tim and Danny ran with the money. Investigators now have a potential lead. Three weeks before Timothy was killed, his friend Danny had been killed. When Timothy learned of his death, he was petrified.

Because even though they said there was an death, he was petrified. Because even though they said there was an accident, he didn't think so. Detective Jordan hears through the grapevine that Timothy was told he had until Thursday to come up with the $600 he owed. He immediately informed the sheriff of the developments. I go back and I tell the sheriff, we got a serious problem. We don't have one homicide here. We got two. During that time, I had a call to go to Cary's trailer park. This white woman, Sandra Bunn, had been bragging and boasting about what happened to Tim,

about this N-word person that they had chained behind a vehicle and drug him up in a field. Investigators confront Sandra about her disturbing comments. She tells them that on the night of Timothy's murder, she saw her brother, Franklin Gabbhart, along with his girlfriend, Mickey Guy, their friend Bill Moore, and Timothy Coggins, pile into Moore's truck and take off in the direction of the tree where Timothy's body was found. I had already developed that Tim and Danny had taken money from two white males. I'm starting to believe that Frankie and Bill were likely suspects in Tim's death. When I shared that, then I was pulled off the case.

You know, thank you, but we're not going to need your assistance anymore. After two weeks investigating the murder, Detective Jordan is removed from the case. He's reassigned to traffic duty and the investigation is handed over to a white detective. You had your suspects right there. This was a case that could have probably been solved in a few days because the information was there. Franklin Gebhardt tells the new investigator that he has an alibi for the night of Timothy's murder. He claims that he was at his girlfriend's house all night. Mickey Guy corroborates his alibi and investigators never asked Bill Moore a single thing. We were really frightened because even though the suspects had been identified,

the sheriff's department did nothing. There was no intention to have an investigation. Shortly after Detective Jordan is removed from the case, Timothy's family begins to receive threats. One afternoon, a brick is hurled through the window with a warning which read, Hush or you're next. I've never had a fear of law enforcement, and I've never had a fear of white people. But after Timothy's murder was the very first time I ever felt so vulnerable and hurt. The fear that the family feels is so intense that they're too afraid to even give Timothy a headstone. The funeral was, it was terrible. I can vividly remember Tim's sister laying over the casket

and crying and saying they didn't have to do him like this. We just never put a headstone on this grave. We didn't know they were gonna go desecrate the grave, or we didn't know what they were capable of. Eventually, the days transform into months with no movement in the case, and after just three months, it goes cold. This case began to go cold the moment they pulled me off. the days transform into months with no movement in the case. And after just three months, it goes

cold. This case began to go cold the moment they pulled me off. Someone or someone's had to have made a decision, you know, not to do anything. The murder weighs heavily on Timothy's family as they struggle to move on with their lives, knowing that his killer is out there. Throughout the years, we've heard stories of how Tim was murdered, but no one cared to have justice for this poor Black man who was brutally killed. So time passed. Some people even said,

oh, that was years ago. Why do y'all care? But you never move on. A murder like that changes the entire dynamic of your family. The grief and sadness of her son's murder is particularly hard on his mother, Viola Dorsey. It's further compounded by the fact that nobody has been brought to justice. Viola starts to have heart problems, and the family speculates these problems are exacerbated by her grief. They felt defeated. Who do you turn to for help when the number one people who are supposed to help you don't? Time continues to trickle by and the family is left with nothing other than memories of

Timothy. But these memories are all tainted by the gruesome manner in which he lost his life. The years eventually turn into decades and by December 2016, it had been 33 years since Timothy was killed. All that time cannot wash away the horror that Timothy Coggins endured at the hands of his killers. And when the file lands on the desk of Jared Coleman, the Coggins case gets a new life. Detective Coleman is a young investigator in his second year with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. And his determination gives Timothy's family new hope. What he reads in the old case files horrifies him. There wasn't much evidence that had been collected that was still preserved. There were potential

suspects who were never interviewed originally back in the 80s. According to the original witness statements, Franklin Gephardt had bragged about killing Timothy, but the investigators spoke with Gephardt, who said that he was staying with his girlfriend, Mickey Guy. Investigators at that time went and did a quick interview with Mickey, who said, yeah, he was here all night, but there was no further follow-up to confirm that information. Detective Coleman learns that rumors were circulating through the area that Mickey Guy was having

an illicit relationship with Timothy at the same time she was dating Franklin Gebhardt. Gebhardt allegedly learned of the affair, and he was furious. Witnesses told police they saw Timothy dancing with a white woman at the People's Choice on that October night in 1983. Was it Mickey Guy?

Later that night, Franklin Gebhardt's sister, Sandra, said she saw Mickey and her brother, along with Bill Moore and Timothy Coggins, at the trailer park. Detective Coleman wants to speak to Mickey Guy, but he learned that she has since passed away. He then decides to track down Bill Moore, but he claims he doesn't know a thing about Timothy's murder. Obviously, the next person to interview was Franklin Gebhardt.

Gebhardt was actually already incarcerated in the Spalding County Jail on a totally separate case that involved sexual assault. Detective Coleman questions the now 59-year-old Franklin Gebhardt. He staunchly denies any involvement in the murder of Timothy. The conversation then turns to Mickey and the rumors that she was having an affair with Timothy. Franklin begins to get angry at us. You're saying that my girlfriend was sleeping with an N-word

and saying that he didn't know Timothy and he didn't care if Timothy was killed, that he should have been minding his own business. If he doesn't know Timothy, why are you going to be angry? We knew that this was a crime of passion. The amount of stab wounds to Timothy's body, the way that his body was desecrated. Detective Coleman knows that Gebhardt's rage

isn't enough for a conviction. He needs physical evidence. He turns his attention to the evidence locker. One piece of evidence that could bolster the case is the pants that Timothy was wearing when he was killed. Detective Coleman knows that they were collected as evidence, but when he searches for them, he finds them missing. We knew that someone was actively moving in the community trying to conceal evidence and obstruct the investigation. I've got to go figure this out. Who killed Timothy?

It's now April 2017, 33 1⁄2 years since Timothy was killed. I don't want to give that image that the whole sheriff's department was bad, but when I started there, it wouldn't be difficult at all to hear an officer use the N-word, but attitudes were changing. Good people, they're working hard to change that image. There's a new sheriff, Daryl Dix, and he hopes to chip away at that old attitude. I could see that the Spalding County Sheriff's Office had been through a lot. You heard all

these complaints about the way people were being treated. A lot of faith had been lost. Detective Coleman meets with Sheriff Dix and gives him the lowdown on the unsolved case. I think that the Coggins family was done a disservice back then, so we make sure that GBI agents have access to our building 24-7. We all need to work together to solve the problem. We began trying to track down some evidence that had been missing. Timothy's pants that had been lost in evidence are never found. Then, Detective Coleman and Sheriff Dix uncover another disturbing reason that the case may have gone cold. We were going through these boxes and boxes of files down there, and they found this black diary. Back in 1980,

it was rumored that there were officers that worked right along, right beside me, that were in the Klan. The diary is found in a box of evidence. It belongs to a former sheriff's deputy named Norman Foskey. In reading the diary, they discover that the Ku Klux Klan's infiltration into the Spalding County Sheriff's Office and the Griffin Police Department may have played a role in the lack of closure in the unsolved case. This entry, Wednesday, May 19, 1982, while leaving the Experiment Cafe, Deputy Stan asked me if I would join the Klan. Johnny, the owner of the cafe, said, you are making the best move of your life. It's about time white people stood up for their rights. Johnny then stated that he had a number of good Klan in the police and sheriff's department. These same officers would be investigating

Timothy's murder just the following year. Detective Coleman continues in his investigation, keeping it under wraps before finally going public with his findings. But first, he needs to speak with Timothy's family. After 34 years, we got the call that they were reopening the investigation. I don't believe it.

And they start to announce it to the news media. Then I was like, okay, maybe something is going to happen. As Detective Coleman is going through the case files, he finds a missing link that blows the case wide open. He notices that the name Christopher Vaughn is mentioned multiple times throughout the investigation. Vaughn had written letters to the Spaldic County Sheriff's Office saying that he had information about Timothy's murder and that he wanted to speak with investigators. None of them would listen to what he was saying. The letters were all sent from prison in 2004, 21 years after Timothy was murdered. At the time, Vaughn was in jail for a child molestation conviction. Christopher Vaughn had been one of the individuals that had found Timothy's body. Vaughn said to the investigators that when he was 10 years old,

he heard Gebhardt and Moore bragging about murdering Timothy. What Christopher Vaughn was telling us was that Franklin Gebhardt found out that Timothy had been having sex with his girlfriend, Mickey Guy. So Franklin and Bill Moore went to the People's Choice Club in search of Timothy and told him to come with them, that they were going to have a good time and go and party and do some drugs together. Timothy left with Bill and Franklin and Mickey Guy. They went to the trailer park where Mickey Guy's place was.

Christopher Vaughn walked out the back of his residence and saw Timothy and Franklin engaging in an argument, which was about the sexual relations between Timothy and Mickey. He saw them load up into a vehicle and drive out east on Mentor Road. Mentor Road is the road where Timothy's body was found. Investigators closed the initial investigation without ever talking to Vaughn. Over the years, he often heard Gebhardt bragging about the murder of Timothy. Detective Coleman and Sheriff Dix are amazed by the details that Vaughn can provide,

details that were never released to the media, and details that only the killer could have provided. Vaughn had heard Gebhardt talk about how he had an abandoned well on his property. And he had actually taken the knife and threw it in the well and had thrown other things from Timothy in that well. Now we've got to find the murder weapon

and any type of physical evidence which would corroborate the information that we were getting from our witness. We need a search warrant to search the wells on this property. For investigators to obtain a search warrant on Gebhardt's property, they must show a judge that there is a reasonable chance that they'll find a murder weapon there. They meet with District Attorney Marie Broder. The first time that I met with Agent Coleman and Sheriff Dix, they tell me that it is a cold case. It's 34 years old.

And oh, by the way, Marie, we have no physical evidence. But once I heard Timothy's story, I was very struck by the brutality of this murder. Hoping to get Gebhardt to talk about the murder, investigators asked Christopher Vaughn for help. Both men are locked up together in the Spalding County Detention Center. We had to get a search warrant to basically make the jail cell a wire. The cell was wearing a wire.

Vaughn throws out some bait, hoping Gebhardt will bite. You know they long way to say you know that. Yeah. Now they got to prove it. Gebhardt stops short of making a confession, but still, he doesn't exactly deny it either. The conversation between Vaughn and Gebhardt is enough for a search warrant. Armed with the warrant, investigators head to the property to see what they can find, in hopes of solving this brutal murder.

There is a company here locally, and what they do is they shoot high-pressure water down in the well and vacuum up stuff as it comes out. It sucks it up into a big tanker truck. After pumping the contents of the well into the truck, investigators begin to sift through what has been excavated from the well. By chance, Jared is standing there watching it all fall out and that's when he sees this shoe. This was an Adidas shoe from 1983. Franklin Gephardt was a pulpwooder,

big guy, you know, obviously a white supremacist. He's not going to be wearing those sneakers back in 1983. And we knew that Tim had some sneakers like that. The investigators noticed something sticking out of the mud. It looks like a knife handle. They examine the object closer and find that it's the handle of a steak knife that has been broken off right above the handle. There appears to be some white material on it.

Upon further investigation, they discover that the white material is fabric from a white T-shirt. And as we lay the shirt out onto the table, we see what looks like stab marks that almost matched up perfectly with the stab marks that were on Tim's body that were documented in the autopsy. Oh my God, this is the shirt. This is it. There was just kind of a bit of a moment of silence as we kind of thought about, you know, what Tim went through. In that moment, the brutality almost overtook me. Seeing it and knowing that he's wearing this when he died and died in such a horrible way, I remember thinking,

Tim, I am so sorry. By October 2017, everything is coming together and there is enough evidence for an arrest. Sheriff Dix asks the original investigator, Detective Jordan, to come out of retirement. They want him to make the arrest. Oscar knew who did it, almost from the very beginning. I wanted him to be able to put the handcuffs on Frankie Gebhardt and Bill Moore. Detective Jordan is more than happy to oblige. You're under arrest.

You're being charged with the murder of Timothy Coggins. When Timothy's family is informed of the developments, they are ecstatic. They have been waiting for this moment for 34 long years. Finally, Frank Gephardt and Bill Moore were arrested for my cousin Tim's death. It was one of the most satisfying days of my entire life. I wish that Tim's mother could have lived to see that day, but I'm sure she was looking down from heaven. Franklin Gebhardt is charged with murder,

and his trial begins on June 18, 2018. During opening statements, District Attorney Broder drums home the brutality of Timothy's murder. She describes his 29 stab wounds, multiple lacerations to the body, and details how his teeth had been knocked out. She then says that the defendants exhibited knowledge about the gruesome murder and had worn it like a badge of honor since 1983. On the first day of trial, we learned just how Uncle Tim was murdered. Detective Coleman testifies that Christopher Vaughn

heard Gebhardt admit that he and Moore had taken Timothy to a power line and stabbed him 28 to 32 times and that they had dragged him from the back of their pickup truck. And the most hurtful part was learning that he died lonely, scared, hurt, fatally injured in a cold field. We decided as a family, Tim would no longer be alone in a field by himself during this court trial. His family would be there rooting for justice for him. The trial lasts a total of 10 days, and Timothy's family attends every single day.

We didn't know what the verdict was going to be, but we knew whatever it was going to be, we were going to have to be okay with it. The jury unanimously finds Franklin Gebhardt guilty on one count of malice murder and one count of felony murder. He's sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. It was almost a party in the courtroom. We were dancing and hallelujah and crying and Marie was crying and the sheriff. It was everybody. I remember one thing the judge told Gebhardt. He said, you'll never get a chance to stab anybody else. Bill Moore agrees to a plea deal, which gets his charges of malice and felony murder

downgraded to manslaughter. He dies in prison in October 2021, three years into his 20-year sentence. I have never visited that field where Tim was killed, but every time, if you go down 1941 coming into Griffin, you can see the field, and I just get this real eerie feeling every time I'm there. I miss my Uncle Tim. I miss the life that he could have had. I miss the life we could have had with him. We were able to have a memorial service,

so we were able to celebrate his homegoing, something that we did not do as a family 34 years earlier. And we also put a headstone on Tim's grave, and it's engraved, gone but not forgotten. Cold Case Files is hosted by Paula Barras. It's produced by the Law and Crime Network and written by Eileen McFarlane and Emily G. Thompson.

Our composer is Blake Maples. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Maite Cueva, and Peter Tarshis. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, Cold Case Files. For more Cold Case Files, visit aetv.com.